On Craigslist, $100! Needs capstan motor servo repair. Heads are good. 1/2 track, 7 1/2, 15 AND 30 IPS. Cover flips up to service the electronics. Look at the size of this power supply. Wanna bet I can tweak it to sing well past 20Khz? ;)

Not exactly $20K material, but this was a broadcast standard machine from the 1970s, and I'll bet was way up there in price. An MCI deck, I've never had one of these..

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q100/curtpalme/IMG_2311.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q100/curtpalme/IMG_2312.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q100/curtpalme/IMG_2313.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q100/curtpalme/IMG_2314.jpg

My guess it did 'generally sell for 20K USD or more', so definitely on-topic as are your better CRT projectors. If we you some conversion trickery we could get even some medium end stuff under this banner. Take the highest European list price, add the highest VAT, convert to Euro's then multiply by 1.57 to get to the 20K of faltering Dollar mark, and we can start to discuss plenty of 'Bottomfeeder' stuff on here;-).

I remember my brother doing a local radio course, many years ago, at one of the broadcast trainigcenters in Hilversum, and they had a shipload (p instead of t for all of you sensitive Americans, LOL) of these AEG table tapedecks, one didn't work well, so they just wheeled it out and got another from the storeroom. Turns out the NOB (public broadcasters facilities company now owned by Technicolor), had bought up the complete stock of these machines when they were being discontinued, at 35K Dutch guilders a piece. At the time they had already been handed down (on loan) to the broadcasting academy, and of course these were later scrapped.

Even at the reduced, discontinued stock, pricing it would be in the 20K USD pricebracket. ((35 x 1.19) / 2.2) x 1.57 = 29.2 K USD.