"John S." wrote:

Clearly Ebay and other internet sites won't completely replace in
person sales, be it a hamfest, garage sale or estate auction. But the
ease of bringing large numbers of buyers and sellers together via some
internet connection has had a significant impact on brick and mortar
operations. The ease of transacting a sale electronically be it for a
Kenwood 940 or a spinning wheel can't be ignored. And the sellers that
fail to react in some way will be left behind.


Yeah, right. What about the people who don't even have a computer,
or don't trust online transactions? They'll never go near E-bay.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

I think Peter is pretty much right with his observations, Project sets are
plentiful in the Northeast and upper mid west, and the West coast folks are
really desperate! I very seldom buy on ebay, but do keep a watch on things.
The only things I ever buy are large pickup only consoles that are close by.
Most of the Restored stuff I sell ends up in the deep south or on the west
coast, the Cost of living is so high in California that a Nice restoration
at Retail WITH shipping across country is still a bargain out there.

keith


"Peter Wieck" wrote in message
ps.com...
After reading all this, and with the recent Kutztown event in the
background, as well as my three weekend finds, I am not so sure eBay
has much to do with anything as to radio prices or availability. This
is based on several assumptions which I will list for
correction/addition/amplification:

a) the west, southwest and south in general suffer from a dearth of
good radios. This has been the case for the over 20 years I have been
in the hobby and remains the case today. Exceptions include Florida &
Maryland... stretch to make MD a 'southern' state although it is below
the Mason/Dixon line.
b) the Pacific northwest suffers from the same lack to a lesser degree.


With this in mind, eBay has always been a presence in areas where the
natural crop is limited or non-existent. This group will typically have
a view of radios that is wildly distorted in price, as they start with
the "everything costs $15" mentality based on shipping alone.

As one moves east especially into (former) wealthier parts of it, and
around older major cities (Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit and so forth),
radios become thicker and thicker until one hits the East Coast, where
even the most limited multi-family garage sale will offer a few
examples of *something* loosely described as being related to the
hobby. Then, at Kutztown, the typical $30+shipping eBay brown bakelite
radio goes in the $15-if-that range at the end-of-meet auction. And the
$229-for-a-common-RCA (albeit polished to glow-in-the-dark proportions)
simply does not happen.

So, it is "all according to" location and opportunity. Kutztown is a
free-to-the-public event held at a major Farmers' Market/Antique Market
that also has weekly tables for anyone selling. Accordingly its
attendance is disproportionately large and consists of a
disproportionate amount of the "general public" walking through out of
curiosity and because they were 'there anyway'. This would not happen
at a destination-event if only because of the lack of general publicity
as much as the uninterested public would never go nor have any reason
to even be proximate that they might go. And, of course, the admission
fee would deter those few that did happen to be straggling nearby.

I will also state for the record that Kutztown had _at least_ thousands
of radios in all states, of all types and in all price ranges, from
high-end, high-tube-count consoles through lovingly restored tabletops
through standard junk. The peripheral events are limited... no
hotel-banquet-hall lectures, but those few were directly on-point and
even of interest to non-radio people (The talk on Crystal sets, for
example).

So, from purely anecdotal evidence, it appears that those venues where
the general public is not actively solicited, those venues that are
'preaching to the converted' are shrinking. Those that do solicit the
general public, those that run at (apparently) a much lower key appear
to be growing. The two local examples would be the DVHRC-sponsored
events (Kutztown, PA) and the NJARC-sponsored events (Hazelet, NJ).
Those of you that go to the NEARC events in Nashua, New Hampshire...
how are they doing? I hear from some acquaintances that they are doing
quite well? And I also hear that Rochester is a mere shadow of its
former self? Is this true?

In any case, I remain of the general belief that eBay is not a
significant factor in the hobby to those in the east. And to those in
the west or out-of-range of large, older population centers, it has
_always_ been a factor, neither more nor less much than now.

The thoughts of others are actively solicited!

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA

"CAINE" wrote in message
ups.com...

anything you see sitting at a flea market late in the day, was most
likely already tried on ebay, and didn't reach reserve, or got no bids.

.... that could be 79% of your stuff..

sometimes you'll see stuff at flea markets that seems valuable, and
underpriced, and no one is biting

.... that could be 79% of your stuff ...

that's cuz the marketeers already know, that particular item is
hammered on ebay, too many listed, and the price is down- so they are
cutting their losses and just dumping it

.... that could be, yes, you guessed it 79% of your stuff

marketeers will tell you, they'd rather sell it cheaper at the show,
than for slightly more on ebay- because of ebay and paypal fees, and
packaging work involved-

.... but reviewing your ebay sales verses your not sold items
maybe you should be a 'marketer' ...

nitpicking assholes like DeserTBob on
EBay, who want gold for a penny and free shipping

.... I'll give you a penny for all your 8 tracks for free shipping!!

You cant touch or feel or converse as well with internet sales....nothing
beats the face to face events, if they are well run. In the antique radio
world, Extravaganza is one of the best, Bolingbrook is making a strong
comeback from the Elgin days, Charlotte is strong and Kutztown is
overflowing into the next pavilion.

All you have to do is have a good facility, be open to the general public
for free or little money, and promote your show like crazy. An enforced
set start time makes it more fair, as Extravaganza and Charlotte have
proved. The other two should consider that...

I sold at Dayton in '96 and '97. It was sliding down then even in my
opinion... I only sold about $1300 worth in two days... about half that
could be considered profit. Not worth it for what was essentially 4.5 days
worth of work (1 day loading, 2 days there, one day RT driving, half day
unloading). I had all tube era stuff.. tube sockets, capacitors, trimmers,
Ham type tubes, etc, etc. All the guys stolling by had "Rice Boxes"
strapped to their belts and didnt know which end of a soldering iron to
hold. One guy even held up an old RCA 811 tube to show his buddy and said
"I remember when we used to use these things!" His buddy'd never seen a
tube I think, and he was about 35, this being back in '96.
I had 100 pc bags of mylar and filter caps priced lower than anywhere, and I
mean ANYWHERE. Still do.

Mark Oppat


"John S." wrote in message
oups.com...

Peter Wieck wrote:
After reading all this, and with the recent Kutztown event in the
background, as well as my three weekend finds, I am not so sure eBay
has much to do with anything as to radio prices or availability. This
is based on several assumptions which I will list for
correction/addition/amplification:



Internet based sales have a huge advantage over in-place sales like
Dayton. Ebay and other sales sites can as we all know bring sellers
from around the world at any time of the day. It just isn't possible
to get that kind of coverage at an arena in Ohio.

To the extent that buyer and seller are honest (and most are) internet
sales work very well because money and the good to be sold have to be
moved only once.

It is for the exact same reason that in-person antique shows are having
a hard go of it.

Mark Oppat wrote:
I had 100 pc bags of mylar and filter caps priced lower than anywhere, and I
mean ANYWHERE. Still do.

I picked up two 100-piece bags of .1 uF bypass caps for fifty cents apiece
at American Science & Surplus a while back. That's more the exception
than the rule there, though, because they usually know pretty much what
items are worth.

--
Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics
http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

John S. wrote:
Peter Wieck wrote:
After reading all this, and with the recent Kutztown event in the
background, as well as my three weekend finds, I am not so sure eBay
has much to do with anything as to radio prices or availability. This
is based on several assumptions which I will list for
correction/addition/amplification:



Internet based sales have a huge advantage over in-place sales like
Dayton. Ebay and other sales sites can as we all know bring sellers
from around the world at any time of the day. It just isn't possible
to get that kind of coverage at an arena in Ohio.

To the extent that buyer and seller are honest (and most are) internet
sales work very well because money and the good to be sold have to be
moved only once.

It is for the exact same reason that in-person antique shows are having
a hard go of it.

eBay rarely enters into my search for antiques and it anything has
sharpened my abilities to find local goods.

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
"John S." wrote:

Clearly Ebay and other internet sites won't completely replace in
person sales, be it a hamfest, garage sale or estate auction. But the
ease of bringing large numbers of buyers and sellers together via some
internet connection has had a significant impact on brick and mortar
operations. The ease of transacting a sale electronically be it for a
Kenwood 940 or a spinning wheel can't be ignored. And the sellers that
fail to react in some way will be left behind.


Yeah, right. What about the people who don't even have a computer,
or don't trust online transactions? They'll never go near E-bay.


They will be left in the dust. I suppose those who don't have a
computer or don't trust online transactions could try setting up an
ether-based net using morse code. I suspect that it will be largely
one-way communications though.




--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

I suppose next you'll attack yard sales. You're despicable.

"John S." wrote:

They will be left in the dust. I suppose those who don't have a
computer or don't trust online transactions could try setting up an
ether-based net using morse code. I suspect that it will be largely
one-way communications though.


Like yours. Welcome to the bit bucket.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

In article om,
(known to some as Peter Wieck) scribed...

After reading all this, and with the recent Kutztown event in the
background, as well as my three weekend finds, I am not so sure eBay
has much to do with anything as to radio prices or availability. This
is based on several assumptions which I will list for
correction/addition/amplification:

snippety

My own observations on Greed-bay vs. hamateur swap meets (and swap
meets catering to electronics in general) may be found here (shameless
plug alert!)

http://www.bluefeathertech.com/technoid/Scrounger.html


--
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, KC7GR)
http://www.bluefeathertech.com -- kyrrin a/t bluefeathertech d-o=t calm
"Salvadore Dali's computer has surreal ports..."