On Dec 10, 3:02 pm, "Pete KE9OA" wrote:
He does have a habit of doing that.......what I do is have a maximum bid
that is usually much higher than he is willing to pay, which is typically an
end user price that is still cheaper than what he will sell the item for. He
wants to get ahold of the item at a very cheap price, for the purpose of
making a few hundred dollars profit when he sells it. By eliminating his
profit margin with my high maximum bid, it is no longer worth his while to
chase after the item. There are certain items that I do avoid, such as the
Drake R8, HRO500, NC400, etc, because they are sought after by collectors.
I usually stick with the more obscure or less in demand high performance
items, such as the Lokata receivers, Racal receivers, and the Collins 51J
series of receivers. Everybody seems to go for the 51S-1, not realizing that
the 51Js were a much better mechanical and electrical design.
A good testimony to this fact is that in the service center at
Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids, they kept an old 51J-3 on hand as one of
their lab units. The 51S-1s had a tendency to have accelerated wear on the
front end section of the bandswitch. The problem is that the finger stock
that would grab those rotating wafers with their radially mounted components
would lose their tension. Years ago, I rebuilt one of those bandswitch
mechanisms. A great fun job, if you can find the parts and it you have 16
hours of extra time. I like the Variometer tracking front end that just seem
to run forever.
The whole point of my rant? Go for the less popular items on eBay, and you
can find some great deals. Once you repair them (and they almost need
repair), you've got a great radio, microscope, etc.
I do understand the way you feel, though. The silly thing is the way he gets
these old SW-8 receivers from 1994 and represents them as "a very late
model". Don't forget the "rare" attribute that he also assigns to commonly
available units.

Pete

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It's getting virtually impossible to get a decent radio deal on Ebay
anymore because "Gottahaveit" / Radio Mart Martin is grabbing all of
the decent deals which forces you to buy from him with his obnoxious
$35 or greater shipping price and no guarantee you are getting a
"collector's condition" radio. There must be a way to stop this so
others can get a fair deal. I have to confess that the few items I've
purchased from him worked OK, certainly not "excellent" as described
but rather crusty and not even cleaned up. I also know others who have
been shafted by Radio Mart. Oh well, such is capitalism I guess.

Frank
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Radio-Mart is always in 'Rare' Form
.... especially when He is 'Minty' ! ~ RHF