[Boatanchors] I Downsized Early

[Whitebear1122]

I apologize if you've heard this story before but I think many of us are going through the same problem so I'll share it again.

About 10 years ago I started doing some soul searching because I had collected way too many radios, didn't have enough room for all of them, shelves jammed full of radios, and had way too much money in them.  I was starting to see retirement or layoff on the distant horizon.  Plus my employer was going through hard times and was getting lay off happy with 1 to 2 layoffs a year. A layoff might result in downsizing and moving back to my home state.  Add the housing bubble crisis into it.  Then my wife asked me what should she do with all those radios if I were to die or become incapacitated.  I told her to contact a good ham friend and have him come up with a truck and take them all away and sell them for her.  She replied "why would you do that to a good friend?".  Got me thinking that I needed to get rid of them, reduce the clutter, and get my money out of the radios while the going was good so I started slowly selling a few radios here and there, first getting rid of the most expensive and heaviest.  I sold a couple of stations per year.  Then about 4 years ago I got serious and started selling big time.  It took 3 some grueling years of selling and I'm pretty much done.  Overall I've sold over 80% of my radios and accessories like speakers, vfo's.

I sold a bunch of qth.com, a bunch of Ebay, and a bunch using the various BA lists.  I only sold a few items at hamfests because it's nearly impossible to recover your money by selling at a hamfest.   I've got maybe 4 or 5 radios that i want to sell this year and I plan to sell one or two radios a year as I slowly continue to downsize.  I'm guessing by the time I reach 68 I'll have just two or three BA stations left.  

After the sell off I remodeled the shack and it's now clean and uncluttered.  There isn't a single radio on the floor now, nothing under the operating benches.  I absolutely love the uncluttered look and feel of the shack.  Needless to say my wife is very pleased with me, for the moment :)    Oh can i share my wife joke with you?  If a man is standing in the woods, and he says something, and his wife isn't there to hear it, is what he said still stupid??  hi hi 

I'm sure a lot of you fellas are in the same situation as I was , getting up there in years ( I just turned 61), and the realization of major changes coming in my life over the next 10 years that could include good health, bad health, death, layoff, planned retirement, premature layoff unplanned retirement, downsizing the homestead and moving, possibility of a future apartment with no antennas, more people unloading radios, etc…  All add up to a strong motivation to unload my mess. 

I'm not really looking for any radios but last month achieved my long term plan and finally bought the Drake T-4XC and R-4C twins to satisfy a 40 year desire.  About the only other radio I am thinking about is a Drake L-4B  if I can find a nice one.

73, Scott WA9WFA