GE SUPER BASE

[spends2much]

Anyone see the GE super base that went for $910.00 dollars last night on E-BAY?..I couldn't belive it.I had one of those and they are very good radios but I never thought I'd see one go that high.Funny thing was,none of the pictures of the rig showed the radio pluged in and lite up.Not only that,No where in the add did it say that the radio was tested and worked 100%.Yeah well, not my $910.00..LOL

[Tombstone (R.I.P.)]

Egad! Someone wanted that radio bad. I haven't checked Ebay but with the description being vague like that who knows what you'd get. Could be modified and hacked up. It's probably worth $35.00 if that's the radio someone really wants.

Tombstone

[spends2much]

I don't think it was moded or hacked at all it looked brand new.But even if it was perfect in every way I really don't think they are wroth that kinda money.But you know what they always say....Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay so it must be worth that to somebody.Just go on E-Bay under completed listing for GE you'll see it.

[cbrown]

That's just way too high, someone must have wanted that and had money to burn.

[zman]

It will end up back on Ebay im sure and then it will sell for FAR less than $910.00. Heck, it didnt even go for that much back when it was new!! A fool and his money are soon departed indeed!!!!!!!!!! Id never pay that much for a Superbase, as they are problem prone and are almost impossible to have someone fix. Most techs around here won't even look at them.

This reminds me of the varmit XL 1000 that "sold" for $1400.00 a while back and alas, it wound up back on Ebay in a day or so and sold for far less.

[2600]

Don't tell me, let me guess.

The winning buyer offers to send a check for four times the purchase amount, and wants you to send him the "change".

Never mentions sending the radio.

73

[cbrown]

I like 2600's scenario. More people have been burned by that one.

[zman]

I hope the poor sap that bought that piece of junk realises how much he overpaid for it.........

[cbrown]

It might have been a radio he had back when he started. Nostalgia is worth money to people. The old "I had this when I was a kid" draw is strong with a lot of folks.

[Sandbagger]

Feb 15, 2010 9:23:56 GMT -5 cbrown said:

It might have been a radio he had back when he started. Nostalgia is worth money to people. The old "I had this when I was a kid" draw is strong with a lot of folks.

I can attest to that. Most of my vintage collection are either radios I had owned in the past, or were owned by good friends of mine and that I didn't have the money to afford back then. The thing is, no matter how much I may want a particular radio, I'm not going to pay 3 times what the radio cost new to obtain it. That's just crazy, and I'm not going to help further the cause of sellers using nostalgia as an excuse to gouge people. There will always be other opportunities and I'm a patient man.

But I guess other people are less concerned with how much they spend. Must be nice to be that financially well off......

[zman]

I had a GE superbase once that was sold to me in so called "mint condition". When i got it it was in good condition on the outside, but it was a mess on the insides. I tried to fix it but it was more invloved than what i wanted to get into. I took it to 3 different techs and none of them would even look at it. They said it was going to take more to fix it than it was worth. Good thing as i paid $100.00 for it used. I wound up selling it for $50.00. :-(

[cbrown]

Feb 15, 2010 13:19:09 GMT -5 Sandbagger said:

But I guess other people are less concerned with how much they spend. Must be nice to be that financially well off......

I'm not sure it it's because they have money to burn, or they just want it that badly. If they really had that much free $$$, why not get a really good high end radio?

For example, I recently spent a few $$$ getting my Mark III & Mark IVA restored, but I didn't mind the cost involved since these were my radios and I plan on keeping them. I didn't have the money to throw away, but I wanted to get the radios operating at 100%. So to me it was money well spent.

[Ronin]

There are Techs out there that will service the Super Base, but unfortunately, the vast majority of "so called techs" today are peakers, tweakers, and mic wirers. If it's not a Connex, Galaxy, Cobra, etc., they want no parts of it. Granted, the Super Base is not as easy to work on as a Galaxy DX-949, but overall they are not that complicated. My Icom IC-730 has board upon board in it since it was an early "compact" HF rig. It makes the Super Base look like a crystal radio when you open up the case on the 730. But, it's an older rig with common, easily obtainable and serviceable parts, just like the Super Base.

I personally do not have the test equipment to perform 'full service' on my radios, but I would much rather replace a component in my Super Base (or the IC-730 for that matter) than some of the new micro component high end ham gear.

The other thing that happens with some techs is that they sell radios as well as "service" them. If they can convince you to buy a new radio for $150 to $500 instead of admit that servicing your old rig is out of their league, then they are ahead of the game.

As for the the fool that paid $910 for the ebay Super Base,..... "More money than brains" comes to mind.

[zman]

Thats why i like my "old junk" tube rigs. I have a Drake TR-4 and a Henry Tempo One. Sure they are older than the hills but if something goes bad in either one i can fix them! These newer rigs like the yaesu FT 2000, Kenwood ts 2000 and Icom 7700 are all SMT componets and cannot be worked on by a guy like me that has bad eyes. I'd have to send out my Icom 746 if it ever needed work.

[cbrown]

Even with great eyes, SMT radios are tough to work on.

[mark4]

Hope I don't tick someone off. IMOP way over rated junk at $575.
I would not call them junk at $100. But this radio is not worth anywhere near the ebay prices.
I have owned a couple of these one was mint! Nightmare to work on.
And the audio could not touch my Royce 642

[Sandbagger]

Jun 21, 2014 15:31:03 GMT -5 mark4 said:

Hope I don't tick someone off. I MOP way over rated junk at $575.
I would not call them junk at $100. But this radio is not worth anywhere near the ebay prices.
I have owned acupressure of these one was mint! Nightmare to work on.
And the audio could not touch my Royce 642

There are some real nuts out there trying to get big money for not-so-big radios on E-Bay, and even bigger nuts that actually pay it. When I see Realistic TRC-30a's asking $150, I have to shake my head. Here's a clue: Not all CB radio are collectable. Just like not all cars are collectable. For every $8000 '65 Mustang, there are a handful of $500 1970 Mavericks.

The GE Superbase is somewhat collectable since there didn't seem to be too many made. But it is basically the same Cybernet chassis as the Lafayette Telsat SSB 140, with an added speech processor. It's a nice base, and I might give $200 for a unit in very clean condition. But $575? Not during your worst nightmare. Same goes for TRC-457/458's The aforementioned SSB-140's, or any other domestic base radios made in the late 70's and later. Brownings, Trams, Sonar's, Demco's, and other classic tube rigs are a different story.....

I suspect that there are a few scammers out there listing radios for high prices, and then have friends who bid them up to inflate the price. And if the ghost bidder happens to "win", the radio will end up back on the block within the week with another high dollar price. And once the radio shows up as selling at those insanely high prices, the precedent has been set and everyone thinks that it's actually worth that. Tricks like this were tried in the stock market and ended with serious jail time. Shame it's not illegal to do this on E-Bay.

[2600]

I'd predict that the fine print in Ebay's terms of service prohibits "shill" bidding. At least that's what it was called when I was young and worked for an auctioneer. By the time Ebay came around I head learned most of the dirty tricks that take place in an auction-sale setting. My favorite was the phantom bidder at the back of the house, the one that only the auctioneer could see. An item that was being sold on consignment would sell for whatever was bid. But an item that belonged to the house would go to that phantom bidder if nobody in the crowd would meet the auctioneer's "secret" reserve price. That bidder's number was called a "house number". By the time that item was pulled out for its next trip through the ring, the hope was that nobody would recognize it from the previous time it was offered. Eventually the bids would reach the secret reserve price and it would finally leave the premises. A few things made a half-dozen trips through the ring before they finally sold to a real bidder.

73

[Sandbagger]

Jun 21, 2014 23:34:08 GMT -5 2600 said:

I'd predict that the fine print in Ebay's terms of service prohibits "shill" bidding. At least that's what it was called when I was young and worked for an auctioneer. By the time Ebay came around I head learned most of the dirty tricks that take place in an auction-sale setting. My favorite was the phantom bidder at the back of the house, the one that only the auctioneer could see. An item that was being sold on consignment would sell for whatever was bid. But an item that belonged to the house would go to that phantom bidder if nobody in the crowd would meet the auctioneer's "secret" reserve price. That bidder's number was called a "house number". By the time that item was pulled out for its next trip through the ring, the hope was that nobody would recognize it from the previous time it was offered. Eventually the bids would reach the secret reserve price and it would finally leave the premises. A few things made a half-dozen trips through the ring before they finally sold to a real bidder.

73

I do believe "shill" bidding is prohibited on Ebay, but that never stops anyone. It's difficult to prove and I suspect as long as Ebay collects their fees, they're not all too motivated to stop it.