The name Monarch popped up in your old thread, as the maker of the changer in your set.  I didn't include the link because I didn't think it would do you any good.

"True recycling, I think, is repairing and keeping functional an old device or appliance, not crushing, burning or shredding it. Beside continuing its functionality, this keeps a piece of our history alive."

This is my feeling, too.

One other point: older items are often better in various ways. Even after nearly 3 1/2 years here, I'm still a little amazed at how many older appliances out there have run for 30-50 years with only minor repairs. If even that. Not to mention the stories I regularly hear of new appliances that break young.

Stuff was also a lot more repairable once. I was talking to someone a couple of weeks ago. He's done appliance repairs in the past, but he's now stumped by one repair. He did something similar on a 1960-something Kenmore. But the modern appliance he can't see how he can do it. There is no space, and no easy access to the part in question. Except, one supposes, by taking the appliance completely apart. Or, as the maker probably hopes, just giving up and buying new.

And sometimes performance might be better or a better buy for the dollar. Some vintage audio equipment goes for amazingly high prices, simply because in the eyes (or actually ears) of the beholder, it does something or things better than anything made since.

"Just out of curiosity, any of you ever get a hard time from family members or friends from your collections of appliance, tv's steros, etc. ???"

Oh, indeed, yes. I don't have a collection of washers--but just having an interest may brand me as a freak in some people's eyes.

I have heard about other things, too. Years back, I was heavily into audio equipment. Back then, I had a component system with only a turntable, amp, and speakers. My father made three comments that I recall. As I best recall:

1. "Why does anyone go through this when they can turn on the radio?"

2. "Why do some people live in the past?" In other words, why does my crazy son still have records instead of the CDs everyone else has?

3. Then he said something to the effect that there was no future with the type of equipment I had. Maybe he was right--that is a complicated question. But it's not something he was qualified to discuss. His idea of high end audio was a car radio that got both AM and FM.

I also get the "you're crazy!" reaction with computers. I have a collection of older computers. It is a practically minded collection, since it was to support a software investment and document archives going back to 1980-something. Practical to me, but a lot of people thought I was crazy having a mountain of computer stuff. Others thought I was nuts because I continued using them.

"I am also amazed at the number of people who only have a radio in their house, no other method of music reproduction and no music collection."

Part of that today is, of course, the MP3 player revolution. I think a lot of people have shifted to iTunes/iPod.

But past that, I've been amazed at the "limited" audio systems I've seen over the years. I've seen the houses with only a radio. And even when there is something more, it's so often mass market junk.

I remember being in one house a few years ago that was an example of this. The couple were well off. Lexus on the driveway. Impressive house in an impressive development. One of the houses even apparently had some fancy custom garage built to support the Ferrari. And, in the house I was in, there was a Bose Wave radio in the living room. It was radio only--CD had been added by a Sony changer that might well have come from Circuit City.