Drake TR4 station

[John K5PRO]

A fellow moved away and needed to place some boatanchors in a ham's hands to try and unload them. They were his OMs, surely a SK now.
First off is a complete TR4 station, with the optional speaker/clock, phone patch, and L4B amplifier. Its pretty good condition but I haven't had time to bring things up and find the dead 'lytics and noisy contacts.  I know how to Ebay but this would be a painful package to ship. And shipping it gives me the scare, as I'd have to pack it for apes. Local NM hamfests don't bring a lot of BA buyers, a few tire kickers and mostly wining about the money. I certainly don't want to gouge anyone, but I have an obligation to at least get fair value for the guy. I hate to split it apart to sell off the L4B, which is likely the most interesting piece. What do ya'll think here?

[W3GMS]

I like QTH.com.  I see a lot of gear listed on that site for pick-up only.  Alternately, you could say that a buyer could pick it up at your local fester or whatever fester your going to.   Just put a fair price on it and see who shows interest.

Joe, W3GMS   

[WQ9E]

John,

The C4 station console will probably also bring quite a bit if it is in good shape, there were far more Drake stations than consoles sold so they are in demand.  I agree with Joe that QTH is a good way to sell this gear and you can certainly specify pickup only.  The L-4B probably ships better than a lot of amps since the power supply is separate but it is still a pain.  I picked up my L-4B locally but I bought a L-4 to go with my original 4 line twins  from Burghardt's used department shortly before they shut down the store and it and the power supply were well packed and arrived in perfect condition.

[W2VW]

Maximum buck would be ebay.

Semi rare Drake stuff brings a lot of interest there.

Be sure to protect the money trail so the funds do NOT appear to be your personal income (which it won't).

[W4EWH]

I agree, Epay would bring the best price, but you'll need to do three things that might take you out of your "comfort zone".

• You must be wiling to ship it. If you don't want to take that chance, then you'll at least have to offer buyers the option of having a freight forwarder pack and ship for them.
• The gear must be in working order. If you have to fix it or have it fixed, just do it: the price triples or quadruples when you can promise a working unit.
• You'll need good photographs, and lots of them.

What this boils down to is demographics: you're potential buyers are

• Middle-aged hams who drooled over Drake catalogs when they were young (guilty)
• Out-of-band CB operators who will want you to put "the" crystal in the rig and retune it for 11 Meters.

To get a good price from a ham, you'll have to put the unit where potential amateur buyers will see it, and be willing to ship it to them.

73,

Bill, W1AC

[John K5PRO]

Thanks for the comments. Been busy installing a couple of multi-megawatt RF amplifiers at the particle factory, project goes on into spring and summer. Keeping me away from here and from testing the Drakes. I will spend the time to test them and fix, and of course clean out the spiders and dust. I'm not adverse to shipping, but it always takes me longer than I wished (to box them). We don't have much in the way of box-it and ship stores. I have always been wary of them with tube stuff anyhow. I take the tubes out and ship them separate in a box.

I've sold a lot over ebay over the years, but was wondering if there is a better way to get to the right buyers. QTH.com sounds like a first start.

John

[flintstone mop]

Great tips here. It would be worth the shipping price to get the buyer to agree to your shipping arrangement of crating and shipping via truck delivery. Yes, pack and ship as if apes will be throwing the boxes around.
Truck delivery of well packed electronics might survive better than UPS or FEDEX. USPS has been pretty good lately.........but you know how luck goes around when it might be really valuable items out there in the cold cruel world
Fred