[Boatanchors] Boatanchors Digest, Vol 124, Issue 10

Tue May 6 17:18:55 EDT 2014

Longish post, sorry.....
Great discussion. I live in a rural area of Florida. I have no desire to drive 100-200 miles to a hamfest. Going to Dayton every year (when I lived in Ky) cured me of that.
So, one of my only avenues is ePay. Yes, I have bought from eHam, QRZ, etc. Buying from eBay is more of a hobby than anything else.
Not having an XYL to explain my purchases to (3 times is ENOUGH), I prowl eBay daily. I collect vintage receivers and test equipment and have 100 'favorites' saved.
Naysayers beside, IF one uses dicipline and a few simple techniques, some real bargains CAN be had.....

- Shipping costs have become an issue. Some sellers inflate the shipping to increase their profit. Those are easy to spot.If the item is listed with free shipping, I'm usually interested.
- The "I don't know how to test this item" are a challenge. So if the seller has a receiver that uses an external speaker and says the tubes light up but no sound comes out, that's OK. I have scored many a nice radio that way.
- You can tell by looking at the seller's feedback and OTHER items for sale, if they are just wanting to sell the items or trying to make an obscene profit, like the S-120 for $379 that started this thread.
- I just bought another (!!) frequency meter from New Hampshire. It was listed for $180 /free shipping. I made an offer of $50 and it was accepted. Will it work? Don't care, since I bought it for spare parts for my other similar models. These usually cost $30-40 to ship.......

Would I love to have a MINT SX-115 in my collection? Sure, but for the $ and the medeiocre performance, it ain't gonna happen.

One thing I have learned....regardless of the scarcity of any model/make, another item WILL eventually show up........

Have fun

ron
N4UE

-----Original Message-----
From: boatanchors-request <boatanchors-request at mailman.qth.net>
To: boatanchors <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tue, May 6, 2014 4:26 pm
Subject: Boatanchors Digest, Vol 124, Issue 10

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Amazing prices (Michael A. Bittner)
   2. Re: Amazing prices (bcarling at cfl.rr.com)
   3. Re: General Radio 1931-A Modulation Monitor (bcarling at cfl.rr.com)
   4. Re: Amazing prices (Rob Atkinson)
   5. Re: Amazing prices (Joe Connor via Boatanchors)
   6. Fw:  Amazing prices (John Saxon via Boatanchors)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 6 May 2014 10:07:35 -0700
From: "Michael A. Bittner" <mmab at cox.net>
To: "GRANT YOUNGMAN" <nq5t at tx.rr.com>,	<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Amazing prices
Message-ID: <49D46A1BA023445987B4A70B890FEE11 at pcb5f47b1b5375>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="Windows-1252"

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: GRANT YOUNGMAN 
  To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 9:47 AM
  Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Amazing prices

  Grant Youngman said:.

  "There are 1950?s radio that are worth $300, but I personally draw the line at 
the stuff that?s been painted orange :)"

  Grant, haven't you heard, Orange is the new Black.

  Mike-W6MAB

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 06 May 2014 13:22:16 -0400
From: bcarling at cfl.rr.com
To: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>, "Curt" <rhulett1 at consolidated.net>
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Amazing prices
Message-ID: <53691A48.14287.BE3739 at bcarling.cfl.rr.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

For every on of these rigs making their way through an estate sale to eBay, 
there are 
probably one or even two others getting thrown in a dumpster.

On 6 May 2014 at 8:32, Curt wrote:

> Having started in this hobby in the early 60s, the old radios continue to 
> interest me.  Several of various sorts have moved into the shack for awhile 
> then moved on.  Lately I have been looking at Hallicrafters and National 
> 40s-50s receivers and the prices seem rather amazing.  I've seen several 
> priced near $300!  Much of the gear is in poor condition, missing parts, 
> inoperable.  Would have thought estate sales would have saturated the market 
> and driven prices to few cents on the pound given the age of this equipment. 
> Must be a lot more old folks like me interested than would have thought.
> 
> 73, Curt KB5JO 
> 
> 
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------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 06 May 2014 13:24:27 -0400
From: bcarling at cfl.rr.com
To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net, rbethman <rbethman at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] General Radio 1931-A Modulation Monitor
Message-ID: <53691ACB.21519.C03555 at bcarling.cfl.rr.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

It seems like either USA or UK amateirs were at one time required to have an 
"Absorption 
Wavemeter" at their shacks to take alleged frequency readings.

I never had one either place!

Bry AF4K / G3XLQ

On 6 May 2014 at 10:02, rbethman wrote:

> Just a little information regarding Modulation Monitors.
> 
> Did you know that ALL are Northern Friends, Canadian Amateurs, were once 
> required to have on at their station to run AM?
> 
> I picked up one from the North made by Simpson.
> 
> Bob - N0DGN
> 
> On 5/5/2014 10:18 PM, Brian Harris via Boatanchors wrote:
> > I recently acquired my second General Radio 1931-A Modulation Monitor.  This 
one is a much later serial number (2688) than my first one (370).  On the front 
panel of this second is stenciled the following:
> >
> > AF33-604-16827
> > 7CAC-575975
> >
> > First question:  Can anyone shed light on the nature of this stencil?  Might 
the AF mean Air Force?
> >
> > Second question:  These units required a coil specific to a frequency range.  
I have two coils, both of which cover .5-8 MHz in four ranges.  These are the 
most common coils as these units were most often used with AM Broadcast 
transmitters.  I would like to obtain one or two of the higher frequency coil, 
which I recall covers 8 - 30 MHz.  If there is an outside chance that you might 
have one or two of these available please let me know.  Of course I can fashion 
some myself but that is something I'd like to avoid.
> >
> > Thank  you,
> >   
> > Brian Harris, WA5UEK
> > cell 214-763-5977
> > email cosmophone at yahoo.com
> 
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------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 6 May 2014 13:03:40 -0500
From: Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
To: Curt <rhulett1 at consolidated.net>
Cc: Boat Anchors List <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Amazing prices
Message-ID:
	<CALWD7Z4kFAKGRgv--FZB-pvGbrGhm=Skqj=1fp3pCv7w_Sh8iQ at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

The prices went sky high starting sometime last fall.  I think the
uptick in the economy has something to do with it.  If you had been
looking for vintage gear 5 years ago you would have gotten some
halfway decent deals, but nothing like the 1970s when hams were
practically giving away old rigs to buy slopbucket transceivers.  The
prices will come down again, but in the meantime it is best to stay
away from the auction sites and stick with hamfests and swap.qth.com
and classifieds in the back of ER.  The gear that gets the super high
prices are the pristine restored plug and play rigs that have already
had all the work done on them.  If having something look brand new
isn't important and you are able to do some fixing you can get the
same thing for a lot less.

73

Rob
K5UJ

On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 8:32 AM, Curt <rhulett1 at consolidated.net> wrote:
> Having started in this hobby in the early 60s, the old radios continue to
> interest me.  Several of various sorts have moved into the shack for awhile
> then moved on.  Lately I have been looking at Hallicrafters and National
> 40s-50s receivers and the prices seem rather amazing.  I've seen several
> priced near $300!  Much of the gear is in poor condition, missing parts,
> inoperable.  Would have thought estate sales would have saturated the market
> and driven prices to few cents on the pound given the age of this equipment.
> Must be a lot more old folks like me interested than would have thought.
>
> 73, Curt KB5JO

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 6 May 2014 13:18:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joe Connor via Boatanchors <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
To: Bob Young <bobyoung53 at hotmail.com>, "boatanchors at mailman.qth.net"
	<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Amazing prices
Message-ID:
	<1399407480.95707.YahooMailNeo at web125504.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

You're 100% right, Bob, but it doesn't end there.

Other sellers do "research" and determine the "value" of their radios by 
examining the ridiculous asking prices for ebay radios that don't sell. I've 
gotten to the point where if a seller tells me that he/she has "researched" the 
value of a radio, I start heading for the door because I can almost count on 
that research being an examination of the ridiculous ebay asking prices.

Joe Connot
On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 4:14 PM, Bob Young <bobyoung53 at hotmail.com> wrote:

I don't know if you're looking at ebay or not but there are plenty of "amazing" 
prices on there. Sellers put boatanchors on there for for example routinely at 
3-4 times the price most people would pay and just relist them over and over 
again hoping some sucker will come along and just have to have that radio. I 
look through just about every day and can usually tell who the seller is on 
ridiculously over priced items, gets so I don't even look at those certain 
auctions. There should be a limit on the amount of times a seller can relist an 
item to get the glut off.
>
>
>Bob
>KB1OKL
>
>
>
>om: rhulett1 at consolidated.net
>> To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
>> Date: Tue, 6 May 2014 08:32:08 -0500
>> Subject: [Boatanchors] Amazing prices
>> 
>> Having started in this hobby in the early 60s, the old radios continue to 
>> interest me.? Several of various sorts have moved into the shack for awhile 
>> then moved on.? Lately I have been looking at Hallicrafters and National 
>> 40s-50s receivers and the prices seem rather amazing.? I've seen several 
>> priced near $300!? Much of the gear is in poor condition, missing parts, 
>> inoperable.? Would have thought estate sales would have saturated the market 
>> and driven prices to few cents on the pound given the age of this equipment. 
>> Must be a lot more old folks like me interested than would have thought.
>> 
>> 73, Curt KB5JO 
>> 
>> 
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Boatanchors mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
>> 
>> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
>> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>> 
>> 
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>??? ???  ??? ?  ??? ??? ? 
>______________________________________________________________
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>
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>
>
>This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
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>
>

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Tue, 6 May 2014 13:26:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Saxon via Boatanchors <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
To: "<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>" <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Boatanchors] Fw:  Amazing prices
Message-ID:
	<1399407971.25580.YahooMailNeo at web141702.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

The one that *really* gets to me is the chap selling a 1956 Tennessee license 
plate with W4PSN on it. ?It now is at $350.99. ?A while back it was about $450. 
?Must have belonged to Elvis. ?Oh...I see it now has 'or best offer' on it.

Check out the ham radio license plates, amazing prices indeed.

--
John
K5ENQ

________________________________
 Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Amazing prices

Guys- I saw a score of valiants from 150-300 dollars -
 200 dollar rangers -.....

------------------------------

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End of Boatanchors Digest, Vol 124, Issue 10
********************************************