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
Tucson

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

" wrote in message
...
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
Tucson

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

" wrote in message

...



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
Tucson- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

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

It is the nature of auctions that the high bidder wins. There's no
difference between Radiomart and anyone else, including you or I. He
places bids that are the highest he's willing to pay. In his case, he's
going to resell it and try to make a profit, so his bids may actually be
lower than others that just want the radio to keep. He doesn't win all of
the auctions he bids on. It's not that he's "grabbing all of the decent
deals", he's just bidding higher than you are.

I've outbid him on several radios, you might want to try doing the same
thing. Sniping is an important component of winning auctions, so learn how
to do it and you'll probably have better luck.

Believe me, I've been watching Radio Mart's buying and selling practices for
a long time, including lying about the radios that he sells and his
willingness to engage in shill bidding on his own items. So I'm certainly
no fan of his and would warn anyone against buying from him. But you can't
complain that he's outbidding you - that's just the way it works.


" wrote in message
...
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
Tucson

Pete KE9OA wrote:

snip
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.
snip

I also have a 51J-3 which is serving as a reference or lab receiver
(the back-end for other instruments, sensitive detector,
antenna testing, etc.) and as a benchmark receiver for comparisons
when testing other rigs.

BTW, what is your opinion regarding adding mechanical filters,
product detector, etc. mods to this rig (I have never found the
need but then again I don't use it for contesting)?

Regards,

Michael

E-bay isn't the only place to buy used radios! There are plenty of other
sources, from sellers I trust a lot more that ebay!

Frank



"Unrevealed Source" wrote in message
...
It is the nature of auctions that the high bidder wins. There's no
difference between Radiomart and anyone else, including you or I. He
places bids that are the highest he's willing to pay. In his case, he's
going to resell it and try to make a profit, so his bids may actually be
lower than others that just want the radio to keep. He doesn't win all of
the auctions he bids on. It's not that he's "grabbing all of the decent
deals", he's just bidding higher than you are.

I've outbid him on several radios, you might want to try doing the same
thing. Sniping is an important component of winning auctions, so learn
how to do it and you'll probably have better luck.

Believe me, I've been watching Radio Mart's buying and selling practices
for a long time, including lying about the radios that he sells and his
willingness to engage in shill bidding on his own items. So I'm certainly
no fan of his and would warn anyone against buying from him. But you
can't complain that he's outbidding you - that's just the way it works.


" wrote in message
...
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
Tucson

That's true Frank, but certainly eBay has more radios and a wider selection.
If you choose your sellers carefully, ask a lot of questions, and only use
Paypal, you won't get burned.

"Frank" wrote in message
t...
E-bay isn't the only place to buy used radios! There are plenty of other
sources, from sellers I trust a lot more that ebay!

Frank



"Unrevealed Source" wrote in message
...
It is the nature of auctions that the high bidder wins. There's no
difference between Radiomart and anyone else, including you or I. He
places bids that are the highest he's willing to pay. In his case, he's
going to resell it and try to make a profit, so his bids may actually be
lower than others that just want the radio to keep. He doesn't win all
of the auctions he bids on. It's not that he's "grabbing all of the
decent deals", he's just bidding higher than you are.

I've outbid him on several radios, you might want to try doing the same
thing. Sniping is an important component of winning auctions, so learn
how to do it and you'll probably have better luck.

Believe me, I've been watching Radio Mart's buying and selling practices
for a long time, including lying about the radios that he sells and his
willingness to engage in shill bidding on his own items. So I'm
certainly no fan of his and would warn anyone against buying from him.
But you can't complain that he's outbidding you - that's just the way it
works.


" wrote in message
...
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
Tucson

I've done the product detector mod that converts the cathode follower for
the I.F. output to a product detector. Some BFO leakage, but it worked
pretty well. Right now, I've got a brand new looking R-388 that I am leaving
original.
As far as the mechanical filter update, the units I've had in the past seem
to have quite a bit of signal leakage around the narrower filters. The 6kHz
filter did work very well, though. Still, I like the earlier J series better
than the 51J-4.

Pete

"msg" wrote in message
...
Pete KE9OA wrote:

snip
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.
snip

I also have a 51J-3 which is serving as a reference or lab receiver
(the back-end for other instruments, sensitive detector,
antenna testing, etc.) and as a benchmark receiver for comparisons
when testing other rigs.

BTW, what is your opinion regarding adding mechanical filters,
product detector, etc. mods to this rig (I have never found the
need but then again I don't use it for contesting)?

Regards,

Michael

QTH.com and EHAM have some pretty good deals. My NRD-91 was only 300 dollars
from EHAM. True, it did need some cleaning of the edge connectors on the
plug in cards, but overall, it is a good radio.

Pete

"Unrevealed Source" wrote in message
news
That's true Frank, but certainly eBay has more radios and a wider
selection. If you choose your sellers carefully, ask a lot of questions,
and only use Paypal, you won't get burned.

"Frank" wrote in message
t...
E-bay isn't the only place to buy used radios! There are plenty of other
sources, from sellers I trust a lot more that ebay!

Frank



"Unrevealed Source" wrote in message
...
It is the nature of auctions that the high bidder wins. There's no
difference between Radiomart and anyone else, including you or I. He
places bids that are the highest he's willing to pay. In his case, he's
going to resell it and try to make a profit, so his bids may actually be
lower than others that just want the radio to keep. He doesn't win all
of the auctions he bids on. It's not that he's "grabbing all of the
decent deals", he's just bidding higher than you are.

I've outbid him on several radios, you might want to try doing the same
thing. Sniping is an important component of winning auctions, so learn
how to do it and you'll probably have better luck.

Believe me, I've been watching Radio Mart's buying and selling practices
for a long time, including lying about the radios that he sells and his
willingness to engage in shill bidding on his own items. So I'm
certainly no fan of his and would warn anyone against buying from him.
But you can't complain that he's outbidding you - that's just the way it
works.


" wrote in message
...
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
Tucson