|
|
Post by capn357 on Feb 25, 2017 13:11:11 GMT -5
I've been watching a D201A for sale on Ebay. The auction started with a bid threshold of $400 and a buy-it-now price of $600. The unit looks pretty cherry and comes with the original manuals, original box, and original invoice. Had it included the grey channel selector, I would've considered dumping $600 to buy it outright. However, it clearly has the old black AMP channel selector and the listing description mentions that there is some static when changing channels, so I begged off. Anyway, the auction sat for days with no bids at all, but then all Hell broke loose. It's now at $810 with one more day to go!
The market for this old vintage stuff on Ebay really fascinates me. For example,
A Pioneer SX-1980 receiver that originally sold for ~$1,400 in the late seventies now brings between $2,000 and $3,500 depending on condition.
A Tram D201 CB that originally sold for ~$700 in the mid to late seventies now brings between $150-$400 (not counting the crazy one I just mentioned) depending on condition.
An HP 8568B spectrum analyzer that originally sold for ~$30K in the mid eighties (and is built like a freakin tank) brings between $500 to $1,000 (if they sell at all).
I guess there is just no market for an 100 lb, two box spectrum analyzer no matter how good it is. Plus, despite HP's then reputation for making very robust and bulletproof test equipment, I'm sure many of the components in that unit are unobtainium should anything go wrong.
|
|
Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss 
Posts: 6,250 
|
Post by Sandbagger on Feb 25, 2017 15:26:20 GMT -5
I've been watching a D201A for sale on Ebay. The auction started with a bid threshold of $400 and a buy-it-now price of $600. The unit looks pretty cherry and comes with the original manuals, original box, and original invoice. Had it included the grey channel selector, I would've considered dumping $600 to buy it outright. However, it clearly has the old black AMP channel selector and the listing description mentions that there is some static when changing channels, so I begged off. Anyway, the auction sat for days with no bids at all, but then all Hell broke loose. It's now at $810 with one more day to go! The market for this old vintage stuff on Ebay really fascinates me. For example, A Pioneer SX-1980 receiver that originally sold for ~$1,400 in the late seventies now brings between $2,000 and $3,500 depending on condition. A Tram D201 CB that originally sold for ~$700 in the mid to late seventies now brings between $150-$400 (not counting the crazy one I just mentioned) depending on condition. An HP 8568B spectrum analyzer that originally sold for ~$30K in the mid eighties (and is built like a freakin tank) brings between $500 to $1,000 (if they sell at all). I guess there is just no market for an 100 lb, two box spectrum analyzer no matter how good it is. Plus, despite HP's then reputation for making very robust and bulletproof test equipment, I'm sure many of the components in that unit are unobtainium should anything go wrong. The HP 8568 was a darn good analyzer. My company bought several when they first came out in the mid 80's. They were expensive then, but they are still very much valuable for what they measure. But I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to 2nd (3rd, 4th....) hand value. If the parts are no longer available, it makes for a shaky investment. Plus the shipping costs for something that heavy would be a big turnoff. It really needs to be crated in wood and that will add another 50+ Lbs to the overall weight. CB radios on Ebay is really a case study in schizophrenic pricing. I saw a Realistic TRC-458 ( a decent radio) one week sell for $100, and 2 weeks later, a similar one sold for $600!!!!!! I consider the $100 a fair price, but $600 is crazy money. But Something is ultimately worth what someone else is willing to pay for it, and a couple of people got into a bidding war over a radio that someone just had to have (Even though there is one up for sale almost every week). There are also scammers out there who bid the price up on radios to aid the seller, and if they end up winning the bid, the radio will "mysteriously" appear a week or two later under a different account. And then there's Superhawk. He thinks every radio he sells is rare and worth 3 times what it's actually worth. It was much better 10 years ago. Popular 23 channel radios were fetching anywhere from $5 to $50, and the premium radios like Tram and Browning were fetching anywhere from $100 to $300 depending on condition and the mood of the buyers. |
|
|
|
Post by capn357 on Feb 26, 2017 12:03:37 GMT -5
Finally won for $995.
|
|
|
|
Post by BBB on Feb 26, 2017 17:27:15 GMT -5
Maybe they are finally getting more rare as the years pass. I'm ready for a $10K Tram pay day. Sign me up.  |
|
Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,250
|
Post by Sandbagger on Feb 26, 2017 19:54:26 GMT -5
That's nuts. There's no way I'd ever pay that much for a CB radio. |
|
|
|
Post by 2600 on Feb 27, 2017 0:49:53 GMT -5
(small chuckle) Makes me wonder how many of the tubes will still be in the socket when it arrives at its new home. The tube sockets used in the circuit-board D201 radios sucked big time. Tram was having trouble with tubes shaking out of the sockets when the radios were shipped any way other than Grayhound Bus. The radio would arrive with the fragments of broken tubes rattling around inside when the buyer received it.
The fix? LOC-TITE!!!
Yep. The factory would apply the stuff to the tube pins when they assembled the radio. Just pulling a tube out of the socket to test it would take a fifty or hundred-pound pull. It would come out wth a loud "POW!", to reveal the dusty brown residue of Loc-Tite on the pins. The sad part was plugging the tube back into the socket. It would roll around loose, with little or no friction against the tube's pins. Crackle noises, and an intermittent radio were the result. Until the loose socket was replaced.
Gotta wonder what sort of a sound it will make if you shake the carton when the buyer receives it. Tinkle, jingle? Box of Rocks?
73
|
|
|
|
Post by capn357 on Feb 27, 2017 18:22:54 GMT -5
(small chuckle) Makes me wonder how many of the tubes will still be in the socket when it arrives at its new home. The tube sockets used in the circuit-board D201 radios sucked big time. Tram was having trouble with tubes shaking out of the sockets when the radios were shipped any way other than Grayhound Bus. The radio would arrive with the fragments of broken tubes rattling around inside when the buyer received it. The fix? LOC-TITE!!! Yep. The factory would apply the stuff to the tube pins when they assembled the radio. Just pulling a tube out of the socket to test it would take a fifty or hundred-pound pull. It would come out wth a loud "POW!", to reveal the dusty brown residue of Loc-Tite on the pins. The sad part was plugging the tube back into the socket. It would roll around loose, with little or no friction against the tube's pins. Crackle noises, and an intermittent radio were the result. Until the loose socket was replaced. Gotta wonder what sort of a sound it will make if you shake the carton when the buyer receives it. Tinkle, jingle? Box of Rocks? 73 Wow! Was that a practice they started when they knew the end was near? Otherwise, I can't imagine doing such a thing if they thought they were actually going to be a viable business for any extended period of time. I'm reasonably certain my original PC board based D201 (23 channel) didn't have any loctite unless it disintegrated and disappeared over the last 40 years (there's no evidence of it now). |
|
|
|
Post by 2600 on Feb 27, 2017 18:37:51 GMT -5
I only remember seeing this in the 40-channel D201A radios. The shipping business was becoming more competitive at the time, and automation was just starting to be used by UPS and the US PO around that time.
I suspect that packages were just being handled more violently in the late 70s, and this was what prompted Tram to do this. Maybe the quality of the sockets was falling? Don't know, but probably not.
We never saw this in the 23-channel radios. At the time we were servicing medical-therapy equipment that was shipped to our client, and he would bring them to our shop. The rate of shipping damage in that stuff was getting a lot worse around 1978. Black Cat had begun insisting on using Grayhound Bus as their shipping method for the JB2000 back than. I'll guess that this was why.
I really think it was Tram's solution to rougher handling in transit. Rougher than the 23-channel radios had encountered.
73
|
|
|
|
Post by comlite31 on Apr 20, 2017 21:31:36 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by capn357 on May 8, 2017 21:41:17 GMT -5
And then there's Superhawk. He thinks every radio he sells is rare and worth 3 times what it's actually worth. I just ran across a very normal looking (condition-wise) 23 channel Tram D201 (PC board based) on ebay listed for $989 by guess who? |
|
|
|
Post by mark4 on May 9, 2017 5:32:20 GMT -5
I just came a cross that listing. I think it was the same radio listed last week. It has the same goofy looking red lamp lens
It looks awful inside. Still has all the old caps etc. what a joke!
If he had a make me a option I would offer him $19.95
I just picked up a D201A with reallly low hours from a local for $50.00 last weekend.
|
|
Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,250
|
Post by Sandbagger on May 9, 2017 6:16:16 GMT -5
And then there's Superhawk. He thinks every radio he sells is rare and worth 3 times what it's actually worth. I just ran across a very normal looking (condition-wise) 23 channel Tram D201 (PC board based) on ebay listed for $989 by guess who? I wonder how many of his inflated listings actually SELL for those prices?  |
|
|
|
Post by capn357 on May 9, 2017 16:45:09 GMT -5
|
|
Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,250
|
Post by Sandbagger on May 9, 2017 21:06:27 GMT -5
Interesting. If you compare the list of radios that he supposedly "sold' for those crazy money prices, with the list of feedback he's gotten from actual buyers, not too many match up. The radios he's sold and got actual feedback from, are much less insanely priced. On the high side yes, but not in the stratosphere. I still have to believe that he shill buys his own stuff in order to artificially inflate the value of these radios. Not much different than the guys who try to manipulate the stock market. |
|
