[Boatanchors] Reality Comes Knocking.

[wa9wfa]

Everything you say is spot on and unfortunately is the reality today!  The BA interest and market is way down plus it’s terribly expensive to box and ship.   I sold off 99% of my LARGE collection from 2007 to 2018, selling most through the peak and a bunch on the way down.   I have become a boxing and shipping master to my great dismay.  I was able to get most of my money back, selling most for what I paid for them, selling a couple at a huge gain which offset the ones that sold at a loss :). It averaged out and I’m delighted to get that money back and clear out the clutter.  Postage has gotten terribly expensive plus the cost of new boxes and shipping materials.  Everyone’s mileage varies though.  I got rid of my stuff in anticipation of layoffs at work (survived the layoffs and retired now), and the eventual future of downsizing the house, getting even older, poor health, death, etc.. If my remaining little bit ends up in the trash, I no longer care.  When I had my big collection, I would have cared.

I was with a close friend at Hamcation once where he had a gorgeous Ranger and Collins 75A2, both priced really well I thought.  No takers, no offers, just tire kickers saying that they owned one once.  Not much BA at the local hamfests today because of the amount of work to load up, haul, unload, set up, then haul home.. and when there is, they’re asking top dollar for it, and end up taking it home.

My remaining station is a Johnson Ranger (freebee), Drake 2B/2BQ, Heath HA-14 Kompact KW, WRL DuoBander 84 (freebee), and now my new HW-12 (freebee) that I am in the process of re-kitting.  I’ve taken the whole HW-12 down to parts including a completely bare pcb.  I start building next week.  If this works out, I am thinking of trying an HW-101 next unless you have a NOS kit for sale.. hi hi

73, Scott WA9WFA