Michael Lawson wrote:

"Mark S. Holden" wrote in message
...
DeWayne wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...17592 25&rd=1

Should I?



If you can find the auction where he bought it, it would probably
give
you a more reliable indication of it's performance and condition.

I consider the sellers reputation when deciding what I'm willing to
bid.

Lately it seems $400 is a pretty good price for an R8. If I wanted
it,
I'd go maybe $250 for this one.

Okay, I know the differences between the R8/R8A/R8B, but
are the differences enough to make it worth the differences
in price used?? I've seen ~$400 for an R8, ~$650 for an R8A,
and ~$800+ for an R8B. I know that the R8 had it's flaws,
but enough for a $400 difference?? Heck, Universal has an
Icom R-71A for ~$500, and that's only $100 less than what it
was about 10 years ago on the used market.

--Mike L.

This web page has basic information about lots of radios, including all of the R8 series radios.

http://www.dxing.com/rx/rxindex.htm

The two biggest differences to me are the original R8 has the nice metal tuning knob, and the R8b has sideband selectable sync detection.

They do hold their value pretty well.

I had an original R8, and kept it for quite a while after I stopped using it because every time I'd fire it up to take a picture to sell it, I decided I just wasn't ready to get rid of it yet.

It was the first radio I had that lived up to my expectations for the hobby, and I thought it did well in terms of providing bang for the buck.