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

[k1uhy at comcast.net]

Well, now that the posturing and chest thumping is over from Mike the rest of us can contemplate what happens when the next one surfaces. 

This one went for close to $1500, was not modified, and in far from "poor" condition, while another in far worse shape sold for close to $700 recently. 
The one at $700 had plenty of bidders as did the $1500 one so that tells me the next one that surfaces in similar condition would more realistically be in the $1497 range and not a silly $14.97. There are obviously more than a few remaining with the deep pockets to get what they want. 

So the question remains: How many were actually built? The 484 serial supports the 500 number that is floating around. Has anyone created a registry as has been done with other rarities such as the SX-88? 

----- Original Message -----

From: "WA5CAB--- via ARC5" <arc5 at mailman.qth.net> 
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Monday, August 8, 2016 2:55:48 AM 
Subject: Re: [ARC5] T-16/ARC-5 unmodified on the Bay 

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. 





______________________________________________________________ 
ARC5 mailing list 
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5 
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm 
Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net 

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net 
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20160818/d3411e9b/attachment.html>