Antique Electronic Supply drifting to electric guitars?

[Detroit47]

That's too bad you have soured on the hobby. I still will fix stuff for other hams for free. If I know someone can afford it they can pay for parts. I reserve this for people that I never hear from unless they need something. That puts them in not friends but customer heading. I have a lot of parts in stock from 35 plus years of collecting and repairing. I know I will never use them all before I check out so I help other people. I have been an electronic repairman long before I was a ham so I am not limited to working on radios and such.  I have never been a rich man so I can understand when others are strapped for cash. I still put together computer’s and give them to less fortunate folks at church. I used to fix TV's for people but they are too heavy and bulky for me now. Unless it is a flat screen I like working on them, I find it interesting to learn about new technology. One man’s trash is another’s treasure.
73 N8QPC
 

[kg8lb]

Yep, I did the same for over 20 years. Gave away a lot of Rangers, Valiants, Elmacs etc. I bought one of those Rangers back 10 years after giving it to a "needy" ham. Found out it went to a hamfest the day after I gave it to him. That was only one of many that were given away to "needy hams. Gave a real nice homebrew 813 rig to a local ham  understanding he would put it on the air. A year later and nothing at all had been done. Asked if I could get it back and get it running , nope he is going to sit on it (If not sell it). There are too many stories like this from giving the stuff away. Seeing give away stuff pop up on eBay and QTH with high prices is another issue. Not soured on the hobby, just a bit more synical rearding the "needy".  Sorry, the "needy" are not a part of the "Gimme Gang" around here any longer. I still help , just a lot more selective regarding whom and when.

[Detroit47]

Yep, I did the same for over 20 years. Gave away a lot of Rangers, Valiants, Elmacs etc. I bought one of those Rangers back 10 years after giving it to a "needy" ham. Found out it went to a hamfest the day after I gave it to him. That was only one of many that were given away to "needy hams.

I can see your point on that. Those folks are scams or bottom feeders if you prefer. I have run into my fair share of them. Especially in the repair business I will get people that expect me to warranty a repair forever. Or bring something back with a totally different problem and expect a freebie. I guess they don't get the fact that I got a family to feed.

73 N8QPC

[k4kyv]

Thanks to the bottom feeding profiteers out there, we just don't do that any more . Sorry, it is far easier to fill a dumpster and a lot more satisfying

But still, I'd rather see a bottom feeder get his grubby hands on something than to see it go to the dumpster.  It may eventually fall into good hands when the profiteer finds he can't make the mint off it he had expected after all, or someone who got ripped off and bought it for way too much decides he is never going to do anything with it and lets it go for about what it's worth. Speaking from my own experience, an item may pass through several hands before eventually going to the right person who knows exactly what it is and is able and willing to actually use it.

Looks to me like you are cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Whenever a usable anything that is no longer made goes to the dump, that means it is gone for ever, one less of that item on the planet for all the rest of eternity.

[kg8lb]

Not cutting off anything here. Dumping the stuff is by far the easiest way to deal with it . I feel a lot better afterwards as well 

[W3SLK]

Getting back to the topic of the thread, Antique Electronic Supply was no way going to be able to keep their head above water by catering to hams. The looked and saw a way to carve out a little niche by selling to those who make 'boutique' audio/guitar amps.

[Detroit47]

I don't think they were catering to hams as much as the antique radio community.
It just happens that some hams run antique equipment.

73 N8QPC

[KE6DF]

I tend not to be too critical of the audio hobbyists for two reasons:

1. They help keep tube manufactures in Russia and China alive. Without the audio buyers, there would be fewer newly manufactured tubes around. Replacements for tube broadcast transmitters and other tube equipment is a gradually dying market.

2. The audio hobby keeps people interested in electronics tinkering and design. Analog EEs are in short supply and anything that keeps interest up in the non-digital part of the profession (especially among young people of college age or younger) is a good thing.

Also, the audio types are not all idiots.
diyaudio.com for example, has some smart people

Dave

[k4kyv]

Getting back to the topic of the thread, Antique Electronic Supply was no way going to be able to keep their head above water by catering to hams. The looked and saw a way to carve out a little niche by selling to those who make 'boutique' audio/guitar amps.

I don't think they ever catered specifically to hams.  For years their customer base was primarily antique broadcast receiver restoration hobbyists. Some of their products, particularly the n.o.s. tubes, hard-to-find components and restoration products, hams found useful. Maybe their sources (largely, estate sales and "pickers") are drying up, or the general public's interest in antique/vintage radio is diminishing, probably both.

Many people who still have disposable income for hobbies, even though they are employed in secure jobs and their homes are not in danger, are so freaked out by all the propaganda and scare tactics they see and hear on TV regarding the "economy", that they have given up spending money on frivolous things like vintage radio collecting.  And of course, many others have lost their jobs, taken pay cuts or had their houses foreclosed and really are in dire straits, so all this has undoubtedly contributed to the decline.

I wouldn't put the guitar enthusiasts quite in the same category as audiophools. They are closer to real audiophiles.  Yes, they have helped drive up the prices of some vintage tubes and components like broadcast quality audio transformers, but most of them know how the stuff works and are not out to rip off people who display more money than brains by buying up the remaining usable triode transmitting tubes to build single-ended class A amplifiers that sell for $80,000 and peddling "oxygen-free" copper, $600 power cords and expensive devices for nonsense like "breaking in" speaker and power supply cables.

Not cutting off anything here. Dumping the stuff is by far the easiest way to deal with it . I feel a lot better afterwards as well  

If it is pure useless junk, like defunct tubes, shorted out transformers, cracked ceramic insulators, stripped down and well ventilated chassis bases, rusty CB rigs and old Swans and Galaxies, that is one thing.  But if you "feel good" about dumping good, restorable vintage parts, equipment and other items now in the category of unobtanium, something is wrong; you should never have got your hands on the stuff in the first place. Most of us are trying as hard as we can to prevent this material from going to the dump.

[K3ZS]

I bought an HQ-110 from a widow of a SK.   She was comparing what she wanted for it with ebay prices and I wasn't sure I wanted to pay that much.    It came with whole set of NOS replacement tubes, that  clinched the deal.   One tube had been replaced with a NOS, but it was too hot and caused the IF to oscillate.    I found the original Hammarlund labeled tube in the NOS box and put the original back in the receiver.    Now it runs like new and someone in the next generation will get a good receiver and a complete set of spare tubes.

[kg8lb]

  Antique Electronic Supply was at first primarily a supplier for vintage entertainment radios. They found soon that there was more action with audiophiles and musical instrument folks. If they were relying on boatanchor hams they would have gone belly-up in months. The boatanchor hams  run museums sustained by donations and entitlements .

  The guitar amp people are pretty knowledgeable and very dedicated to keeping their gear up and running.

  Don,
Never bothered with clapped out xfmrs, clapped out used tubes, old chassis or CB of any kind.  Mostly spares to support the gear here and the iron and hardware for home brew..      

[W1DAN]

Folks:

Thanks for your interesting responses!

I never though that AES could survive on vintage entertainment or boatanchor radio support, and I am not bemoaning what they have done. to me it seems to have happened rather rapidly. To me the speed of the change was surprising.

As far as old items one wishes to discard, it does take more effort to advertise to get the old gear i other people's hands, and I have seen my fair amount of dumpserizing of good gear. I also have been burned by the "needy flipper", but in the end it is worth an effort to distribute the old stuff. If after a good effort and there are no takers, then I sometimes have to resort to tossing items (usually parts).

Reminds me of my selling a box of tubes for $20.00 at a flea that I knew had some valuable tubes. The buyer put the box on his table in the next row and taped on the box lid and advertised one valuable tube in the box for the same amount I sold the whole box for him for. I told him to at least wait until the next flea before taking full advantage of me.

As far as the audio group, I enjoyed hi fi and reading the magazines in the 70's and 80's, until the equipment reviews got to be less test-numbers and more touchy-feely adjective based. Been reading the "www.diyaudio.com' site and there are some smart folks amongst the adjective filled fools.

73,
Dan
W1DAN

[The Slab Bacon]

IIRC, the way the story was originally told, A.E.S. got started by a father and son who went out looking for some '01As for their own collection of early battery set radios. The rest is as they say history............

Also, IIRC, the original father and son sold the business some years later after they had gotten it going very well.

[k4kyv]

As far as old items one wishes to discard, it does take more effort to advertise to get the old gear i other people's hands, and I have seen my fair amount of dumpserizing of good gear. I also have been burned by the "needy flipper", but in the end it is worth an effort to distribute the old stuff. If after a good effort and there are no takers, then I sometimes have to resort to tossing items (usually parts).

If I couldn't sell it, and some flipper wanted it, I would rather see him take it than just toss it into the dump.  At least he will keep it in circulation a  little longer until maybe someone finds it who can use it. I can say the same thing about something else that pisses me off, the audiophool types who have driven up the price of transmitting tubes, often beyond the means of most hams who would use them for  their intended purpose. I have to admit that these jerks have saved a lot of tubes that would have gone to the dump back in the days when 304TLs could be found n.i.b. for $5 each.

Reminds me of my selling a box of tubes for $20.00 at a flea that I knew had some valuable tubes. The buyer put the box on his table in the next row and taped on the box lid and advertised one valuable tube in the box for the same amount I sold the whole box for him for. I told him to at least wait until the next flea before taking full advantage of me.

I'm not so sure he really took advantage of you.  You knew there were some valuable tubes in the box, and you could have put a separate price tag on each of those and sold them yourself, but for whatever reason, instead sold the whole box as a lot. The guy was kind of in your face about it; that can be irritating, but it's guys like that that keep the flea markets and  second-hand businesses going. Otherwise, a lot of the stuff would never have been preserved to see the day when there was any demand for it.

As buyers, we can be just a sleazy as some of the bottom feeders. I admit I have seen stuff for sale at flea markets, knowing it had a certain value but suspecting that the vendor didn't have a clue what he had, and made a ridiculously low offer which the vendor accepted.  Like the brand new and expensive filter choke I saw lying under a table at a  hamfest in a couple of inches of water in a mud puddle.  I put on kind of dumb act and asked the vendor if he would take a dollar for "that ol' transformer looking thang under the table", which he did. Presto! I now had a second identical filter choke to make a matching pair of $109 (1970 dollars) UTC swinging chokes for my transmitter. I don't see anything wrong in that, since everyone who sells at a flea market asks whatever price he thinks he can  get for his stuff.

An example of bottom-feeders who do push things over the edge include those who find a widow trying to  dispose of her late husband's stuff, and deliberately misrepresent its value to her to get all or part of the estate for a tiny fraction of what he knows it would easily sell for, and then re-sells it elsewhere for a premium price. OTOH, I  have made ridiculously low offers on parts and other items that I knew would be considered junk and likely interest no-one else and go to the dump if I didn't take it.

[w1vtp]

Detroit47

kg8lb

Boy did your comments resonate with me! Back in '84 when I moved to my present location, a local ham "friend" expressed an interest in my Heath SB-220.  Partly out of my perceived friendship with him and just trying to make room for all the stuff that was overwhelming me, I sold it to him for a real good price.  BAD MOVE!

I found out later that he "flipped" the SB-220 and made a profit on it.  I'd give anything for the hindsight that I have now.  I'll never own a SB-220 again -- they have been priced way out of my wallet.  I've said this again and again -- NEVER AGAIN!!  I'm not selling anything.

Al

[k4kyv]

That's why I rarely sell anything that is of considerable value to me for mere cash.  I'd rather exchange it for something else of equal value to me.  If I ask what it is worth in dollars, people will probably think my price is exorbitant and that I am trying to rip them off.  If I do get the cash, one dollar looks just like any other dollar, they are expendable and easily replaceable.  Chances are, the cash will soon be spent for something trivial or just daily living expenses and a year from now it will have had close to zero effect on my overall finances, but the stuff I sold is gone for ever, and another like it may never be seen again. But if I exchange for another item, I still have something unique in my collection that may serve me for a lifetime, or at least some good trading material for something I might want or need in the future.

[kg8lb]

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=28239.0

 I have no radio gear of "considerable value."  Not a collector here. Don't have the real estate to hoard. Old Johnson 500s and Globe Kings are just low buck old boxes.   I do try to keep old homebrew gear as close to "as built" as possible and always try to find it a home.  I always enjoyed getting the gear, then getting it working well, and then moving along (NEVER for profit) . I got a bigger kick out of hearing a transmitter that I got up and running now talking to me from a few hundred miles away rather than just using it in my own shack.
 Aside from that ,the stuff is nothing sacred. Just obsolete .  The new breed of "AMer"  wants a "TV" screen and keyboard on his "radio". The new transmitters full of Moosefeets not vac tubes.   Welcome to the 21st Century    

   Bob,
  Back in 1993 I found 4 very nice , very rare R-725s at Fair Radio. Since I had a couple , I knew what they were and bought all four @300 ea. Two went to a very good friend who just had to have them. I only took what I had paid. In seemingly no time at all they were on their way to Japan with a $1600+ (EACH) sale price.  Similar to the BC-610 and two T-368s that I sold to the same fellow . One of them is now lanquishing at a well known rock star's QTH after earning my buddy a handsome profit.   But a couple of many ..

[W2PFY]

i have a number of pieces around here that need minor fixing. Some of the stuff is worth $$$ and they were given to me without asking for them from local hams. Since I now feel that I'll probably never get around to fixing them, I'm thinking about selling them. I'm going to ask the givers how they feel about that? I'll tell them I'm going to donate the money to a good cause while my real intentions are to blow the money on dope and booze. Is this a good thing?

[KB2WIG]

"my real intentions are to blow the money on dope and booze. Is this a good thing?"

I'd go fer the booze...... you dont have QC on the drugs.


klc

[kg8lb]

  I always ask the gifter before I let something go. If they do not want it back I ask what they prefer regarding disposal.  I have a National HRO-5  and a very , very early National CAA type receiver out on "extended loan". They were given to me but since they were not getting much use I simply loaned them to a foster home. Some day I may ask for them back or some day the foster parent may inherit a nice receiver .

   

[K5UJ]

Sam will always be printing off more dollarettes but there will never be any more Meissner 150-Bs, 250-THs, <and other innumerable vintage parts and gear> so if you acquire one, hang on to it.   (Except for the Meissner 150-B  ) You can always get money some other way.

I am a new AMer and the modern solid state stuff doesn't interest me at all.

[kg8lb]

  We don't need no more steenkin' 250ths !  Why legislate 50MPG autos and ban real lightbulbs while we allow people to chat with someone 10 miles away using monster tubes and using the entire AM window to do it?  

  Perhaps a "Cash for clunker radios" stimulus ? We could then get the old , energy gobbling radios into the recycling system .   Along with that , the 1500W power level needs to be phased out. 100 watts is plenty of power for an "amateur".  We have 3 liter cars now that flat outrun the old 426 Hemi, on a lot less gas . Radio is no different. Time to move on !



 For those that are so willing to believe only the worst...I am of course kidding. (For the most part)

[The Slab Bacon]

 We don't need no more steenkin' 250ths !  Why legislate 50MPG autos and ban real lightbulbs while we allow people to chat with someone 10 miles away using monster tubes and using the entire AM window to do it?  

  Perhaps a "Cash for clunker radios" stimulus ? We could then get the old , energy gobbling radios into the recycling system .   Along with that , the 1500W power level needs to be phased out. 100 watts is plenty of power for an "amateur".  We have 3 liter cars now that flat outrun the old 426 Hemi, on a lot less gas . Radio is no different. Time to move on !

What has he been smokin? ? ?   

[W3GMS]

i have a number of pieces around here that need minor fixing. Some of the stuff is worth $$$ and they were given to me without asking for them from local hams. Since I now feel that I'll probably never get around to fixing them, I'm thinking about selling them. I'm going to ask the givers how they feel about that? I'll tell them I'm going to donate the money to a good cause while my real intentions are to blow the money on dope and booze. Is this a good thing?

Terry,
We all have different ways we feel comfortable in getting rid of stuff.  Some like to buy low and sell high and some like to buy high and sell low!  Some like to give stuff away and others wait until they become an SK and let someone else worry about what happens to the goods.  I think that last line was talked about here in recent days. 

My operating principle is if something is given to me as a gift and no money has exchanged hands and I decide to let it go, its given away with no money exchanging hands.  If I pay 100 bucks for something and I decide to sell it, then I will try to get 100 bucks for it but certainly no more.  What I really look for is to get it in the hands of someone that is going to use it.  Concerning the gifts, if the person is still alive that gave me something, I will first ask if they want it back. In my case most of my gifts are from Ham's that are now silent key. 

Joe, W3GMS


   

[kg8lb]

 We don't need no more steenkin' 250ths !  Why legislate 50MPG autos and ban real lightbulbs while we allow people to chat with someone 10 miles away using monster tubes and using the entire AM window to do it?  

  Perhaps a "Cash for clunker radios" stimulus ? We could then get the old , energy gobbling radios into the recycling system .   Along with that , the 1500W power level needs to be phased out. 100 watts is plenty of power for an "amateur".  We have 3 liter cars now that flat outrun the old 426 Hemi, on a lot less gas . Radio is no different. Time to move on !

What has he been smokin? ? ?   

 What? You don't believe we have 3.0 liter cars that can outrun an old Chizzler Hemi or what ? 

GMS Joe;Regarding the disposal of gifts.. Your methods are the same as mine.