[Boatanchors] Vintage Radios--LOTS

[manualman at juno.com]

Back in the late 80's when I worked in the telecommunications industry, I
was part of an organization that managed inventory in many offices and
warehouses. One of my first exercises was junking about 37 million
dollars(at cost) worth of telecommunications equipment which included
receivers, transmitters, teletype equipment, tons of data sets, switching
equipment, and tons of ancillary equipment. All of stuff went to major
recycle/smelting centers. Each center had to provide "certificates of
destruction" with detailed lists for all the stuff that was destroyed. It
took many many 18-wheeler trucks to get this stuff to their final
destination. Some of the stuff was stuff (our favorite manufacturers) we
love and hug every day but that's life in the corporate world and you
don't shed any tears.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Wed, 17 Sep 2014 06:42:17 -0700 Don Merz via Boatanchors
<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net> writes:
> I wasn't trying to make my impromptu survey into any sort of exact 
> statistical endeavor. Your guess is as good as mine <grin> -- so 
> have at it!
> 
> But my guess is that there are somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 
> communication radios of all types (home broadcast RX excluded), 
> entering the seller's market during the course of the average 
> 52-week period. 
> 
> To me, that is an amazing number. It is almost certainly 
> unsustainable, given the declining number of active collectors and 
> the 60+ average age of ham radio operators. So yes--I bet a lot of 
> them are being relisted--at lower prices.
> 
> Be interesting to know how much old gear is going straight to the 
> landfill or metal scrapper on a monthly basis. I bet that tonnage 
> number would surprise us all.
> 
> 73 de N3RHT
>