I've nearly clicked the Buy It Now button on a couple of earlier mentioned rigs — the FT-817 and the FT-100D and the Yaesu FT-450AT, but I've always decided at the last moment to wait.
Can I chalk up this phenomenon to my tremendous self control I exhibit over my ham radio hobby? Or is it simply my Nerves 'o Steel that allow me to teeter dangerously near the brink of a purchase, flirt with it, talk dirty to it, and then walk away? (Does that make me an eBay-tease?)
None of the above, bunky. It's the ever-lovin' cheapskate skinflint mentality that I inherited from my granddaddy, who never threw anything away he thought could be put to a secondary use.
—
I've been buying a few items on eBay, but no code keys. It seems my shack is starting to resemble the bridge of the USS Enterprise in the “Trouble with Tribbles” episode. I have the damn things sitting everywhere. I have 25 of them in a nice divided shelf thing that's actually a shoe rack. I plan to document each one and then perhaps — perhaps — cull some of them.
—
Speaking of eBay, last weekend a Wouff Hong replica (a centerpiece/souvenir of the 1948 ARRL National Convention) sold on eBay for $585. The base on this particular version served as an ash tray, something my kids had never seen before (“Daddy, what's an ash tray?”).
I made the mistake of telling my wife — who has been after me relentlessly to put mine for sale on eBay. In cases like this, the first item sells big and any that get listed later sell for significantly less, since there's suddenly a glut on the market. I reminded her the demand was there for one, but not necessarily for two or more. I'll keep an eye out for other listings who hope to cash in on the Wouff Hong craze.
My wife things HPM was demented to suggest that such instruments of torture were used — even in jest — to enforce Amateur Radio rules. “It's sick,” says she. Hmmmph! Women!
Gotta run .. 73 … de KY4Z … dit dit