[ICOM] Worth of radios..

[AD5PE]

Good summary, John.

My experience tracks with yours, with a couple of exceptions.

Along the lines of "no direct replacement" radios (FT-847 example) there are
some "collectibles" radios that fall into the same category - certain
Collins, Hallicrafters, etc.  Kind of like old classic cars - they never
truly "bottom out" like the run of the mill ones.

A second point is radios that are old enough to not have all the "features"
we've come to expect.  I had an old Ten-Tec Omni D - it's pre-WARC, so no 12
or 17 meters.  Prices on that one are truly closer to 10-15% rather than
1/3.  I think that's because while it's a fine radio with a healthy new
price, there were many slightly newer (but much cheaper) radios that have
those "new" (at the time it was made) bands.  Why buy a 30 year old Omni
with no WARC when you can buy a 20 year old Yaesu, Kenwood or Icom for the
same price.  Sure, most of those radios (except the top of the line models)
don't have the "ears" of the Ten-Tec, but they have the new bands and are
easier to maintain (to a point).  When you're talking sub-$500 HF rigs,
you're not talking about people looking for top performance.  You're talking
bargain hunters and new hams on tight budgets.  When you can get used Yaesu
840 and Icom 718's for $400, who's going to pay more than about $300 (15%)
for an Omni D unless it's in mint condition with all the options.  Of
course, multiple filters and the matching power supply and remote VFO can
run that up considerably.

That's what happens to the HTs, too.  With the exception of band-scopes, DSP
and maybe remote control (on the really old rigs) - an HF rig is an HF rig.
Many hams will swear that a 50 year old Collins S-line with good filters is
better digging out the weak ones than all but the newest contester grade
stuff - and they may be right.  On the other hand, your $400 HT from 20+
years ago may be missing MANY key features that are virtually required to
work the repeaters today.  I've seen a number of 2m only HTs, 440 only HTs,
and 2m only mobiles from the 70s and 80s - most were dirty, scratched,
missing knobs or had broken buttons, and they invariably didn't have tone
boards.  Sure, you can home-brew or kit build an outboard tone board, but
original replacements for some of those radios are like finding hen's teeth,
and cost as much as the radio without one!  When you compare that to a NEW
FT-60 (dual-band, tone send AND receive and under $200) or FT-7800 (same but
mobile, and typically around $250 if you shop around) and you can see why no
one wants to pay even $100 for a used one.  1/3 to even 1/2 of new
"equivalent" is a pretty good starting point for V/UHF FM mobiles and HTs -
the caveat being "equivalent" - if it's old enough to not support PL tones,
then that goes WAY down.  The only ones that go "up" from that point are
current models with dual-receive capability.

73,
Jay
AD5PE

-----Original Message-----
From: icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of John Geiger
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 14:06
To: ICOM Reflector
Subject: Re: [ICOM] Worth of radios..

For HF radios the bottoming out seems to be around 33% or 1/3 of its
original value.  For example,

The 756PRO sold for $3000 originally, now going for $1000 or so The 756
original sold for $2100, and $700 seems the going used price The 706
original went for $1200, now around $400 or so.

You also have to figure in the replacement factor, though.  The Yaesu FT847
has held its value really well because there is only on other HF/VHF/UHF/SAT
on the market right now (the TS2000) and many satellite ops don't like the
TS2000 because of the birdie in the middle of the AO27/SP50 downlink.  

There is no direct replacement for the Icom 375A.  The closest you can get
is a Yaesu FT736R with the 222mhz module and that is also a used radio.

HT used prices have really bottomed out because you can get a new one so
inexpensively.  

73s John AA5JG

--- On Fri, 9/11/09, Dick Flanagan <dick at k7vc.com> wrote:

> From: Dick Flanagan <dick at k7vc.com>
> Subject: Re: [ICOM] Worth of radios..
> To: "ICOM Reflector" <icom at mailman.qth.net>
> Date: Friday, September 11, 2009, 12:13 AM At 09:59 PM 9/10/2009, John 
> Geiger
> wrote:
>  >And the Icom 375A should be selling for $80 as they were closed out 
> for $799.
> 
> The rarity of an item will always affect its price. When you consider 
> how many 375A's were sold you are lucky to find one even close to the 
> old retail price.  Supply and demand will always sway the price of any 
> item.  Just try to find a KWM-2A in working condition these days for 
> anything close to what it sold for new.
> 
> While Kurt's 10% rule-of-thumb might be a bit on the low side, I doubt 
> it is far from the mark on routine radios that were sold in large 
> numbers.
> 
> Dick
> --
> Dick Flanagan K7VC
> dick at k7vc.com
> 
> 
> ----
> Your Moderator: Dick Flanagan K7VC: icom-owner at mailman.qth.net Icom 
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