Wednesday, September 27, 2023

An investment?

 First, the QRP Image of the Day


Brought to you by Anton Petkov Lz1XM (from Facebook) who certainly has the right idea! A cold 807 and QRP - perfect together, and can't get much better than this!

Bob W3BBO recently brought to my attention two items that he saw on eBay. The first was an unbuilt, in-the-box Heathkit HW-9. The auction ended on Monday and the winning bidder was given the opportunity to shell out $723 for a kit that originally sold for $249.

There is now a listing for a unbuilt HW-8 kit. It has a starting bid of $590 with a "Buy It Now" price of $995. Here's the description as it appears on eBay:

"Unbuilt, never unpacked, complete Heathkit HW-8 QRP Transceiver.  Ships in an outer carton for added protection of contents.  This HW-8 is unbuilt.  It must be built by following instructions in the included Heathkit assembly/instruction manual.  Tools are required for assembly, including a soldering station.  Assembly tools are not included."

This got me to thinking. If I had the money, which I definitely do not - would it be worth it to buy an Elecraft K2 kit and sock it away as an investment? Probably too late for me to see anything out of it, but maybe 20 or 30 years from now, one of my kids could probably walk away with a cool profit. 

It will be interesting to see how that HW-8 auction ends. It wouldn't surprise me to see it end up in the neighborhood of where the HW-9 auction ended. Not bad for a kit that only cost about $250 back in the day.     

Anyway, it's something to think about.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4:53 PM

    Looks like bad investment since inflation on $249 in 1984 is now $735.

    ReplyDelete