[ARC5] ARC-2 on Ebay

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 13 Sep 2020 at 15:10, David Stinson wrote:

> > I'm all for Capitalism, but the market is the problem-
> > it will not "bear" $1600 for an ARC-2, no matter what it's condition.
> > Nor will it a $180 ARC-3, for that matter.  I'm sure y'all have noticed
> > that the demand for such radios is dwindling fast.

Oh, yes!!!!

> > Yet these people will continue
> > to list it, cutting perhaps 10% off until they get it down to a still
> > laughable $800, then it disappears.  I don't know if they got frustrated
> > and sent it to the dump as many spoiled infants have threatened
> > (and done) over the years or if they decided to take the next $200 offer.
> > They certainly won't tell you if you ask.

Of course not!

> > There's a guy on Ebay who has been re-listing a replica tag from a Lear
> > light aircraft antenna reel- not the reel, just the tag.  He wants $285
> > for it and he never discounts.  He's been listing that thing repeatedly
> > for at least 10 years- maybe more.  Listing fees alone have probably eaten-up
> > what he hoped to make.  Then there's the guy with the TAJ transmitter
> > that has been listed also for years.  He finally came down off his original
> > IIRC $15,000

His first price I remember seeing was $18,000.00

> price down to $3500 or something, but he's going to stay there
> > it seems forever.  Hope he needs a heavy-duty door-stop.

Yes. I have been following that, just out of curiousity. It is worth, maybe, $400.00 at most. 
Someone from our group actually went to that fellow's home some years ago, and talked with 
him, and/or his son. Made zero progress. Left in frustration.

> > Capitalism is fine, but it only works when one allows "supply and demand"
> > to do it's job.  You can list excellent hamburgers all day and if you
> > ask $287.15 for them, you're going to be disappointed.  I assume
> > a person lists things on Ebay because he wants to sell them.  Placing
> > loonie prices based on nothing but clouds and dreams isn't going to
> > do the job.  That's not Capitalism.  It's just pig-headed stupidity.

Absolutely correct.

I remember, many years ago, when I and some friends in Missoula, Montana were working 
with Model A Fords, we found a brand-new engine in some junk-auto-parts dealer's shop. 
We went to talk with him to see if he would sell it. He wanted some astronomical price for it, 
which we, of course, being kids in highschool, could never have afforded.

He told us that if he didn't get the price he wanted for it, he would smash it up with a 
sledge-hammer rather than see it go to anyone who could use it at a lesser price.

The same jackass "built" a hot-rod Pontiac engine and installed it in a big flat-bed truck which 
he was going to use to haul auto-parts to some big outfit down south of Montana somewhere.

Of course, that engine was never designed to be used in a truck and run at max rpm all day 
long.

It blew up on his first trip with it. We never heard from or about him again.

Ken W7EKB