Got a question for all the Veterans here...

[howie1976]

So at some point in time I think we have all wished we could go back to the 80's and buy as many boomboxes as possible. But since that's impossible, I think the next thing we all wish is that if we just started collecting a few years before we did, we would have acquired better boxes at better deals.

Since I've only been at this for 5 short months, could you all give me a glimpse of what this hobbie was like 3, 5 or even 10 years ago? Were these boxes as difficult to find as they are today? What were prices like? Were M-90's, c-100's, J-1's and Wheelys, selling for over a grand? What's the most expensive box you've seen sold? I know that the cost of these boxes is tied to the economy in general, so what where prices like during the Great Recession went through a few years ago?

It seems to me that as time goes by and more 30 and 40 something's get into this hobby, that's just going to make these boomboxes more scarce and push the prices up. But what does the future hold for our hobby? In the future are we going to routinely see the aforementioned boxes sell on average for 2k...3k and beyond?

I know it's all speculation but if love to hear everyone's thoughts.

 

[Superduper]

I personally think that prices have come down a bit but depending upon which models you collect, you might feel that prices have gone up. The price change is not across the board.

I have personally sold a couple of M90's, one for $2650 and another for $4400. I think I sold an M70 for around $750 or so. However most M90 examples were selling for between $600 - $1000 a few years ago.

As for going back to the '80's to buy new boomboxes, let's face it -- they were new and less expensive but you didn't earn nearly as much either and was younger (meaning generally poorer). So even if we could go back, affordability would be no better although admittedly boxes would be either new, or in better shape. However, back in the '80's there was no eBay either and who ever heard of buying a boomboxes through the local newspaper classifieds?

 

[howie1976]

I personally think that prices have come down a bit but depending upon which models you collect, you might feel that prices have gone up. The price change is not across the board.

I have personally sold a couple of M90's, one for $2650 and another for $4400. I think I sold an M70 for around $750 or so. However most M90 examples were selling for between $600 - $1000 a few years ago.

As for going back to the '80's to buy new boomboxes, let's face it -- they were new and less expensive but you didn't earn nearly as much either and was younger (meaning generally poorer). So even if we could go back, affordability would be no better although admittedly boxes would be either new, or in better shape. However, back in the '80's there was no eBay either and who ever heard of buying a boomboxes through the local newspaper classifieds?

Wow! $4,400. What made that m-90 so valuable? And where did you initially acquire it from?

 

[superlew]

I've been at it for 3 years, so I'm relatively "new" compared to some of the more established members. I've noticed this since 2012:

"Wild" finds are extremely rare here in the States, now that re-sellers have wised up to values. I had no idea there was even a collector's community when I got my first box - a C-100, at that! I was shocked at what they were selling for and figured this hobby was a little rich for my blood, considering my income level. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that fellow collectors were extremely helpful in acquiring the units desired (with a little time and patience, of course).
My last thrift find was a Panny RX-CW43 for $3.99, back in July 2012. Now I see them on eBay for $70-$100.
But I believe (I'm convinced) the reason you won't see them in the thrifts anymore is because they have also wised up to the values and desirability - so straight to the "Bay" they go.
On the other hand, I've found that prices have come down across the board a bit in the last 3 years, so that's promising for a collector like myself that doesn't have a "bottomless" pit of cash to draw from.

The $4,400 M90 was a pretty special sale. I believe there's a thread about it somewhere here. Norm can give more info about that.

Edit: I really should have used the term "in general," as opposed to "across the board."

 

[static2000g]

Nice post Howie- I have thought about of the same things as you have

 

[blu_fuz]

It has been a roller coaster.

 

[JustCruisin]

Epay wasnt as popular 10 years ago as it is today, which meant less competing bidders and lower prices..

 

[Reli]

The problem is that the recession in 08-09 caused many people to treat Ebay as a living. Mostly guys who got laid off and were just a few years from retirement. They cruise all the estate sales and grab all the good stuff first. Who do you think is listing all those eggs for $199? That's who.

Back in the early 00's, there were still a lot of ignorant people who didn't use the internet at all. Now everyone does, so they can easily learn what this stuff is worth. All they have to do is search "Completed Listings", and they can see that an M90 sold for $2,000, so they figure every boombox must be worth something. So they go grab as many as they can, as soon as the estate sale or flea market opens.

Plus it took awhile for Ebay to become accepted. For the first few years, lots of people didn't trust it, or were too lazy to figure out how it works. So they gave their stuff to 3rd party companies who listed it for a fee, taking 40-50% of the profits. Ridiculous. But now, most people do it themselves, because they've finally realized it isn't that difficult.

 

[toshik]

I've been on ebay for over 12 years.
Right now there are a few groups of sellers there:
Chinese vendors selling the cheap stuff almost at cost. Some of them claim they are located in the States in reality most stuff ships from otherseas.
Another large group is "estate buyers" I'd imagine garbage pickers and flea market dealers are among them as well.
Also some online companies got a deal with ebay (Pyramidair for example) for exclusive selling proveleges.
Plus regular people like us treating ebay as WWW garage sale selling unwanted extras

In the past you could pay seller with anything you want and both sellers and buyers had equal rights. Alone with low comissions.
Right now they force you into using ebay-owned PayPal and limited sellers rights.

Bottom line - you'd have all the rights as a buyer and quite limited rights as a seller.

Keep in mind that if you'd sell the item you'd give 3.9%(!) to PayPal for their fees and up to 10-20%(!) to ebay.
So you might lose from 14% up to 25% of your final value!!!

 

[Mystic Traveller]

Very interesting topic - covers a lot of stuff.

 

[hemiguy2006]

Been in the hobby for right around 9 years now.
Not really purchasing the past few years but still watch eBay on the regular.
Prices on the big grails have not changed much although they have fluctuated
Slightly here and there. As far back as I can remember there has always been complaints
About the high prices boxes fetch on eBay and the bidding wars that ensue.
The major difference I have seen nowadays is the smaller to mid sized box prices have
Increased tremendously. It is getting harder and harder for an Internet shopper to find
a good deal nowadays.
If I was my age now back in the 80s I would have snagged me like two of each of the big ones for sure.

 

[howie1976]

Thanks everyone for contributing your insight to my questions. I'm surprised to see that for the higher end boxes, prices have seemed to have stayed the same or slightly dropped in some's opinion.

And yeah, I agree that the union of eBay and PayPal really has all of us by the gonads! 😳

And I also agree that the accessibility of the internet gives anyone instant pricing comparables. But in my hunting excursions at thrift shops, I have found that the thrift shop owners aren't really interested in getting absolute top dollar for their items. They have way too many items to post many of them on eBay. They don't want to deal with the fees and the shipping. They'd rather sell the items for a good profit in store and build positive relationships with their customers. I know we are all looking for that m-90 for under $20 at a thrift shop or yard sale but the reality is that we would all be ecstatic if we bought one in good condition for around $200 or $300 at one of these places. The sellers would make a few bucks and we would get a Grail for a great price!

 

[Reli]

Actually, the smart thrift stores hire a kid to post all their stuff on Ebay. They would get a TON more money that way. Remember, Ebay's commission is only 10%, plus Paypal's 3%, so a total of only 13%. The advantage of Ebay is that more people see it. Even if he has a mint-condition M90 sitting on his shelf, it's going to take a long time before a boombox collector finds it, unless his shop is very popular, and most aren't. And even if a collector finds it, is the store really going to ask for $2,000? No, because he knows it would sit on his shelf forever before finding someone willing to pay that much. That's why he should list it on Ebay, where he could get that $2,000 after only 1 week.

 

[toshik]

Remember, Ebay's commission is only 10%, plus Paypal's 3%, so a total of only 13%.

I guess we live on a different planets PP charges everyone 3.9% plus ebay another 10-15% as noted above.
I agree that they have great exposure for sellers.

 

[Reli]

Ebay commission is 10% of the total (item + shipping). So, if the item sold for $200 and shipping was $40, the commission is $24, which I guess you could call 12%. Either way, I don't worry about it, since my item will sell for two or three times as much as I'd get on Craigslist or even Boomboxery.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Norm sold an M90 for charity with the manual and all close to $5000. That is what I remember. It was right out of the box condition!

 

[Gluecifer]

I've been collecting since late 2007 (hmm doesn't seem that long!) and I've noticed a lot of changes in the amount of found in the wild radios, here in .au as well as what's been noted in other countries, and pricing changes too.

I'd tried to collect boomboxes numerous times through the 90s and never found any, but when I came across s2go that all changed. The fact that I did a tonne of research on the forum over numerous months and then decided I wanted a GF-777 as my first (haha, and only one I needed, I idiotically said!) and I literally went out hunting for boomboxes at second hand places and junk joints that day and I got one. It was all incredibly lucky timing on my behalf (or good blasterkarma; if you believe) but I think that period til about 2010 was the end of the widespread 'grail finds in the wild'. I think that internet/popular culture has educated people more about the perceived value of things and the ebay-mentality seems to convince everyone all the junk in their house is worth thousands.

This kind of progression was always bound to happen and I doubt there's any collecting hobby that hasn't been disaffected by eBay and a general increase in prices. However, one thing that has changed a LOT over the last five years or so, in direct relationship to this, is that some radios once deemed incredibly rare and valuable have now come out of the woodwork and changed value too. There's a lot of rarity based on geographical location alone, as lots of radios people want in their collections were apparently distributed more heavily in some countries than others, and we've really only started finding this out in the last few years. It is definitely something we're still learning too as more copies of certain models pop up (the BomBeat40's in South America is a good example of this).

Another thing related to the above is that I think there's been a depreciation in value of a lot of lesser-wanted boomboxes. Not necessarily grails but still good, well designed boomboxes. On Australian eBay a lot of these would sell for $150-180 five years ago, but now are lucky to get $100. I think people are educating themselves more about the value/status of boomboxes and unless it has pop culture cache it goes cheap.

I'm near the end of my boombox collecting journey, as far as personal grails I have to have, with only about seven or so left for me to be content. There's a lot of other radios I'm after, in due course, too, but I'll be far more patient to get them. I'm very, very happy that I started collecting when I did because if I had to start now I'd be looking at paying 1/3 to half more than I paid for nearly every radio I've imported due to the increases in shipping to my country in recent times (and the depreciation of the .au dollar).



Rock On.

 

[im_alan_partridge]

I think here in the UK prices for the "grail" boxes have increased in the 5 years ive been collecting, most the low to medium stuff still seems about the same.
I do sometimes wander though what it will be like when all of us who were kids in the 80's no longer collect are too frail to lift these boxes. I honestly think in another 10 years or so prices will drop like a stone.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

I think here in the UK prices for the "grail" boxes have increased in the 5 years ive been collecting, most the low to medium stuff still seems about the same.
I do sometimes wander though what it will be like when all of us who were kids in the 80's no longer collect are too frail to lift these boxes. I honestly think in another 10 years or so prices will drop like a stone.

I totally agree with you. It has been mentioned in the past that the prices of Victrola's (early hand cranked, megaphone record players) have really dropped because the demographic of the collectors are fading away as will happen with these radio's and the kids of the 80's.

Around 2006-2007 I bought a car from a woman who was a professional eBay'r and she told me all things 1980's were hot hot hot!

If you really want to look ahead, find the toys that the kids in the 90's loved and start collecting, because when they hit 40+ they will start wanting their childhood toys.

In the end, if you think your going to hang onto these till your 65 and then sell them as part of your retirement, I have some bad news for you. If that's your plan, sell everything you have right now and put it in a money marketing account.

I love my wall of blasters, just because I like having these "Things", not for future resale.

How ever, if you see my collection go up for sale, means I'm buying a BOAT! (joking, we don't have water in California for boats! )

 

[howie1976]

Interesting that many of you are predicting that the prices of our beloved blasters are going to drop in the next 20 years or so. The reasons you all have pointed out make sense. So I guess that means that the time to sell would be in the next 10 years.