I Wasn't Away That Long, What's WIth The Price Hikes On All My Old Toys?

[dirkwright]

I've been buying "vintage" audio equipment on epay for over a decade and was able to buy some great gear cheap in the first few years. I remember passing up a Western Electric portable amp used as a replacement in the case of failure of the main amp because $400 seemed like a lot of money. Anyway, the price of vintage audio has easily doubled in the last 5 years and some of what I see people pay for decrepit derelicts is astonishing. We have to remember that we are competing for items in a global market place when bidding on epay and that exchange rates between currencies can make the prices expensive for some and cheap for others with strong currencies. I think this contributes to the high prices. I have to wonder how long these strong prices last and if this is a good time to unload all the piles of gear and tubes I have acquired over the years.

When I was first into this hobby over 20 years ago, I met Joe Roberts and was reading his "Sound Practices" magazine. He talked about how the Japanese came to this country and hoovered up all the WE equipment they could find. I imagine there are little shrines in homes all across Japan with this or that piece of WE gear in them. So, this has been going on a long time.

I used to go to Ham Fests a lot to pick up gear and parts cheap. I found some good deals back then of course, but I doubt there'd be anything good now.

 

[dirkwright]

back when I first got into tube gear - it was 1989. No one wanted this junk except for a very small clique of freaks. I got my first Dynaco 70 - with a separate Lambda regulator to power the front end - for $100. I bought my girlfriend a Scottt integrated for $90. My friend was running all Mac gear - stuff that he bought for just a few hundred dollars - like the McIntosh 240, a pair of 60s, 30s, etc etc. Another guy stripped down an entire C-22 to build his own preamplifier in it. I got to see and hear many of the classic Western Electric amplifiers.

And the tubes! I saw boxes and boxes of original Gold Lion, Telefunken, Amperex, Mullard, RCA, etc audio tubes.

Back then, little did I know how the popularity of vintage gear and the tubes themselves would take off. Of course I was a poor college kid back then and could barely afford the Dynaco 70!

I had a bunch of Dynaco, Scott and Fisher gear back then. I worked on McIntosh gear for friends. I designed my own bass horns and bought some midranges from Bruce Edgar (still have them if anyone wants them). I had a lab full of vintage test gear from HP and Genrad. I loved that Genrad stuff. I had a friend who worked there. I got more interested in the lab gear eventually, before I moved to a small house and didn't have room for a lab any more. I used to have boxes of tubes and parts all over the place.

I remember when Antique Electronics was a little outfit in some obscure Arizona town and there was a couple of crazy antique electronics dealers in Ohio and Chicago.

 

[analog_sa]

Guys, please, I'm begging you. Please tell me what calamity transpired in the 2-3 years that I was away from audio gear that cause prices to explode and everyone else collectively losing their spit?

QE1, 2, 3.

Too much cheap money chasing around too few goods. And higher end or specialised audio is becoming a good investment vehicle. Millions of nouveau riche from Bangalore to Bulawayo. World's riches quietly moving away to new territories.

 

[Ogien]

Well, on the plus side I just bought a Lafayette 4 Track Reel To Reel with a nicely working tube integrated amp inside of it. Amp works nice and the Reel to Reel will work if I clean the clutches. In any case, I bought it for $20 so I figured it was a safe bet even if I just play around with it some. Not a bad sounding little stereo amp in it though.