On Sun, 23 May 2004 17:20:27 UTC, "JOE"
wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=30957996 51


This is like his 4th or 5th complete stripping out of Heathkit rigs. "Ready
to install
part - removed from mint condition fully working rig" - words to that
effect.
I mean what the HELL? What next - buy up Collins and strip them out?? So
you
can make $40 more than the radio is worth.... it's like this guy thinks
he's clever
and come up with a 'new idea' - strip mint radios for a 25% extra profit.

Go to the link above, then click 'view sellers other auctions' - you'll see
what I mean.

Just irritates me and I wanted to rant. I know the argument - it's his
radio and
he can sell it / chop it up as he sees fit. Yeah yeah. Still hate it.

JOE

Let it go. He's kidding himself.

The market is self regulating. The first time he breaks down a
radio, folk who desperately need that one board, switch wafer,
bezel, or knob will bid the prices of the parts way up.

Last year I was in that situation for a Heath part.

The second time he does it, a few bottom feeders will bid up the
choice parts.

That time or the third, he will saturate the market and most parts
will go for less than the sum of the whole.

By the time you factor in the eBay commissions, the time to break
down the radio, manage the auction, and divide that into the
"profit", he'd do far better to deliver pizzas or clerk at the 7-11.

On the other hand, the winners are the restorers. If I need a knob
or wafer switch (something hard to fabricate) I might pay ten
or twenty dollars. That'd take my incomplete radio to "works great,
looks great" and might double its value from say, $250 to $500.

If he buys it and breaks it down, the first choice parts might go
for big bucks, $10 for a knob, $20 for a wafer switch. That fools
him into thinking that he has found a money machine. Pretty soon,
he'll be left with a basket case, a "first fifty bucks takes it
all".

And so the cycle continues.

But, he is providing a valuable service. It might seem like a
ghoul who's grabbing young people off the street and selling
their kidneys and heart to transplant surgeons but it's not.

Every radio that he breaks down gives new life to perhaps a dozen
others and at some point, he'll be stuck with an incomplete chassis
and will lose money. He's speculating, gambling that there will be
a buyer for the parts.

Realize too that we are in an unusual situation. At least that's
what I believe.

Boat anchor radios are rising in price but the appreciation has just
started. They were way undervalued. Some folk know this and are
buying and restoring to preserve the history.

At some point, there will be no more "I don't know what this is, but
I'll take $20" deals. It will take *one* appearance of a 75A-4 or
HQ-180 on an "Antiques-greed show" and overnight, every boat anchor
will triple in value.

This might not happen for 10 or 20 years, it might never happen but
that is the nightmare that faces us.

I've heard that already, there are circles of "known collectors" who
will not sell radios to someone who will mistreat them. I've
noticed that interesting workhorse radios have vanished from the
hamfests.

In the last 2 years, attending a dozen regional hamfests, I have not
seen *any* Drake 2-B's, SX-101s, HT-37s, Thunderbolts,
HW-monobanders, SBE-33s, Early Swans, SR-160, NCX-3, SB-200s,
HQ-180s', NC-300s, NC-303s, Gonsets.

The radios that have vanished are the mid-range, the ones that the
average ham owned or aspired to; the radios that used to go for a
hundred or a couple hundred bucks, take it.

These are all locked away on the retro-shelf of private radio rooms.
"Sell my SX-101? A lousy $300? That's 4 fill ups of the truck.
I'm keeping it."

You can still find high end stuff but not the mid-range or the low
end. I've never seen an S-120, R-55, T-60, at a hamfest. "$60,
that's two steak dinners? I'll take the radio and eat mac and
cheese."

check out my boatanchor page www.kiyoinc.com/heathstuff.html

thanks and keep fixin' those anchors!