[ARC5] [MMRCG] Is "Price Insanity" Really Insane?

mstangelo at comcast.net mstangelo at comcast.net
Fri Dec 15 10:30:41 EST 2023


Ray has a point. You have to sell the equipment at the right time, which I call the "Rosebud" window. We had or wished we had things when we were young. Now that we have the funds and the memory is still fresh in our minds we will purchase it at what others consider a ridiculous price. 

It is also a generational thing. What one generation considers priceless other generations see it as junk.

Anyway, we should enjoy our toys while we can.

Mike N2MS



> > On Dec 15, 2023, at 08:26, Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:
> > 
> > Things are worth what they sell for, or whatever the market will pay at the time. 397 wanted it, they were the first bid at $178.00 then came 162 at $350.00 and then 112 at $500.00 and 162 finely topping out at $551.00 with 397 paying $561.00
> > I would not have paid the opening bid at $174.99, but that's me and I am not a ARC-5/ WW2 collector. But that does not change the fact that there are at least three people out there who feel its worth at the least $350 if not more.
> > Not a commentary about you but I have been in this hobby for a while now and found that online sales have only improved things for me, can't say for everyone else. The only disadvantage I have seen is that we once had two sets of prices, the price we would sell for to the public at Ham fest,  online or whatever and a second price that we would sell or trade amongst ourselves and sadly have seen too many of us now no longer do this but hit everyone with "well that's what I can get on eBay" as for the lamenting about the estates and the like I have also seen the estates or liquidations of collections where they ask crazy high prices or threaten to throw everything away. Anyone who dose this is motivated by money and have never known someone to list things for crazy money and then turn around and trash the item. They will end up selling it for less or finding another way of disposing the items. Been doing this for a while now and have never come across a seller who thinks that they are going to make big money for this stuff and when they can't get it won't settle for less and just throw something away, suppose it's possible but I have not seen it.
> > If anything, the crazy prices will result in people finding this stuff and listing it on line rather then it being thrown out. If it has a perceived value its more likely to survive the items of no value like old consumer computers, VCR and analog TV sets.
> > It's all how you look at it, I still think the glass is half full. But you have been doing this a lot longer than I have, or so I suspect. I started playing with BC-348 and ARC-5 sets back in the late seventies and although things like the surplus conversion section in "CQ" and CQ Magazine itself are now gone, Fair radio is going fast and what we once bought for $5 now cost way more I still feel that online sales, email reflectors, web pages and Facebook have served to make this the best of times, but that's just me.
> > 
> > Ray F/KA3EKH


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