Report from Gloucester VA Hamfest

[Scott Dorsey]

The Gloucester hamfest has always been very small and seldom brought in
people from outside the immediate area, but with the seeming demise of the
Richmond Frostfest and the Virginia Beach Hamfest they are the only game
left in the area and they have been expanding dramatically.

This year they had 44 tables sold, most of them indoors, and a very wide
variety of equipment on display and what kind of shocked me was that
prices on old boatanchors are dropping dramatically. Lots of Heathkit
stuff at giveaway prices, a Tek 545 with "make an offer" and another
guy selling the 10 MHz-1GHz spectrum analyzer plugin for the 545 for $50.

In terms of newer stuff, a Datron/Transworld set was up at $600 and might
have sold for less. $50 for Heathkit Dip Meters. Central Electronics and
Globe Kings at prices low enough to make me shudder. SX-28 in running
condition but a little rough for $100.

I was really impressed at the tiny neighborhood hamfest getting bigger and
at the sheer volume of boatanchor stuff and the low prices asked.

Only one electronics parts vendor, no telephone guys, no sellers of new
coax, no tube specialists, but lots of interesting old junk.
--scott

[Bryan]

Post by Scott Dorsey
I was really impressed at the tiny neighborhood hamfest getting bigger and
at the sheer volume of boatanchor stuff and the low prices asked.

I've seen the same thing - prices on older stuff were just in the dirt
last year.

Your post reminds me, I need to link to the last hamfest I attended.
It's a tiny little show, but still had some good stuff.

[bill]

Post by Scott Dorsey
This year they had 44 tables sold, most of them indoors, and a very wide
variety of equipment on display and what kind of shocked me was that
prices on old boatanchors are dropping dramatically. Lots of Heathkit
stuff at giveaway prices,

Tell that to eBay. I still need a VFO for my DX-60 and when
they show up the prices are usually ridiculous. But then, so
it is for everything else old. I just went looking for an old
Knight kit Signal Generator. Prices are usually at least 10
times the original price for something that may or may not work
and at the very least will need a complete upgrade of all the
capacitors, especially electrolytic.

bill

[Scott Dorsey]

Post by bill

Post by Scott Dorsey
This year they had 44 tables sold, most of them indoors, and a very wide
variety of equipment on display and what kind of shocked me was that
prices on old boatanchors are dropping dramatically. Lots of Heathkit
stuff at giveaway prices,

Tell that to eBay. I still need a VFO for my DX-60 and when
they show up the prices are usually ridiculous. But then, so
it is for everything else old. I just went looking for an old
Knight kit Signal Generator. Prices are usually at least 10
times the original price for something that may or may not work
and at the very least will need a complete upgrade of all the
capacitors, especially electrolytic.

Ebay prices are insane. As Wayne the RCA guy told me twenty years ago
at a hamfest, "Ebay is not for buying things, Ebay is only for selling
things."

This is why we go to hamfests.
--scott

[bill]

Post by Scott Dorsey

Post by bill

Post by Scott Dorsey
This year they had 44 tables sold, most of them indoors, and a very wide
variety of equipment on display and what kind of shocked me was that
prices on old boatanchors are dropping dramatically. Lots of Heathkit
stuff at giveaway prices,

Tell that to eBay. I still need a VFO for my DX-60 and when
they show up the prices are usually ridiculous. But then, so
it is for everything else old. I just went looking for an old
Knight kit Signal Generator. Prices are usually at least 10
times the original price for something that may or may not work
and at the very least will need a complete upgrade of all the
capacitors, especially electrolytic.

Ebay prices are insane. As Wayne the RCA guy told me twenty years ago
at a hamfest, "Ebay is not for buying things, Ebay is only for selling
things."
This is why we go to hamfests.
--scott

Where I live there isn't even a repeater (well, except for the
10 meter repeater I am hearing lately but can't reach) much less
hamfests.

bill
KB3YV

[Bryan]

Tell that to eBay.  I still need a VFO for my DX-60 and when

eBay is completely nuts right now, and probably will always be. People
see "Tubes!" and it's old, so it must be valuable and useful. No, it's a
Heathkit 10-0 missing it's graticule and it looks like it's been dropped
- you're not getting $200 out of that.

The AI descriptions are even more fun. Take Leader equipment, for
example. Leader exited the hobby/prosumer test market years ago and
entered the digital television market. You see people with devices where
they used AI to write the description, and of course it grabs the modern
stuff. Some old AF generator doesn't do anything with ATSC like your
description says it does. If you had no morals, you could get a lot of
free stuff by filing a SNAD with those badly described pieces of equipment.

Anything with an eye tube is just out of the question. I wonder if this
stuff really sells. That $2 Knight signal tracer I got at Shade last
year goes for $150 on eBay, and I would be ashamed to sell you some of
that stuff (kit built) for that price.

[bill]

Post by Bryan
That $2 Knight signal tracer I got at Shade last
year goes for $150 on eBay, and I would be ashamed to sell you some of
that stuff (kit built) for that price.

Yeah, I would like one of them, too, but not at what their
asking. I still have a Winter 19656 Allied Sale Catalog and
know what this stuff sold for brand new. Today, at the very
least any of this stuff will need to be refurbished. I have
a Knight Kit Star Roamer that I just bought a new electrolytic
for and am seriously considering buying all of the resistors
and capacitors brand new and rebuilding the whole thing from
scratch. Add new tubes and it could be a great radio again.

bill
KB3YV