Used Gear Craziness

[NQ6U]

A guy on Teh Zed wants to swap his IC-706 Mk II (not Mk IIG) straight across for an IC-746PRO—that is, he wants to swap his $450 radio for a $900 radio.

A guy on the local Craig's List wants to sell a used Yaesu 2900 R/E and power supply for about $50 more than I can buy the same items new online. His ad has been up for a couple of months.

Another guy on the local Craig's list has been trying to sell a used IC-718 for the same price ($500) for over a year now without any takers.

Why do some hams think their used equipment is gold? Haven't any of these guys ever taken a basic economics class?

[K7SGJ]

They're hams. What can you say, besides.................................Bushtit.

[koØm]

A guy on Teh Zed wants to swap his IC-706 Mk II (not Mk IIG) straight across for an IC-476PRO—that is, he wants to swap his $450 radio for a $900 radio.

A guy on the local Craig's List wants to sell a used Yaesu 2900 R/E and power supply for about $50 more than I can buy the same items new online. His ad has been up for a couple of months.

Another guy on the local Craig's list has been trying to sell a used IC-718 for the same price ($500) for over a year now without any takers.

Why do some hams think their used equipment is gold? Haven't any of these guys ever taken a basic economics class?

The last New In Stock Icom IC-706MKIIG went for over $1,500 bucks at R and L, in 2007, I paid $900.00 bucks and got a rebate.

.

[KJ3N]

On the other end of the spectrum, there was a guy on QRDead who wanted an IC-910 with several options for $750. I wish him a lot of luck finding that deal. $750 would be deal for a basic IC-910.

[WØTKX]

I've had some crazy offers for my TS850SAT with the DSP-100.

Very tempted to start an eBay war with that combo.

Oh, did I mention they are "minty"?

[W5BRM]

My grampa, who was an excellent mechanic up til the day he died at 92 y/o, always said "every time you buy used, you're buying someone elses problems, whether they admit to them or not"

I never buy used and i never buy on credit. If i cant pay cash for brand new, then i don't need it.

[WØTKX]

I've had good luck with used ham radio gear and vehicles for the most part.

[VE7DCW]

They're hams. What can you say, besides.................................Bushtit.

They're ham's is right.....for some of the prices they want for equipment I could eat steak!.......... :hahano:

[KG4CGC]

The price on my Corsair is a cool grand. A C00L, grand.

[W2NAP]

bout like the boneheads selling a IC-2100 for $189 used... they were 129.99 new

[NA4BH]

The price on my Corsair is a cool grand. A C00L, grand.

I'd drop a dime on your Corsair

http://motoburg.com/images/chevrolet-corvair-700-04.jpg

Happy New Year Charles

[N8YX]

For grins, go to eBay and look at what an ARF2001 CB rig is fetching.

Or an RV-75 VFO.

[kb2vxa]

Eh, that's a Corvair Monza. Anyway, if you think hams selling on line think their shit is made of gold you've never been to a ham fester.

[kd6nig]

They are probably watching too many "reality" TV shows where someone starts with a $100 item and barters it up to a new car or something.

Since they aren't getting any bites, you'd think reality would tell them that those kind of things only happen on TV....

[kb2vxa]

Oh they get bites alright, mosquitoes, fleas, bees, snakes..........

[kc4umo]

For grins, go to eBay and look at what an ARF2001 CB rig is fetching.

Or an RV-75 VFO.

Oh my! close to 2 grand for the thing.

Anyway I never buy new radios. I only buy tech specials. Sometimes I win sometimes I loose. But for the most part I come out fine.
Friend of mine bought a Kenwood tl-922 at a hamfest for 850 bucks. He brought it to me because it had no output. Because it came without tubes.
The price of used working gear is crazy.

[kb2vxa]

And with the price of tubes these days I'm sure he wasn't happy. I miss my boat anchors with all those wonderful KNOBS but when I moved I had to downsize. When I shipped them I carefully wrapped and packed the tubes, I shipped them separately to avoid breakage. Just one thing, NEVER mark anything fragile or it's sure to arrive looking like it went through a hammer mill. Once upon a time I watched dock workers playing football with a square cardboard ball.

"The price of used working gear is crazy."
Uh uh, it's the BUYERS that are crazy.

[suddenseer]

Everyone thinks their stuff is worth more than it really is. You just have to find a sucker, er buyer who agrees.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDwul5e_Ogw

[wa6mhz]

I want to pay $20 for a Hallicrafters SX-88! Cheaper would be better too!

[N8XE]

The ones selling at the highest prices are the same ones that will haggle you down to nothing if they are buying. They ain't dumb...

Most of my gear I have purchased used. The only new stuff I get are Elecraft kits.

Jason N8XE

[kb2vxa]

I got bored with Porn Stars and Laughing Boy early on, same crap over and over ad nauseum. When you're high on the sacred Ganja everything is funny, you eat too much, get stupid and fall asleep, draw your own conclusions.

[suddenseer]

I like to watch the flea market prices at Hamvention. On Friday at opening, the price$ are unrealistically high. Saturday morning, they have come down a bit. Saturday near closing they might be 50%-75% of Friday's value. Anything still around on $unday is where it gets fun. By the end of the day on $unday, often what was offered for $100 Friday morning, is left behind for the DARA crew to HARA/DARA crew to clean up. Lot's of locals go rummaging through the trea$ures left behind. One such local, kicked a large cardboard shipping box and discovered it to contain about 40 brand new VHF, and some dual band HT's manufactured by the big three more expensive current radio brands.

It turned out the box was mistakenly left behind by a dumbass employee of a large commercial flea market vendor. They called DARA officials that night and informed them of the mistake, and requested the items be returned if found.
This individual ham refused to give them back, and used the 'finder's keeper's' rule. He was kicked out of DARA, and banned from meetings, and official events including Hamvention.

[KG4CGC]

I like to watch the flea market prices at Hamvention. On Friday at opening, the price$ are unrealistically high. Saturday morning, they have come down a bit. Saturday near closing they might be 50%-75% of Friday's value. Anything still around on $unday is where it gets fun. By the end of the day on $unday, often what was offered for $100 Friday morning, is left behind for the DARA crew to HARA/DARA crew to clean up. Lot's of locals go rummaging through the trea$ures left behind. One such local, kicked a large cardboard shipping box and discovered it to contain about 40 brand new VHF, and some dual band HT's manufactured by the big three more expensive current radio brands.

It turned out the box was mistakenly left behind by a dumbass employee of a large commercial flea market vendor. They called DARA officials that night and informed them of the mistake, and requested the items be returned if found.
This individual ham refused to give them back, and used the 'finder's keeper's' rule. He was kicked out of DARA, and banned from meetings, and official events including Hamvention.

It was worth it.

[suddenseer]

It was worth it.Damn right it was, I got a brand new $300 HT for $75. I could not send in the warranty card, however.

[kb2vxa]

How to pull off a clean getaway in three easy steps:

1) "Eh, junk box parts."
2) Close box and carry it away.
3) Sargent Schultz.

[suddenseer]

How to pull off a clean getaway in three easy steps:

1) "Eh, junk box parts."
2) Close box and carry it away.
3) Sargent Schultz.
4)Don't blab it on local repeaters! He did not.

[N8YX]

4)Don't blab it on local repeaters! He did not.
13527

[W3WN]

I want to pay $20 for a Hallicrafters SX-88! Cheaper would be better too!You and me both, my friend, you and me both.

[W3WN]

I like to watch the flea market prices at Hamvention. On Friday at opening, the price$ are unrealistically high. Saturday morning, they have come down a bit. Saturday near closing they might be 50%-75% of Friday's value. Anything still around on $unday is where it gets fun. By the end of the day on $unday, often what was offered for $100 Friday morning, is left behind for the DARA crew to HARA/DARA crew to clean up. Lot's of locals go rummaging through the trea$ures left behind. One such local, kicked a large cardboard shipping box and discovered it to contain about 40 brand new VHF, and some dual band HT's manufactured by the big three more expensive current radio brands.

It turned out the box was mistakenly left behind by a dumbass employee of a large commercial flea market vendor. They called DARA officials that night and informed them of the mistake, and requested the items be returned if found.
This individual ham refused to give them back, and used the 'finder's keeper's' rule. He was kicked out of DARA, and banned from meetings, and official events including Hamvention.
He's lucky he didn't get brought up on charges. (Not saying that he'd be convicted, mind you, but who needs the hassle?)

I've "inherited" a few items along the say post-hamfests... not like your friend this induhvidual, though. No, usually someone asks to "borrow" some space on my flea-market table for "one or two" things... and never comes back. When I contact them afterwards, their attitude is on the lines of "ah, just keep the stuff/the money for your trouble."

Of course, no one who does this will leave me an SX-88 or SX-28 or anything like that. But I did once get a nice MFJ TNC that way.

So my rule of thumb now is... if you don't come back for it, that same day, it gets trashed when I leave. If you don't come back for the funds, if any, I reserve the right to offset my costs. And I tell people this when they ask. Never been a problem since -- since most of these guys just want the shekels, however few they might be! (They just don't mind that I do all the work for them)

[suddenseer]

He's lucky he didn't get brought up on charges. (Not saying that he'd be convicted, mind you, but who needs the hassle?)

I've "inherited" a few items along the say post-hamfests... not like your friend, though. No, usually someone asks to "borrow" some space on my flea-market table for "one or two" things... and never comes back. When I contact them afterwards, their attitude is on the lines of "ah, just keep the stuff/the money for your trouble."

Of course, no one who does this will leave me an SX-88 or SX-28 or anything like that. But I did once get a nice MFJ TNC that way.

So my rule of thumb now is... if you don't come back for it, that same day, it gets trashed when I leave. If you don't come back for the funds, if any, I reserve the right to offset my costs. And I tell people this when they ask. Never been a problem since -- since most of these guys just want the shekels, however few they might be! (They just don't mind that I do all the work for them)The individual is not, or ever was my friend. He told me that the ht without warranty card was a door prize that he had won. I found out about the kick box incident a week later. I was left in a dilemma about my alleged door prize bonus purchase. I think my ex ended up with it.

[W3WN]

The individual is not, or ever was my friend. He told me that the ht without warranty card was a door prize that he had won. I found out about the kick box incident a week later. I was left in a dilemma about my alleged door prize bonus purchase. I think my ex ended up with it.My apologies for the mis-interpretation on my part. I have corrected my earlier statement accordingly.

[suddenseer]

My apologies for the mis-interpretation on my part. I have corrected my earlier statement accordingly.No need to apologize. Myself, and several others fell for the 'door prize' story. I do not see it as stolen property, but it was lost, found, and the person should have made an effort to find the rightful owner. If no claim was made, then finder's keepers. When I was a bit younger, and much poorer, I found a woman's wallet with id, photos, and about $400 cash. I looked up the name on the driver's license, and found it in the phone book. I called her, and she came over that evening. She snatched it out of my hand, counted the money quickly, and walked out to her car, not even a "thank you". Part of me still thinks that I should have kept the money, and put the wallet on the closest car hood.

[WØTKX]

The price on my Corsair is a cool grand. A C00L, grand.

I ain't selling mine, and neither should you. Nevah!
Someday, we should do a Corsair to Corsair QSO.

I fired mine up on 160 a few weeks ago. :)

[KG4CGC]

I ain't selling mine, and neither should you. Nevah!
Someday, we should do a Corsair to Corsair QSO.

I fired mine up on 160 a few weeks ago. :)

Things went up in value, didn't they?

I'm so bad. Gotta love that tuning knob. #ptopron

[W3WN]

Going price on a Ten Tec 560 Corsair is around $500 - 600 depending on condition and installed filters (if any). For a grand, one would expect a full compliment of filters, the power supply, and a mike... and change.

NOT that I think you should sell it, mind you.

One of these years, I'm going to pick up the Remote VFO for the Corsair II, and then a Corsair. Then I can rearrange things to have a complete 560 & 561 line up. (I have the Corsair II with the Corsair RVFO -- electrically identical, cosmetically different)

[W3WN]

No need to apologize. Myself, and several others fell for the 'door prize' story. I do not see it as stolen property, but it was lost, found, and the person should have made an effort to find the rightful owner. If no claim was made, then finder's keepers. When I was a bit younger, and much poorer, I found a woman's wallet with id, photos, and about $400 cash. I looked up the name on the driver's license, and found it in the phone book. I called her, and she came over that evening. She snatched it out of my hand, counted the money quickly, and walked out to her car, not even a "thank you". Part of me still thinks that I should have kept the money, and put the wallet on the closest car hood.
The property was misplaced, ie, accidentally left behind.
Someone found it.
The owner of the property came looking for it.
The finder refused to turn it over.

Final decision is up to a judge and jury, but to me, this sounds like theft, as of the moment that the finder refused to return the property.

[NQ6U]

The property was misplaced, ie, accidentally left behind.
Someone found it.
The owner of the property came looking for it.
The finder refused to turn it over.

Final decision is up to a judge and jury, but to me, this sounds like theft, as of the moment that the finder refused to return the property.

I don't know how it is in Ohio but under California law, it would be considered theft.

Here, there's no legal basis for "finders keepers." If you find a valuable item, the law requires that you make a good-faith effort to locate the owner. If you can't, then you're required to bring the found item to the local police agency. They will take the item in and give you a receipt for it. Only if no one claims the lost item in a given amount of time (six months, I think it is—too lazy to look it up) can you return to the police and claim it as your own.

[n2ize]

No need to apologize. Myself, and several others fell for the 'door prize' story. I do not see it as stolen property, but it was lost, found, and the person should have made an effort to find the rightful owner. If no claim was made, then finder's keepers. When I was a bit younger, and much poorer, I found a woman's wallet with id, photos, and about $400 cash. I looked up the name on the driver's license, and found it in the phone book. I called her, and she came over that evening. She snatched it out of my hand, counted the money quickly, and walked out to her car, not even a "thank you". Part of me still thinks that I should have kept the money, and put the wallet on the closest car hood.

Yeah, but you had no idea beforehand that she would be such a total bitch. One night as a youngster I found a pocketbook belonging to a neighbor down the block. I looked inside and found her id and returned it. She was very thankful and offered me 10 bucks which I accepted.

One Christmas eve I found a billfold in the middle of the gutter. I picked it up and looked inside and there was $80 bucks inside and absolutely no ID or anything. I kept it. A week later on the day before New Years I was riding on the subway heading to my home stop and got into a conversation with this girl I was infatuated with at the time (I was a young dumb 21 year old then), I wound up leaving my wallet on the train. Later that day some guy called me and said he found my wallet on the train and was turning it in to the "lost & found" at Grand central. So I head to Grand Central and I retrieve my wallet. Minus $80 bucks.

[KG4CGC]

The property was misplaced, ie, accidentally left behind.
Someone found it.
The owner of the property came looking for it.
The finder refused to turn it over.

Final decision is up to a judge and jury, but to me, this sounds like theft, as of the moment that the finder refused to return the property.

It IS theft but the part that was worth it was getting kicked out of all those AR clubs and DARA.

[NA4BH]

They should fire the people that forgot to load the equipment too.

[NA4BH]

So back to the original topic, "used gear craziness". What would you expect to pay for an Ameritron AL80B that has been used maybe 10 minutes, original boxes, and is about 4 years old? No dings, not around smoke, kept in a controlled environment. Pretty much NOS. Just wondering. What would you offer to the widow. Honest answers please.

[NQ6U]

So back to the original topic, "used gear craziness". What would you expect to pay for an Ameritron AL80B that has been used maybe 10 minutes, original boxes, and is about 4 years old? No dings, not around smoke, kept in a controlled environment. Pretty much NOS. Just wondering. What would you offer to the widow. Honest answers please.

They go for about $1400 new. Tell her it's little more than a piece of junk and just about worthless but since she's such a good friend you'll give her $300 for it.

Seriously, $1200 seems fair.

http://www.gigaparts.com/Product-Lines/HF-Amplifiers/Ameritron-AL-80B.html

[KG4CGC]

So back to the original topic, "used gear craziness". What would you expect to pay for an Ameritron AL80B that has been used maybe 10 minutes, original boxes, and is about 4 years old? No dings, not around smoke, kept in a controlled environment. Pretty much NOS. Just wondering. What would you offer to the widow. Honest answers please.

They made a new version that MSRPs at $1600. Does $1200 sound fair?

[NA4BH]

But how far could you walk without coughing after it's stuffed up your ass? Seriously, how much would you be willing to pay for it? NOS, used less than 10 minutes, blah blah.......

[NA4BH]

They made a new version that MSRPs at $1600. Does $1200 sound fair?

I think that would be very fair. But I'm sure most Hammies would try to put the screws to the widow and offer pennies on the dollar. Then brag how they got such a good deal (they left out the part about screwing somebody that doesn't have a clue as to the value).

[NA4BH]

It would be like Pat's (MHZ) wife clearing his TREASURE clutter out of her garage. Pat has done the nasty deed with her for years, but nothing like she'll get selling all those radios.

ETA: In Pat's case he should go through and catalog everything, put a "reasonable" price, not what he feels it's worth to him, so his wife will have a starting place to negotiate from. Otherwise she will sell the SX88 he fought so dearly for at a $20.00 price tag and think she did good.

[suddenseer]

The property was misplaced, ie, accidentally left behind.
Someone found it.
The owner of the property came looking for it.
The finder refused to turn it over.

Final decision is up to a judge and jury, but to me, this sounds like theft, as of the moment that the finder refused to return the property.


I don't know how it is in Ohio but under California law, it would be considered theft.

Here, there's no legal basis for "finders keepers." If you find a valuable item, the law requires that you make a good-faith effort to locate the owner. If you can't, then you're required to bring the found item to the local police agency. They will take the item in and give you a receipt for it. Only if no one claims the lost item in a given amount of time (six months, I think it is—too lazy to look it up) can you return to the police and claim it as your own.

Believe it or not, I did lose some sleep over this. My ex wife heard the chatter on the repeaters about the kick box incident. I was out of town, and she told me about it on the phone. When I got back, I called the ham in question requesting my money back, or some gear in trade. He refused to take the ht back. I contacted one of the event organizers, and offered to return the property. He told me that some sort of compensation had been made to the vendor. He also informed me that the club was going to have a vote on revoking this individual from DARA, and banning him from all DARA events.

When my wife, and I split up, she got the ht, and a radio shack 2 meter mobile. Bottom line: I bought it in good faith, and was lied to about it's origin. The missing warranty card should have been a major clue, but I was too stupid to see it, and my ego was thumping my chest over making such a good deal. If it was reported as stolen, then the police would have been called, and this would have been a matter of public record. I think the settlement was quickly made to avoid this.

I do have another ham fest flea market story. My local club used to have an annual ham fest. It was a small affair in one of the buildings at the county fair grounds. Some teenage boy bought an old tube AM broadcast receiver. He got it home, and took the cover off to discover that most of the radio was missing, and replaced with packages of cocaine powder. This kid's dad was a cop. It was valued at over $40K. He bought it from a flea market gypsy, who told the police he bought the radio in Florida. I wonder if someone was killed because of this? I guess the topic could be radio equipment, and people screwing up.

[NA4BH]

Your radio has a buzz in it tonight, no that's just me.

[suddenseer]

Pay no attention to my sneezing. It is allergies. Yeah that's it, sniff.

[suddenseer]

So back to the original topic, "used gear craziness". What would you expect to pay for an Ameritron AL80B that has been used maybe 10 minutes, original boxes, and is about 4 years old? No dings, not around smoke, kept in a controlled environment. Pretty much NOS. Just wondering. What would you offer to the widow. Honest answers please.
If it was local with no shipping, I would start at $1000, with some room to up the offer. I helped a widow liquidate her late husband's Kenwood TS 950 loaded with the filters, and matching speaker driving a Kenwood TL-900 something. It had 3 3-500Z's under the hood. We took it to our club's local ham fest, and sold both for her. I don't remember what it went for, but I heard it was double what our local ham/cb shop owner offered her. This ham silent key vulture was known for swooping down on ham widows while her husband's body was still warm and take advantage of the ladies who had no clue of what the gear was worth.