5 Mistakes I Made While Shopping for Vintage Radios on eBay

 

With sound advice from a couple of readers, I spent the last month acquiring vintage radios on eBay. If I had to grade my mission, I’d give myself somewhere between a D and an F. In other words, I pretty much failed. In the end, I never really did get a radio that I really wanted. One radio, a Panasonic RQ-548S, is pleasing with its strong AM/FM reception and 7-inch speaker, but the telescopic antenna arrived stripped and a very kind employee at Ace hardware spent nearly an hour jerry-rigging it back to the radio as there was no replacement screw to be found in a store that has thousands.

 

Another radio, a vintage Sony wood grain tabletop, arrived with no functioning AM. Another had a scratchy volume. Rather than go on with my jeremiad, I will give the list of 5 mistakes I made with the hopes that no one will repeat them:

 

1. I lost my original focus. The radios I sought were a Panasonic 1150, 1170, or a Sony 5500. But as I scanned all the radios on eBay, I became like a little kid at the candy store and I wanted to try them all. As a result, I got the crap no one wanted and lost the bids on the good radios that smart radio buyers watch with a keen eye.
2. Related to number 1, I didn’t know what I really wanted. Never go on a quest without having first defined your shopping goals.
3. I didn’t bid high enough on the radios I really wanted, which you need to do if you’re not around during the final minutes of the bidding at which time professional bidders do a good job of snatching up their desired radios during the final seconds.
4. I didn’t e-mail the sellers with specific questions about the radios’ conditions.
5. I didn’t consider that my lack of patience and technological know-how makes me a bad candidate for getting vintage radios in the first place. You have to be prepared to buy spare parts and do some hard grease work of renovation. Also I tend to be OCD with my gadgets and having to deal with the inevitable imperfections of an old radio discouraged me.

 

Conclusions: I think I was seduced by the romantic chimera of acquiring a vintage radio that would transcend the current lot of radios that seem rather pedestrian, especially in their look, which doesn’t have the rugged charm of a Panasonic 1150 or 1170 or Sony 5500. To add to the insult, I didn’t even get one of those 3 radios. I can only say after the fact that those are the 3 radios I truly desired.

 

Having spent $262 on 6 radios that don’t really float my boat, the lesson, once again, is that I would have been better off spending between $140-180 on one of the radios I really wanted.

 

I will take a hiatus from eBay for several months or longer and perhaps someday will get a vintage Panasonic or Sony that really want.

 

Comments

[Tom Welch]

Unless you have the knowledge and skills to fix radios yourself, I'd stay away from vintage radios.

[jeffrey McMahon]

I'm poorer and smarter. Oh well.

[Tom Welch]

I'd like to buy a mint condition Sony or Panasonic table radio (wooden).

[jeffrey McMahon]

I have 5 of them and none of them are mint.

[gerald johnson]

vintage ebaying can be quite a minefield. you can never really know the true condition or performance capabilities of a radio until you put your hands on it. ive bought 100 or so radios on ebay and my expectations have been met or exceeded way more often than not. say 10 out of 100 have been stinkers. i do, however have stringent criteria i do not waiver from when buying. i always ask the obvious, does the item function properly in all areas, type questions. but also, where the item came from, has it been stored, if so where and other pertainent inquiries depending on the item and its appearance in the photos. if a seller does not respond to any questions, i immediately delete it from my watch. and you know sometimes its just a feel i get from a radio. for instance, a 1968 portable magnavox am fm ive never seen on ebay before ( or anywhere on the net) just simply had the look of quality. i paid 9.00 bucks plus 7 shipping for it. it arrived in mint condition and performing beautifully. its in my top ten best radios now! maybe im lucky, but if i have a bad feeling about the appearance of an item or a sellers motives, i bail. if you see a guy who has thousands of transactions, he does this for a living and is motivated by moving an item and moving on. look for the guy who obviously knows a little about vintage radio and perhaps specializes in that area.other than jeff, garage sale the lemons you bought and be patient. wait until you see one that truly stikes you, qualify the seller and go for it.

[Mike W]

Sorry to hear that, Jeff. You'd get at least some of the $262 back by flipping them on eBay.

I may not be really adding anything new here, but I have a few points I try to keep in mind when browsing eBay :

(1) Know what you want rather than go searching for old radios in general.

(2) Keep your expectations realistic (not easy).

(3) Be aware of the "Greener Grass Syndrome". When I buy radio "A", I start wishing I had radio "B", but if I had bought B, I'd want A.

[herculodge]

Gerald and Mike,

You both make great points. I was on a chimera hunt and I doubt any vintage analog radio can give me more than I get from an Eton S350 DL, which suits my purposes.

In all, I look at my eBay foray as a learning experience.

[Mike W]

"Chimera Hunt" sounds like a newswoman on the Fox Network. She'd have a big hair helmet.

I'm sorry to post a contradictory comment here, but older sets do have their merits and besting the S350DL on MW is not too high a benchmark to set.

I know that I wrote earlier about my new Panasonic RF-2200 being no more sensitive, and sometimes less so, than my PR-D5. I'd still say that's true, but I have noticed that the 2200 is quieter on many MW signals, sometimes making the difference between being listenable or not. The background squeal or hiss on many radios - including my old GE Superadio, which I had a chance to do an A/B test vs. the 2200 while visiting family recently - is far less, or absent, on the 2200.

I'll still want to try a GS750 if and when it comes out.

[jeffrey McMahon]

That quiet AM effect was something that was on the back of my mind when I started the helmut headed chimera hunt. So your experience, and Gerald's, confirms this. Perhaps in several months I'll focus on one really good vintage--one that is in mint condition.

[Mike W]

Let's see if I can still post a link :
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/080405/cover0804.html

I also found the name of now-independent designer of the Satellit 800 on the web earlier today, but have lost it now. He was supposed to be working on a high-end portable for Degen called the 1108 but it never came out.

[Mike W]

Sorry, that last post belonged with the CCRadio post.

[herculodge]

Thanks for that, Mike. When I get home from work, I might provide the link on a post. It seems like a juicy radio story.