On Sun, 21 Jul 2013, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

Michael Black wrote:
Someone just posted an ad locally for a transistor era Transoceanic, he
only wants $250 for it. I think he did say "negotiable" but when you
start so high, it likely isn't coming down much.

It may well be worth it. It depends upon condition. If it is sitting
in the original box, unused, untouched, a collector would probably pay
more than that.

If it was used for many years, and put on a garage shelf where it has
accumulated, dirt, dust, and small crawly things, no matter how well
it has been dusted off, it's not worth anywhere near that.

In between, well, that's your guess.

Except, it's a transistorized one, which I gather were quite plentiful,
and of course more recent. Perhaps if someone was just collecting they'd
pay the price, but some of that $250 has to be due to the name, as Peter
points out, their circuitry was never extraordinary.

Some years back, I came upon a random issue of ELementary Electronics at a
garage sale, one I'd never seen before, so I bought it. And on the back
cover was a Radio Shack ad for an Astronaut 8 portable radio. Suddenly I
had an urge for one of those, remembering drooling over that sort of radio
forty years ago, they just seemed so cool. But I know they aren't great
radios, so I sure wouldn't spend much on them.

I did find last year a Radio Shack DX-40, a portable AM/FM radio with 2
shortwave bands, about the same level as the Astronaut 8 except no public
service bands. I paid two dollars for it. An average sort of radio,
there were endless radios of that type back then, both desktop and
portabel.

So I guess I am collecting, but not interested in paying the price. And
as I said in that thread about the GPR-90, I'm doing pretty well finding
shortwave radios at garage and rummage sales over the past six years or
so, radios much better than that transistor Transoceanic or the Radio
Shack portable, and all under $20 and mostly under $10. And it is odd,
except for the analog portables, these aren't the low end receivers that
one might expect. I've yet to see a Radio Shack DX-160 in real life, I
wouldn't mind yet I know I'd be disappointed (but seeing it in the ads as
a kid, it certainly looked great). I find Grundig Satellite digitally
tuned receivers for $2 and a Sony SW-1 for ten. I've seen people offer
digitally tuned sw receivers on the local Craig's list for virtually
nothing, couldn't be bothered arranging a time to go and get them. On
the other hand, someone keeps trying to sell a Grundig 350 portable for
$90, as if the better model that superceded it wasn't available for a bit
more new.


Michael