[starfly]

@wink LOL!!! Too funny! haha

 

[firstwat]

  Be thankful you only bought smelly headphones and not these gummi bears as per below

 
Ha ha we should definitely keep this thread up and running! Such good gems!

 

[shockdoc]

So did we ever find out how much these cost? That would certainly factor into the decision for me. Also, I'm thinking more along the lines of mortician/embalmer than pathologist given the distinct odor of formaldehyde. After a full year of human anatomy in grad school (including cadaver lab) I had to burn my "lab clothes" as well as by text book for the course as it too reeked to high heaven. On second thought they could have been owned by a professor in a medical school who spent many hours teaching in the cadaver lab or more likely preparing the cadavers (dissecting) for examinations, etc.

 

[wink]

Could have been owned by someone who was severely hygenically challenged...

 

[Delirious Lab]

Yes, do tell how much you paid for them...

 

[wes008]

Thanks for the conclusion! I was expecting to have a good laugh at the end, but that's... just shocking. When people hypothesized the death stench, I entertained the idea, but quickly dismissed it. Surprised to se that's how it ended.... Now that it's over, could you please tell us how much they cost? 

 I doubt they'll ever be that price again, so you're probably safe to tell us.

 

[x838nwy]

My theory: They were bought and used normally. May be got a bit sweaty or whatever and got a bit mouldy. The owner thought formaldehyde would actually take care of the growth and just went ape-**** with it.
 
Anyway, Sennheiser sells replacement ear pads and headband, if that's how you wanna do it. A great read. Thank you.

 

[LugBug1]

  Be thankful you only bought smelly headphones and not these gummi bears as per below

That had me proper belly laughing! 

 

[Derpus-Maximus]

The description of the smell reminds me of a former classmate, he had that same type of smell, now i am not the type of person to puke/gag soon ( only happened once in my life ) when confronted with smells or situations.
The only time i had to gag badly was when this classmate stood in front of me, now he always had this weird smell, but it got WORSE when he grew older or when he felt uncomfortable/stressed, one could say that he had some defense mechanism similar to that of a skunk...
Now i have been standing near open sewers and dead rotting animal corpses, and even one time a dead human corpse that had deceased 2 weeks before, and the body had been floating in a pond for those 2 weeks, but even that did not made me gag/puke or sick to my stomach.....
 
So you can imagine that this classmate of mine did not had an easy/fun/enjoyable time at school, if he shook someones hand( mostly persons who are unknown to his condition ) they always went to the bathroom to wash their hands with excessive amounts of soap, but even this did not removed the foul smell that his hands/entire skin contained( i experienced this myself 2 times )
It took me 2 days to get rid of that foul smell, i used all sorts of soap/shampoo and even soaking my hand in hot water with lavender tablets did not do the trick.
Classmates avoided sitting next to him, because not only could you smell him coming, his breath came close to being as horrible as his body odor, and his sweat, if having touched something ........that was even worse to get rid off.
So if someone who has this condition and at this severe level would wear a pair of headphones with velour's ear-pads, you can imagine that this smell will be absorbed into the pads.......
 
So personally i would assume that the previous owner probably suffered from this smelly condition, or he had this condition and also died ( not speculating about the cause of death ).

 

[Mach-X]

Are you kidding me? Was this a hygiene issue? How does a human being get that disgusting?

 

[blueangel2323]

I would've gotten rid of the smell by means previously suggested, sold them to some unsuspecting individual, and used the money to buy a different pair, hopefully without the same problem.
 

  The description of the smell reminds me of a former classmate, he had that same type of smell, now i am not the type of person to puke/gag soon ( only happened once in my life ) when confronted with smells or situations.
The only time i had to gag badly was when this classmate stood in front of me, now he always had this weird smell, but it got WORSE when he grew older or when he felt uncomfortable/stressed, one could say that he had some defense mechanism similar to that of a skunk...
Now i have been standing near open sewers and dead rotting animal corpses, and even one time a dead human corpse that had deceased 2 weeks before, and the body had been floating in a pond for those 2 weeks, but even that did not made me gag/puke or sick to my stomach.....
 
So you can imagine that this classmate of mine did not had an easy/fun/enjoyable time at school, if he shook someones hand( mostly persons who are unknown to his condition ) they always went to the bathroom to wash their hands with excessive amounts of soap, but even this did not removed the foul smell that his hands/entire skin contained( i experienced this myself 2 times )
It took me 2 days to get rid of that foul smell, i used all sorts of soap/shampoo and even soaking my hand in hot water with lavender tablets did not do the trick.
Classmates avoided sitting next to him, because not only could you smell him coming, his breath came close to being as horrible as his body odor, and his sweat, if having touched something ........that was even worse to get rid off.
So if someone who has this condition and at this severe level would wear a pair of headphones with velour's ear-pads, you can imagine that this smell will be absorbed into the pads.......
 
So personally i would assume that the previous owner probably suffered from this smelly condition, or he had this condition and also died ( not speculating about the cause of death ).

Are you sure he wasn't a zombie? 

 

 

[Derpus-Maximus]

Well, some people did call him that, but he never had any appetite for human flesh or brains.
 
------------------
 
I think that if he would have worn that HD800 , reselling would not have been possible.....it was that bad.

 

[StanD]

  I would've gotten rid of the smell by means previously suggested, sold them to some unsuspecting individual, and used the money to buy a different pair, hopefully without the same problem.
 
Are you sure he wasn't a zombie? 

 
 

Ooh, you are sneaky.

 

[LugBug1]

Might want to look him up.. See if he's owned a pair of expensive headphones before. Might solve a mystery! 

 

[painted klown]

All of these theories are a lot of fun, but what we are missing here is what could actually be the original cause of the smell. In the opening parts of the story, it was mentioned the original owner of the headphones had returned them due to the smell. That means he was either the second owner (therefore making OP the third owner), or they came from the factory like that.