There are two schools of thought on boatanchors. I'm in the fix
it and use it school.

Me too. That doesn't mean I'll drill holes in an unmodified BA or make
irreversible changes, though.

There is another school of thought. These are like collectors of
antiques. You're not supposed to clean or restore a real
antique. The real fanatics prize the patina of age (dirt) on
furniture or whatever.

Radios owned by these folk are called "shelf queens". They are
not repaired except with original parts. Since you can't find a
70 year old capacitor that works, these radios don't work. They
sit on the shelf and are display-only.

Yep. Sad, really, because a lot of fix-it-and-use-it work can be done so the
radio still looks "vintage". For example, a lot of folks clean out the old
electrolytics, put modern ones inside the old can and seal it up so that unless
you look really closely you'll never know it was redone. Same for wax paper
caps.

I have another view of antique radios. I believe that the prices
are yet to be realized.

I saw a "catalin" table radio sell on eBay for over $20,000.
These are plastic AM table radios in weird colors. Apparently
collectors, whoever they are, are collecting these, for whatever
reason.

There's a major difference between fixing up something old in order to use it,
and collecting "real" antiques. The latter becomes more a matter of "art".

For example, look at how some old wines fetch incredible prices. In many cases,
the bottles will never be opened - and, in fact, the wine inside is probably
vinegar by now. What has happened is that it's no longer really about a
beverage - it's about the bottle as a collectible, which means its price has
nothing to do with its real worth.

Watch the Antique Roadshow. Weird, screwy stuff is priced at
incredible numbers. Ugly furniture, carvings, ceramics,
paintings, books, most things I'd say, "what would I do with
that?" Incredible numbers like $10,000, $25,000, $80,000.

That's because the experts know that someone out there will pay those prices.
In many cases, rarity alone is the driving force. There's also age, condition,
and somewhere in there is the actual craftsmanship.

One of my favorite AR stories is the one where two ladies (sisters) brought in
a nice table lamp with a Tiffany-type shade. They said a local antique dealer
had said it wasn't a genuine Tiffany (because the base was metal, not wood),
and was worth maybe $100.

The expert said it was indeed genuine, and was one of a very few made about
1904. Only about six examples were known to survive, and none were as good as
the two ladies'.

They had been using it as a table lamp in the living room, and it had Kmart
bulbs in it. Worked, too. They had brought it to the show in a cardboard box,
in the back of the minivan.

Expert priced it at about $120,000. Their *house* wasn't worth $120,000.


Then I look at my Signal/One CX7A, one of less that 1,000.
Incredible engineering, Nixie tubes.

I think that in the near future, boatanchor radios will be highly
prized collectables. It might not happen for 20 years, it might
be starting now.

I wouldn't count on it. Too far off the beaten path of the antique/collectible
world. Then again, a few years ago, somebody paid $5100 for an unbuilt AT-1
kit. That's not a typo - five thousand one hundred US dollars.

I hate to say it but the people who are preserving "shelf queens"
will probably see the highest valuations.

Sad but true. Anyhting not "original" will devalue. Whether it actually works
is immaterial.

I'm definitely not in that school.

Nor I.

About 15 years back I came across a partially-built HW-101 kit (the builder had
only done the VFO). Also an unbuilt HP-23. Like a dummy I bought the pair for
$150 and built them. I don't want to know what the unbuilt kit would be worth
today.

73 de Jim, N2EY