I find that most of the stuff at local meets are overpriced junk. Example: Went to a good sized one down in Richmond back in Feb. Guy had the old 3 meter radio shack power/swr/mod. wbox. Cracked plastic and the Mod/RF switch completely pushed inside the case. $35 for the piece of crap and was insulted when I offerd $10. He literally bitched me out and told me to get away from his table. No way I'm going to part with $500 for any transciver there, I don't care how much it was babied!
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Hamfest Depression
- Thread starter Mudfoot
- Start date
I've been selling a few items at a time on eBay the past few weeks. Everything I've sold so far, has went for way more than I was asking at the last hamfest.
There's no doubt that eBay has impacted hamfest prices. In reality, I can sympathize with hamfest sellers. You sell a good HF rig to some douche at your table for a fair price, then he doubles his money with it on eBay.
Interestingly, those triple meters are very popular and always seem to command high eBay prices.
There's no doubt that eBay has impacted hamfest prices. In reality, I can sympathize with hamfest sellers. You sell a good HF rig to some douche at your table for a fair price, then he doubles his money with it on eBay.
Interestingly, those triple meters are very popular and always seem to command high eBay prices.
New entry level hf rigs have come down in price so much that it makes no sense to hand over more than $250 to a ham fest curmudgeon for a 30 year old beater rig. I'd love to see prices on these old beasts come way down to where they should be.
I agree on most of the input here but I still look forward to meeting all my old friends and whose numbers seems to be decreasing every year. I find the best bargins on the club's table, sometimes the junk boxes wind up going towards the dumpster. This is where I jump in and grab some of the stuff, some goes to scrap metal and some I keep. Found some nice B&W coils forms, old tuning caps and twin lead, all goes to projects that no one wants to build anymore. Although I have seen a resurgence in old QST magazines!
Looking forward to Dayton this year as we have a good time, comradship with fellow HAMS and CBers. Last year came home with a broken Kenwood TH-F6A for 60 bucks and got it going again! New they are 400 dollars. In 2007 I bought a beat up old Cobra 148 at Dayton, talked him down from 40 to 30 bucks.... questioned my sanity on the way home thinking 30 dollars would have bought lots of beer.
It sat for two years then I got mad and dove into the repairs, after replacing the broken slugs, throwing out the noise toys, ( nope, I still have em! ) better face and cabinet, retune.... now it works well and I call it Frankenstein!
Hamfests are what you make of them, just watch the 'scalpers'! ^^ ab v c^^
73 Rod KB8DNS
Looking forward to Dayton this year as we have a good time, comradship with fellow HAMS and CBers. Last year came home with a broken Kenwood TH-F6A for 60 bucks and got it going again! New they are 400 dollars. In 2007 I bought a beat up old Cobra 148 at Dayton, talked him down from 40 to 30 bucks.... questioned my sanity on the way home thinking 30 dollars would have bought lots of beer.
It sat for two years then I got mad and dove into the repairs, after replacing the broken slugs, throwing out the noise toys, ( nope, I still have em! ) better face and cabinet, retune.... now it works well and I call it Frankenstein!Hamfests are what you make of them, just watch the 'scalpers'! ^^ ab v c^^
73 Rod KB8DNS
I'd rather take my chances with eBay purchases I can at least follow up on if there's a problem... than buy at a hamfest. Yes hamfest prices are over inflated as are some of the sales pitches. You know d@mn well some of those hamfest goats are selling items that will only follow them back home, but once a person looks at it for more than 20 seconds, they up the price to $75 on the chance they can get $40 for something they were willing to settle for $5. Capitalism at its best!
But to me, the truly disturbing part of hamfests are the dirty, grubby looking geeks. Some of them have seriously, nasty personal hygiene and it gives electronics/radio enthusiasts a bad image in the eyes of the normal public. We've all seen them there... the baggy MC Hammer pants, oily, stringy hair, the stench of body odor, etc. And only the dorkiest of dorkster ham operators wears a ball cap with his call sign in felt letters on it just above the solar powered cooling fan mounted on the brim! WTF is up with that? These are the cloistered, social misfits that could easily explain to you of the valence shell of silicon doped junction in a 2N3055 Xistor.
As for the new parts vendors, who the hell is buying those silly flashing LED bicycle safety lights or the cheapo laser pointers? How about those real cheesy clip-leads that fail after 1 week's use? It just gets worse from there.
How many hacked and whacked 2-way radios (mainly CBs) have we seen there with price tags in the hundred$? Frickin holes drilled in front panels for controls that look out of place. Then there's always a Tram D201 sitting on a table or under one, that's been turned into a tragic abortion. Or the used, modded Galaxy Saturn or Ranger base priced at just $50 less than new price personally owned and attested by the King Mud-duck himself!!
I actually enjoy and respect the older gent or lady who has a small card table set up with a few well-cared for items, priced reasonable, and willing to negotiate a fair price. Those kinds of sellers are the real staple behind hamfests.
But to me, the truly disturbing part of hamfests are the dirty, grubby looking geeks. Some of them have seriously, nasty personal hygiene and it gives electronics/radio enthusiasts a bad image in the eyes of the normal public. We've all seen them there... the baggy MC Hammer pants, oily, stringy hair, the stench of body odor, etc. And only the dorkiest of dorkster ham operators wears a ball cap with his call sign in felt letters on it just above the solar powered cooling fan mounted on the brim! WTF is up with that? These are the cloistered, social misfits that could easily explain to you of the valence shell of silicon doped junction in a 2N3055 Xistor.
As for the new parts vendors, who the hell is buying those silly flashing LED bicycle safety lights or the cheapo laser pointers? How about those real cheesy clip-leads that fail after 1 week's use? It just gets worse from there.
How many hacked and whacked 2-way radios (mainly CBs) have we seen there with price tags in the hundred$? Frickin holes drilled in front panels for controls that look out of place. Then there's always a Tram D201 sitting on a table or under one, that's been turned into a tragic abortion. Or the used, modded Galaxy Saturn or Ranger base priced at just $50 less than new price personally owned and attested by the King Mud-duck himself!!
I actually enjoy and respect the older gent or lady who has a small card table set up with a few well-cared for items, priced reasonable, and willing to negotiate a fair price. Those kinds of sellers are the real staple behind hamfests.