[Milsurplus] Re: kicking ourselves for what we didnt buy back then

[ed sharpe]

Remember also... the reason  a lot of the  'older' stuff is  expensive is 
that we remember it. As younger folks come along they will not have the 
same feeling that we had for it since  we either used it or played with it 
as surplus. ( in one case I had the pleasure of both ..... the bc-640 in my 
garage and then the great surprise when I got stationed at Luke AFB and 
found one as a guard channel transmitter STILL in service in the 1970s... 
imagine the surprise  when the new kid on the block just arrived knew how to 
work on something not even taught  at the school at Kessler anymore!)

anyway....back to what I was saying... some of these prices you see now may 
not be there when your children go to sell your gear.

there will be some exceptions to this.... items that are extremely novel or 
extremely scarce.

Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC

Please check our web site at
 http://www.smecc.org
to see other engineering fields, communications and computation stuff we
buy, and by all means  when in Arizona drop in and see us.

address:

 coury house / smecc
5802 w palmaire ave
glendale az 85301



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Camp" <ham at cq.nu>
To: <BOEING377 at aol.com>; "Milsurplus" <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Re: kicking ourselves for what we didnt buy back 
then


> Hi
>
> I think one notable difference then versus now is the amount of gear 
> produced.
>
> Except for the Viet Nam era we have really not gone very crazy making tons 
> of radios since WW II. For one reason or the other a lot more electronics 
> came back here after WW II than it did after 'Nam. Stuff like the ARC-5's 
> came on the market almost as soon as the war was over. There was enough of 
> it that it was still for sale NIB thirty years later. Things like the 
> PRC-77 still have not shown up in volume on the surplus market.
>
> That still begs the question of what is out there. The only point is that 
> stuff like the ARC-5 and ART-13's was kept at an artificially low price 
> for an awfully long time. Part of the "ramp up" in prices is simply that 
> they were darn cheap to start with. Since we have less stuff going surplus 
> these days the price isn't being forced as low by oversupply.
>
> All that said here's what I would call "comparable" radios:
>
> The Harris RF-550 and Racal 6790GM. Both are darn good radios. Both go in 
> the $500 range. They are not $20 but twenty dollars doesn't go as far as 
> it once did.
>
> The long produced R-1051. Again a darn good radio, but not well loved. 
> Currently $350 or so.
>
> For that matter R-390's are still down in the $400 to 500 range. Again a 
> darn good radio.
>
> The only problem with all this is that none of them are "cheap". If we had 
> made 100X as many of them and then flodded the market with new in the box 
> radios I suspect they would all be down in the $200 range. At least in my 
> book that would make them cheap. It would also put them on a par with the 
> WW II surplus stuff.
>
> Still does not answer your question though.
>
> Here's my best guess - Tube based test equipment. This stuff *is* down in 
> the $20 to $50 range for a lot of it. That *does* put it at the same price 
> as the ARC-5 gear in the good old days. Right now there's an enormous 
> amount of test gear on the market. That's pushed the prices of the older 
> stuff into the basement. For that matter the prices of even the newer gear 
> are amazingly low.
>
> Just because the stuff is cheap today does not mean it will get more 
> valuable as time goes on. An equal number of dollars put into BC-453's and 
> ARC-3's in 1960 would not result in the same number of dollars when you 
> sold the radios in 2004. The same goes for test gear today. One item in 10 
> will attract attention and the rest will go by the wayside.
>
> So best guess:
>
> Analog meters are cool = Volt meters, Power meters, Current meters
>
> Name brands hold value = HP, Fluke, GR, Weston, L&N
>
> My personal weakness are Weston meters ....
>
> Take Care!
>
> Bob Camp KB8TQ
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 15, 2004, at 7:02 PM, BOEING377 at aol.com wrote:
>
>> We all kick ourselves for not having bought NOS ARC 5s etc when they were
>> dirt cheap, but what similar surplus opportunities present themselves 
>> today? Are
>> there any? Aircraft instruments are going to become rare as glass 
>> cockpits
>> become the norm. Are we going to kick ourselves for not having bought 
>> some of
>> these when they were relatively cheap and plentiful? What about currently
>> available radios? Somehow I don't see ARC 58s or ARC 102s becoming highly
>> collectable, and I don't think any NOS units were sold surplus, but who 
>> knows? The cheap
>> new PRT 4s and PRR 9s (squad radios) are largely ignored, but thats just 
>> what
>> we did with the cheap NOS ARC 5 stuff. We thought it would always be 
>> there.
>> Your thoughts on present opportunities that we will be kicking ourselves 
>> for not
>> pursuing if we live another decade or two?
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Milsurplus mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>
>