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Post by oldgeezer on Aug 2, 2019 22:01:29 GMT -5
About 75 CB radios sell per day on ebay. Almost all are 40 channel and many have SSB capacity. Out of over 100 CBs, only 3 to 4 are tube type. The newer RCI, Northstar, Galaxy sell for around $100-$150 for mobiles and are popular. Most CB radios that sell on ebay are vintage 40 channel and at least 50% have SSB capacity. These vintage CB radios vary from about $75 to $150 except the expensive Cobra 2000 & CPI that sells for more dollars. Many CB radios that sell are Cobra. The older 23 channel solid-state CB radios sell from $10 to perhaps as high as $50, but $30 is about average. Most are mobile type. A few desirable 23 channel bases can exceed $75. The Tram and Browning CB radios sell quickly and cost well over $200.
I do not have any idea how many buying the CB radios on ebay are already on the CB band or new to CB. If 50% are new to CB, it shows a lot of strength in the CB band and possibly more than Ham radio joining the ranks everyday.
30 years ago most small towns (20K to 50K people) had nightly nets on CB. Now, most of these towns do not have any activity. I never heard any locals to about a 40 mile radius. So, I am not sure if these CBs are being used locally, in semi trucks or for skip (DX). I believe it requires an amplifier in the present sun spot cycle to use skip for communications. |
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss 
Posts: 6,247 
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Post by Sandbagger on Aug 3, 2019 9:44:17 GMT -5
About 75 CB radios sell per day on ebay. Almost all are 40 channel and many have SSB capacity. Out of over 100 CBs, only 3 to 4 are tube type. The newer RCI, Northstar, Galaxy sell for around $100-$150 for mobiles and are popular. Most CB radios that sell on ebay are vintage 40 channel and at least 50% have SSB capacity. These vintage CB radios vary from about $75 to $150 except the expensive Cobra 2000 & CPI that sells for more dollars. Many CB radios that sell are Cobra. The older 23 channel solid-state CB radios sell from $10 to perhaps as high as $50, but $30 is about average. Most are mobile type. A few desirable 23 channel bases can exceed $75. The Tram and Browning CB radios sell quickly and cost well over $200.
I do not have any idea how many buying the CB radios on ebay are already on the CB band or new to CB. If 50% are new to CB, it shows a lot of strength in the CB band and possibly more than Ham radio joining the ranks everyday.
30 years ago most small towns (20K to 50K people) had nightly nets on CB. Now, most of these towns do not have any activity. I never heard any locals to about a 40 mile radius. So, I am not sure if these CBs are being used locally, in semi trucks or for skip (DX). I believe it requires an amplifier in the present sun spot cycle to use skip for communications. Ebay is a strange place. Someone can put up a radio like a TRC-458 one week, and it will somehow sell for $400+ dollars. Then a week or two later another one will show up but will only sell at $100. It all depends on the instantaneous demand, and whether you get into a bidding war with someone. With some of the automatic bidding apps out there it is easy to go completely nuts and spend way more than what something is truly worth. A few years back, and anything 23 channel or less wouldn't fetch more than $25, unless it was a Browning, Tram, or the Hy-Gain 623. But the nostalgic classic radio collecting has taken off, and I've seen people try to get $100 for a TRC-30A Navaho, a radio that was fetching only $5 - $10 a few years back. Non-classic 40 channel radios are pretty much a dime a dozen. People have an over-inflated attraction to Cobra radios. But other than the Cobra 2000 (which has collector appeal), the rest of the lot is no better than other makes (and in fact are likely made by the same factories). What really hurts the market are scam sellers like Superhawk, who constantly tries to game the system by inflating the value of what he's selling, makes dubious claims about the origin of the radio, and gets shill buyers to "buy" the rig to give the impression that the radio is actually worth what his crazy asking price was, so the next time it shows up at a slightly lower (but still inflated) price, buyers think they are getting a deal on a unique or a premium radio and will pay way more than they should be for something that can be had elsewhere for much less. Considering the relatively cheap prices for new CB radios, the value of used radios is based mostly on reputation (whether real or imagined). As to the question of who's using them, that all depends. I've seen countless shack pictures from collectors who have literally hundreds of radios, and all they do is sit on shelves (or in piles). It's a shame really, IMHO, if you are going to be bitten by the nostalgia bug, operating the radio is much of the appeal. But it's a safe assumption that not all collectable radios sold on EBay will see much (if any) air time. Of those that do, it all depends on the local conditions in the operator's area. There are many places that still have active operators. But other places are completely dead. Interestingly enough, when the skip rolls, the channels fill up quite fast, so there are a ton of operators out there still, but they are either in areas without regular locals, or they aren't interested in talking to the locals and only want to shoot skip. Right now it looks like we've just bottomed out of the 11 year F layer sunspot cycle and it's now starting to ramp up again. In another 5 or so years, we'll have S9 heterodyne on all the channels and the skip shooters will be happy once again. |
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Post by oldgeezer on Aug 3, 2019 13:08:43 GMT -5
BTW- Summer is the slowest months for CB radio sales. Fall, winter and spring are about 150 CB radio sales a day.
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Post by TheStonerGuy on Oct 16, 2019 13:15:29 GMT -5
About 75 CB radios sell per day on ebay. Almost all are 40 channel and many have SSB capacity. Out of over 100 CBs, only 3 to 4 are tube type. The newer RCI, Northstar, Galaxy sell for around $100-$150 for mobiles and are popular. Most CB radios that sell on ebay are vintage 40 channel and at least 50% have SSB capacity. These vintage CB radios vary from about $75 to $150 except the expensive Cobra 2000 & CPI that sells for more dollars. Many CB radios that sell are Cobra. The older 23 channel solid-state CB radios sell from $10 to perhaps as high as $50, but $30 is about average. Most are mobile type. A few desirable 23 channel bases can exceed $75. The Tram and Browning CB radios sell quickly and cost well over $200.
I do not have any idea how many buying the CB radios on ebay are already on the CB band or new to CB. If 50% are new to CB, it shows a lot of strength in the CB band and possibly more than Ham radio joining the ranks everyday.
30 years ago most small towns (20K to 50K people) had nightly nets on CB. Now, most of these towns do not have any activity. I never heard any locals to about a 40 mile radius. So, I am not sure if these CBs are being used locally, in semi trucks or for skip (DX). I believe it requires an amplifier in the present sun spot cycle to use skip for communications. There are pockets of local CB chat all over the US but in many areas it does seem dead - until the band opens up, and then everyone and their brother pile up on 38 calling CQ. FWIW, I've been listening to an SDR site in the UK. There is one group that runs an 11m net twice a week on 27.515 USB and 27.305 LSB. Quite a few ops check-in. As well, several other groups run 11m nets in other areas of the UK. Usually it starts on 27.185 AM then flips to LSB to finish the net. It seems like folks in the UK are doing their best to keep it alive.
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Post by 321 treeclimber on Oct 16, 2019 21:49:16 GMT -5
Hmm. Thats pretty cool, i should check it out. Thanks stoner.
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