[Milsurplus] A new high?

[Todd Bigelow - PS]

Mike Morrow wrote:

>>And as far as Max, Ed, Joe Walsh and  the others who buy what
>>they want because they can, well... they're not doing anything the
>>rest of us wouldn't do if we had their money.
>>    
>>
>
>Absolutely not true!  Were I wealthy as Bill Gates I still wouldn't be buying ten of the same thing and looking for more.
>

But that's you. You can't judge the entire world by your view Mike, and 
expect everyone else to follow the same path. As John pointed out, many 
of us buy several, keep or assemble the best, move the rest by trading 
or selling. It's called 'upgrading', and anyone truly interested and 
involves does it to some degree. Trading is a lot more fun than selling, 
if you ask me.

>I've got nothing against anyone anywhere using his resources to pick up as many different items as he can afford from anywhere.  That's *not* the real issue, but rather just a "straw man" argument I've seen contested in several recent postings.
>

It's not? huh. It would appear to me that the real issue is someone 
wanting to define the terms by which others may acquire items - 
'different' being allowed, 'same' being forbidden. I suppose in the 
final collection, if that's all you're in it for, yes - you'd want a 
very diversified collection. For those of us acquiring gear to restore 
and use, who enjoy the history and operation aspects, having extra gear 
for trading, parts, back up, other postions, whatever makes prefect sense.

>The *real* matter of contention is that of a collector, foreign or not, acquiring umpteen of the *same* thing, like all the original BC-348s and R-28/ARC-5s and similar items that show up on ebay?  
>

Well I'm glad we all know the *real* issue now. Better scold August, 
Robert, Dave, Mike (all of 'em), Sam and all those guys who have 
accumulated duplicates. I've done some trading with folks here on the 
list and I've purchased many nice, original pieces of gear on ebay even 
recently. So one or two individuals really aren't getting it 'all'. 
SOMEONE sniped a nice looking, unhacked *original* RAX last night on 
ebay. I've seen this guy bidding on a lot of stuff like this....foreign 
or not.  tsk tsk tsk!  At least he's figured out that bidding early is 
an invitation to lose if your pockets aren't as deep as the 
previously-mentioned collectors. (o:

>I don't believe the stuff we collect will soon, if ever, have any significant investment value, so what again would be the point of hoarding the stuff unless it be to deny it to other collectors who may not have deep pockets.
>

When you start getting into inflicting your definitions on others you 
invite them to do the same to you. If you can define 'hoarding' as one 
person buying several of something, couldn't someone else consider you 
'hoarding because you have more than one ARC-5 item, more than one 
receiver or transmitter? After all,  no one *needs* all those radios. 
Personally, I like the freedom to decide for myself. I've been beaten by 
these guys on some items too, but I'm not about to sit around whining 
and fuming about it. I do have 2 nice, original BC-348s though - one for 
the ART-13 station and the other for that BC-375 you're 'hoarding'.

>I've just about completed all my main interest acquisitions, and have just about run out of storage space, so it's increasingly academic to me.  I feel sorry for those just starting a collection of anything that says "ARC-5" on it.
>

You're well ahead of me then, Mike. I only got serious about it maybe 
2-3 years back. It was one of those things I 'meant to do' back in the 
early 80s when you could still buy new-in-the-box receivers for $5. I've 
made great progress in a short time though, by being resourceful and 
seeking out gear in many places other than ebay. That's probably why I'm 
not too fixated on the guys who outbid me. You can wait for it to come 
to you or you can go out and find it.

>As far as Joe Walsh goes, he's paid some high bucks for some really ham-hacked junk.  He's got the money, but I don't think he's developed the judgement yet.
>

Again, maybe he has but his judgement is different than yours. Maybe to 
him they were cheap, convenient, something he (obviously) wanted. It's 
like condition - some guys want mint, unhacked radios, other will take 
doggy radios as long as they aren't modified, still others will take 
anything and enjoy it. You can't apply your level of interest and your 
requirements to the interest level of others anymore than I can.


>BTW, a NIB T-16/ARC-5 has made it to the auction site.  Strange how rare items come out in bunches.
>  
>

This happens with a lot of gear. When SX-115s went up in price on ebay, 
they suddenly started coming out of the woodwork. Same with SX-88s and 
other commercial gear. ARC-5 gear does the same thing, it goes up as 
long as a few interested parties keep it there, then goes back down 
until the next round. Or as the saying goes, 'when it rains, it pours'.

For the record, I don't have a lot of duplicate gear because I'd rather 
trade it or sell it to buy something to enjoy that I don't yet have. 
Unfortunately, in recent years more of my excess gets sold to pay 
property taxes on my property. Well...at least I have plenty of storage. 
I enjoy the diversity too, and it's nice when more than just one or two 
people can share in the wealth. I'm just not about to compromise my 
opportunities in the future for it. The Soviets already proved this 
isn't really a viable system.

73 de Todd/'Boomer'  KA1KAQ