[Milsurplus] Surplus prices

[Mike Morrow]

Bob Camp wrote:

>Sure would be nice to still be able to pick up new BC-453's for $20
>and the tuning knob for another $3. Time marches on ...

Hi Bob,

If that was in the mid-1960s, a dollar then was worth more than $5 today.  Unmodified BC-453s and the like are fairly commonly obtained on auction sites for well less than the equivalent $100.  When found (increasingly rarely) at hamfests, they are usually much less in terms of real money than those 1960s bargains from Fair Radio and simlilar outlets were.

Fair Radio sold used BC-348 receivers for about $70 in the mid-1960s.  That's the equivalent of close to $400 today.

Of course, where one could make a killing, if you could go back in time, is hoarding the ATA/ARA/SCR-274-N/AN/ARC-5 mounting racks that were available then for a few bucks.  Their value has far outstipped inflation.

My biggest regret is having missed the opportunity to get an RT-58/ARC-12 UHF set (interchangable with the TR-18/ARC-1 VHF set) when Fair had them fourty years ago.

73,
Mike / KK5F