At 20:39 12-03-2000 -0800, John Lawson dared me to... Ok, I dare. ;-) The Puyallup swap this year was quite crowded compared with last year. I managed to sell a bunch of stuff that I didn't think I would, and some stuff that I thought would sell (almost) didn't. For the record, I sold all the Exabyte drives (the 8500's are holding here for checks from the purchasers -- thanks, guys!) and the small UPS I had. I don't think any of the buyers (with three exceptions) were classiccmp'ers, but all business was appreciated. There were equal amounts of joy and irritation with this year's event. On the 'joy' side was, certainly, good sales. Add to that my finding of not one, but TWO Amp 'Butterfly' tools (if you don't know what one is, you'll have trouble appreciating it), plus some spare batteries for the pair of radios I use for SwapComm and a nice mid-80's vintage Amprobe clamp-on AC meter, and I think I did pretty well. On the irritation side. One fellow showed up with a beautiful mil-spec HF receiver. Those of you familiar with the radio side of things will likely recognize the designation of R-2174(P)/URR, a.k.a. the Racal 6790. It was in great shape, came with its manual and power cord, and had a sticker price of $1,275. Those of you who know this receiver will know immediately that this is a bit exorbitant. In prime shape, they're worth about a grand, and that's what I offered the fellow for it (knowing full well that I'd be going into debt for six months to pay it off!). He insisted on waiting until the end of the day. However, at day's end, I came back to find him wrapping it up. Upon asking what was up, he told me (rather brusquely) that someone had paid him $2,000 in CASH for it. Initially, I was stunned. Not only was that over twice what the unit was worth, but it astounded me that ANYone would be (a) walking around with two grand in cash in their pocket, and (b) would use it to buy a mid-80's HF receiver, however nice. I walked away from that one fuming. In retrospect, and after talking to a friend of mine, it is now my firm belief that the owner was lying through his teeth in an effort to cover the fact that no one had been willing to pay his outrageous sticker price. Here's why I think this. 1). He was wrapping the receiver up as if to ship it. If someone was crazy enough to pay $2K for that unit, said buyer would have taken it with them ON THE SPOT. 2). The seller's attitude throughout the day was loud, obnoxious, and forceful on trying to sell things. Too forceful, in fact. He wouldn't dicker beyond a certain point, and he seemed borderline arrogant in every dealing he had with those around him. From what I could tell, he sold very little that day. 3). His body language, as he was wrapping up the receiver, was most definitely NOT that of someone who'd just closed a two-grand sale. It was more along the lines of "I'm taking my ball and going HOME! To blazes with this whole mess!!" Anyway, that's about it. I deposited more back into the bank than I took out to cover my purchases, so I think I did pretty well. Eric Smith came by on Sunday to pick up the DSD-880's I had for him, plus some other goodies, and it was he who bought my last Exabyte drive. Eric, if you're reading this, thanks again and enjoy! Guess I'll just have to do it again next year. Heck, I might rent a table just to get in early. Let's hope that, if someone has a similar receiver next year, they'll be more serious about selling it at a reasonable price. Caveat (burp) Emperor! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."