I was pretty active on Head-Fi at the time and snatched up this deal when someone posted it. I think the HD800 was still $1500 at the time.
Though that is probably not even my greatest “steal”, which could be loosely seen at actually stealing. I bought the Fostex TH-900 from a relatively new online vendor, and they accidentally sent me 2 of them. I checked and legally in the US when a merchant sends you something you didn’t order, you aren’t required to send it back. I held onto it for a bit and that company never contacted me about it and I sold it new in box for $900. I guess they were too disorganized to notice.
I’m not all entirely lucky or wise with money. I bought the Hifiman Edition X on release for $1400 and similar tier headphones like Edition XS are less than $500 now. But I still like them enough for it to be a permanent part of my collection.
People hated the HD700’s so much…
People were expecting HD 800 performance for a fraction of the price. HD 700 has a bit of a treble spike around 7K but is easily fixable with EQ, a good copper cable, and/or tube amp. The few reviewers around back then unfairly slammed the headphone for that treble peak without mentioning all of the good things about it. Still one of my favorite audio gear 9 years later.