That's not to say immune to fluctuation, but it would be largely
replicable over a wide area, for a period of time. Instantaneous prices
may or may not be realistic. But just because the buyer and seller agree
doesn't make it a realisic price. It only means that the price was
agreed to at that moment on that item. Stratospheric spikes or
depressions against a replicable market price are unrealistic.


I"ve spent $100 for higher end Hallicrafters rigs, but that's
unusual. And it's after I've beaten the seller back from something absurd.

Realistic price? In my room, that's usually something close to the
price I'd pay for the same performance in a pocket portable.

New radios are a different matter.

You've missed, or ignored, the point. I've nowhere said anything about
prices not varying, but drawn the distinction between the auction and
the market. There is an enormous difference. And it has to do with
replicability of a price range over a wide area. Auctions only create
prices for the moment, between single buyers and single sellers. Not a
generally applicable pricing over a market. One may be private between
individuals, whereas a market is driven by commercial issues.


Two years ago, a solid state ZT/O was bid up to 5 figures on eBay.

Prices for that model did not skyrocket. Speculators tried, but the
market wasn't having it.

Reasonable prices are not determined by individual transactions, but
by wide area, cumulative market history.


Restating once again, I have yet to find a buyer and seller who at the
conclusion of a deal who felt the price was unrealistic. Think about
it for a minute.



And restating once again, I have thought about it. And have
encountered countless experiences to the contrary.

And there we are. We disagree.

Have a good evening. Be seeing you.


p

I've bought and sold a few radios over the past 25 years. Certainly
not at the level of some collectors on this forum but enough to be able
to say I've spun the dial on a fair range of not new receivers. It's
fun to find something like a Sony 5900 for $20.00, National HRO500 for
$50.00, Panasonic RF5000 for $40.00, Zenith TO for $10.00, etc. Great
pleasure to clean them up and learn the radio's quirks and just make
them work. Those and other comparable radios were found unadvertised
at estate sales and an occasional antique auction for what I considered
attractive prices. At the time the prices were all the seller could
have gotten (realistic) because the wider world of radio owners and
collectors did not have easy access to local sales like that. The
availability of internet based auctions has permanently changed the
buyer-saller relationship. Local in-place estate sales are
disappearing because estate executors and sales managers have
discovered Ebay and the other sites. Brick-and-mortar auctioneers now
use internet-based bidding in more than one way. And prices have
risen because a wider range of buyers now have instantaneous access to
those things they can't live without. Consequently todays prices on
Ebay are largely realistic because they reflect the interaction of a
much larger population of buyers and sellers. If todays prices for
collectible radios are compared to those gotten 15 years ago I would
conclude that the prices realized earlier were largely undervalued
because of the limited interaction of buyers and sellers. I would love
to be able to buy a radio at yesterday's prices, but yesterday has long
since passed by.