Bought a $40 used bookshelf on Craigslist, one leg gave out at 2am and dumped my record player on the floor
Picked up this solid wood bookshelf from a guy in Oakland for $40, figured I'd just wipe it down and call it done. Got it home, loaded it up with my vinyl and a turntable, and about a week later I'm dead asleep when I hear this huge crash. One of the back legs had a crack I never noticed, and the whole thing tipped forward, sending my turntable and about 20 records onto the rug. The tonearm snapped clean off and my copy of Rumours got a nasty crease. I freaked out, checked the other legs, and sure enough two of them were held together with wood filler and hope. So I went to the hardware store, grabbed some L brackets and a $9 tube of wood glue, and basically rebuilt the whole base myself over a weekend. It's ugly as hell now with the brackets showing, but it hasn't budged since. Anyone else bought used furniture that looked fine until it tried to kill your stuff?
My uncle warned me about this exact thing, he said old wood dries out and the joints go soft. He still checks every used piece he buys by putting his weight on each corner. That tonearm break hurts just to read about.