[Hallicrafters] The radio hoarder.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 3/23/06, Edward B Richards <zuu6k at juno.com> wrote:
> Has anyone considered that hoarders may be depriving others from
> acquiring the rigs of their desire, and increasing prices by reducing the
> number of boatanchors available?

Nope. Just check online, you can find pretty much anything you want,
anytime. Either by auction, newsgroups, specific lists, or ads. Prices
will always increase on desirable items as demand increases,
especially as supplies drop. Or are you trying to re-define the term
'free market'?  (o:

> A collector only needs one of each model.

That sounds like something from some former Eastern Bloc country. "You
only need one of these, give the rest to your commune leader for
redistribution".

> More than that is hoarding.

It is? Does that mean more than one HF transmitter, receiver,
transceiver? AM or SSB? VHF or VLF? How about antennae? While I don't
see the sense in having exact duplicates or multiples (I'd rather free
up the space and money for some other cool toy), I'd certainly not
want someone telling me what I do or do not 'need'.

Same thing goes for being called a hoarder just because I have a lot
of radio gear. Sure, they now consider it a part of OCD and all that,
but they also have a new illness for people who dream of winning the
lottery and have the money all spent, then get upset when they don't
win. Somehow I suspect that the reference to hoarding came to be long
before any of this, and probably had a lot more to do with
life-sustaining items like food and water.

We're talking about radios here, right? O-L-D radios. Besides, other
than a very few truly rare items, anyone is free to purchase or trade
for whatever they want, whenever they decide to. The only limiting
factor is what they're willing to spend or how resourceful they are. I
don't think there's anything stating we're 'entitled' to them, cheap,
free, or otherwise. Merely free to pursue happiness in such forms as
old radios take.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ