I wouldn't call all of the stuff I see on eBay trash, but its fascinating what people will pay for the stuff many of us would have tossed into the trash.
For example, I recently discovered a 5 band ham bands only homebrew solid state receiver I bought nearly 20 years ago. The receiver was a first-rate homebrew job, complete with Collins filters and a 500 Hz CW filter, along with variable AGC, RF gain and more. The radio was likely a handbook project, but none of the pc boards identified its origins.
Anyway, the receiver had laid on the floor in the basement for the decade we've lived here. It was under some plain junk, and the basement has flooded twice during that time. The receiver, being on the floor, had been soaked at least twice, and had the resulting sludge dried inside it and out.
I cleaned up the receiver the best I could and tried it out. It didn't work, though you could tell that parts of it did work — the audio gain varied the white noise, the rf gain worked, the agc switch worked, etc. The problem seemed to be the master oscillator was dead, or the RF just wasn't making it past the detection stage and into the audio chain, which seemed to work.
Rather than spend more time on it, I decided to list it on eBay. It was either put it on eBay or throw it away. I was surprised at the results.
The broken radio — and described as such too — sold for $82. It will make someone a very nice radio once repaired, and I suspect it may be simply dirty or corroded contacts somewhere. But me, I gladly parted with it for $82. Nostalgia's fine, but cash is better. I'm going to check elsewhere in the basement for more broken junk — er, I mean “treasures” — for possible sale via eBay.
BUG BIDDING. Earlier today I was closely following an auction for a very nice Vibroplex Original DeLuxe. Yeah, yeah, like I need yet another one, right? Well, this was a mint condition early 1950s key and with two hours to go, the bidding sat at something like $12. (see the photo at right)
The key also was not listed with any of the other CW keys (in the KEYS directory). This key was stuck under “Gadgets, Other.” Who the heck would find it there?? I figured I might score a very cheap key in this auction. Apparently me and 150 other guys had the same idea.
In the last 15 seconds, the bid went from $12 to more than $115 — my measly $55 bid fell way, way short! I think the guy who won the auction may have set his sniping price high without expecting there to be so many of us jumping in the auction during the last seconds. I wouldn't pay that much for the key (I might if it had the carrying case), but I can't say he went wrong. I've got too many keys to chase another key at that price level.
BUG TWO. A second Vibroplex Original DeLuxe (1961 vintage) sold higher than expected in a recent auction. The winning bid was $255 — and that's for a key with some minor corrosion on some of the screws. It looks like a fair key, but for that money the buyer could have purchased a brand new key just like the one listed.
The buyer's ID indicated he was in Australia, so perhaps shipping a new key to VK land would have been less cost-effective than an older key.
PARTS IS PARTS. A seller had a number of auctions for cw key parts. One listing was 11 weights for various bugs. Another was for the bakelite paddles for various keys. I was surprised how high the prices ran on these auctions. I bid on a couple but frankly, I would have liked the parts, but not enough to shell out the money they brought.
The photo at right is of a group of Bunnell straight key parts — key buttons and circuit closer switch knobs. These brought more than $105!
No bargains to be found today on eBay … or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places. Anyway, I'll keep looking and hunting.