Saturday, April 4, 2015 — I’m four days into reclaiming my former life as just an “average Ham” now that my fourth two-year term as an ARRL Section Manager ended March 31. My access to the ARRL “backend” system has been terminated; I’m sure the new SM will do a fine job and I wish him well.
In fact, he’s at a hamfest this morning serving for the first time in his capacity as SM. I opted to skip the hamfest as we are planning to travel to visit our daughter this weekend, and skipping the hamfest just made sense.
Now that I’m no longer a League official, I’m debating on what to do now as far as setting up at hamfests. I have eight years of accumulated radio “stuff,” some of which I would normally sell once I tired of having it around. As an elected official, you are prohibited/discouraged from setting up a table and selling your own stuff at a sanctioned hamfest. Prior to my life as SM, I regularly setup and sold “stuff” at hamfests … but that was eight years ago.
Nearly everything I buy these days comes from eBay, and I’m wondering if eBay isn’t the best place to sell my extra stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love hamfests; however, I also love money, and I’m interested in selling my stuff for top dollar. eBay offers the largest audience, and one big advantage is that you don’t have to haul the stuff to the hamfest — or haul any of it home.
The trade off is that with eBay, you have to ship the stuff. Much easier to let the buyer haul it off under his or her arm!
‘STUFF’ MUST GO. I have a wide variety of stuff I’m thinking of selling … I no longer operate any mobile HF or VHF/UHF, and I have a couple of 1st generation IC-706s that are basically surplus (unless I move them to my current vehicle).
I also have some stuff I bought due to eBay Madness Syndrome — you know, it looked like a deal I couldn’t pass up. I have one of those Alinco HF rigs with the big display (I can never remember the nomenclature for those things … HF SVU or something?) … also have a Kenwood TS-50 and autotuner I’ve never used mobile; an assortment of VHF and dual band rigs purchased and never used … and more VX-150 handhelds than Carter has liver pills. And that’s just the start of the list.
After browsing Morse keys on eBay, I’m tempted to sell some of my collection after I saw the prices being asked for bugs that (to me) are nice but not that collectible. The rarer ones were pricey! Maybe its because I haven’t really been looking at code keys the past year or so that I’ve not followed where prices have been … or are going .
The last time I sold stuff at a hamfest, my wife was with me. While I was gone to a forum, she apparently had a fire sale — nearly everything on my table was GONE and she had an envelope full of money. When I asked her what certain things sold for, all she would admit to was that I wanted it sold, didn’t I? She accomplished that goal, just shut up and don’t ask too many questions! It was stuff I didn’t have to pack home, so despite my belief I lost money, I walked away with cash in my pocket and only a few things to pack out. Not a bad day at a hamfest overall, though I’ll be more careful about leaving her in charge of my table in the future, hi hi!
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