I have something like 5 Fluke meters, all sooty, smelly and variously damaged after the house fire. My FIRST Fluke I ever had I bought new back in the '90's when I went to work for the Motorola outfit. I don't remember, I think I paid over 300 bucks, a Fluke 73-III. The thing got wet in the fire, heated, and the battery leaked, and THAT is what made a hell of a mess. It still powers up, I doubt it will ever be reliable.
For those of you unaware, a leaked battery onto a PC board basically forms a battery. Seems to be impossible to clean. I have? had? a Bell telco meter made by Simpson that was inaccurate, and finally, when I got it down to just the board and the meter (no battery), the METER WOULD STILL READ something if connected to the board. You could clean it with anything you wanted, and after a bit of time, the thing would "come back" and read some value.
So I bought a used 73-III off ebay for just under 50 including tax. No rubber boot, I have some of those
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