[ARC5] T-16/ARC-5 unmodified on the Bay

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Well, that could happen.  But I have a few examples that say maybe not for 
a little while anyway.  Here's one:

Back in 1994 a few of you may recall that August Link and I flew up to PA 
to the Baranosky's planning to spend a day that turned into a week and bought 
literally a semitrailer load of  radio "stuff".  Included were 110 of the 
FT-501 metal and phenolic version (an adapter that substituted two BA-30's 
for the BA-37 in the BC-611 radios and SCR-625 mine detectors).   

Over the next decade I sold the FT-501's mostly to people who wrote or 
called looking for one (including several people on this list) for prices that 
slowly increased  from $7.50 to $20.00 each.  On 17 October, 2003, a local 
collector was over here in the morning buying some miscellaneous BC-611 repair 
parts and one or two FT-501's.  So he knew that I still had maybe 25 or 30 
of them.  That afternoon he called to tell me to go and look at eBay item so 
and so.  I did and also checked history and saw where the same seller had 
already sold two or three more FT-501's for prices above $75 (as I recall - I 
don't have the actual figures) and that there were several bidders above 
$50.  Back in those days you could look at actual bid history and back as far 
as you cared to go.  I dropped whatever else I was doing, wrote an ad, took 
some photos, and listed one with a starting bid price of $24.99 (slightly 
more than my then list price).  Here are the sale prices for the next several 
months.  Remember that this was all back in the day when eBay didn't have 
Fixed Price, Multiple Quantity, Buy It Now, etc.etc. ad nauseum.  And almost 
all listings were for one piece on a 7 day regular auction.

67.66
38.00
73.00
74.00
36.00
31.01
25.85
30.01
30.00
34.97
35.61
24.99
24.99
43.00
24.99

After that, there were several more with either one or two bids and I sold 
several adapters to normal phone, mail or email requests and then I didn't 
have any FT-501's left.

But anyway, it all depends upon timing and luck.  Unless there were only 
two serious bidders on the T-16, if I had one in similar condition and wanted 
to sell it, I would expect to get at least half of $1400 for it.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480




In a message dated 08/07/2016 18:33:49 PM Central Daylight Time, 
arc5 at ix.netcom.com writes: 
> Remember EBay history' y'all.  Don't haul yours out of the garage hoping 
> for the big bucks.  This one goes for 1400 bucks and the next half dozen go 
> for $14.97.  Plus shipping.
> 
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