[Milsurplus] The wonderful world of selling, trading, and buying (was E- farce)

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 6/15/05, Michael St. Angelo <mstangelo at comcast.net> wrote:
> One other alternative to ebay... Don't forget you local hamfest. It's good
> to support your local amateur radio club and it's nice to meet your fellow
> hams face to face and share stories. It also frees you of the hassle of
> packing and shipping the bulky boatanchors. Load up the trunk or pickup and
> sell it or give it away.
> 
> If you're like me, you unload your wares but return home with a carful of
> treasues.

Absolutely. This happened to me recently at the big east coast
Hosstraders fest - brought 4 radios to get rid of: one was a definite
trade, one was a potential trade, and two were already sold. Was so
proud of myself for 'culling the herd' so to speak, but ended up going
home with 4 more! At least the number-to-weight ratio was slightly
improved.

I've always found the milsurplus guys to be the most realistic or
reasonably priced crew, too. Example: there was a Halli Coast Guard
R-649 receiver on epay I was watching, it was a ratty beast but had
the parts I needed to complete my 'A' version. It ended up going for
over $400 later, even in ratty shape. At the 'fest, one of the guys
had the same radio, in about the same shape except missing tubes. He
sold it to me for $60, a very good deal. It's only the 4th one I've
ever seen, so hamfests are indeed a good alternative.

This topic comes up from time to time, pretty much the same results
each time. Some hate epay, some love epay, most use epay. My remarks
weren't meant to say epay is an evil thing, it's not. It's a tool, and
like these lists or a 'fest or anything else, it should be appreciated
and used for what it is, to help further your interests or hobbies.
It's not a lot different than the UPS/shipping thread: UPS is in the
business to move as many packages as they can, for as few dollars as
possible, NOT to babysit your package from point A to point B. You'd
better know how to pack things when you ship, don't expect them to use
white gloves and hand-carry it through their line.

Shopping online is no different, and epay falls into this category. As
with one-on-one deals, the saying still applies: buyer beware. Epay is
a business, in business to make money not be Mr Niceguy to each and
every user. While I do think they favor the sellers since the sellers
are the ones who pay them, without buyers there would be no sellers.
As John points out, voting with your feets won't necessarily make a
difference since someone else will be ready to step into your place.
The radiomart seller has proven this as well as others. It's still a
great place to find things, and even to find the occasional deal. Of
course, finding a specific item you need could be the deal in itself.

I've been hosed a couple of times on epay, I've also been hosed
one-on-one by a WA6 station I sold a receiver to some years back and
trusted for the cash (Hank knows who I mean). My fault for being too
trusting of a fellow ham I didn't know well enough. Didn't stop me
from trading, selling, or trusting others, just made me more alert and
sensible. For every bad deal are 50-100 good deals, like the manual I
got from Dennis on here a few years back for a scarce TechRad WWII CW
transmitter.

Yep, I know what you're thinking, Marty - you just asked if others had
run into the problem you mentioned, and lookie where it went!

de Todd/'Boomer'  KA1KAQ