An Ebay Adventure - Buying Something Electronic that Actually Became More Valuable

I spend a good bit of my spare money on electronics. Typically I buy things that lose between 5-50% of their value each year. For instance, until recently when the devaluation rate has slowed down, computers typically would lose 30-50% of their value per year. Other electronic devices that I own tend to break, quite often fatally. Currently the record-holder in life expectancy is my hot-air popcorn machine which I've had for 14 years. You have to know how to tilt it if you overload it, but otherwise it works fine.

So electronics are full of disappointment and guilt, because I don't like the idea that I'm destroying or rendering obsolete things that used to be state-of-the-art.

Thus I'm pleased to note that I actually own one electronic device that has gained in value! About five years ago, I bought a Yamaha T-85 FM tuner for around $125. Today it sells for twice that amount on Ebay (probably spurned by rave reviews on fmtunerinfo.com, and because modern FM tuners aren't as good - the mid-80s was the peak period for quality tuners)! It is the state of the art tuner from the mid-80s. It originally sold for $450-$500. It's possibly in even better shape than when I bought it, because it is mechanically solid and I replaced the FM filters with a couple narrower ones to enhance selectivity (it was pretty easy to modify, the PC board is laid out very clearly - none of those tiny electronic components that you see now of days).

The tuner does not overload. I live in West Philadelphia, in an urban environment with a lot of FM stations, but the tuner does not have any images or signs of overload (using a 5 element Radio Shack FM Yagi, inside, in my third floor bedroom). It can get stations almost every 0.2 mhz, with the exception of the channels next to the one or two strongest stations on the dial (WMMR, 93.3 is very strong). It tunes in 0.01 mhz increments, has four bandwidths, a nice signal strength meter, and 20 memories. The only downside is that it lacks a direct frequency input, and that the tuning system is slow and quirky. This is slightly annoying when during the summer I try to listen to FM E-Skip (stations from approximately 600-1500 miles away) and the stations can fade in and out very quickly.

It has AM too, but the AM is a piece of junk.

You could compare the FM tuner's fate with my main shortwave receiver - the Drake R8. The Drake R8 is one of the best shortwave radios made for the high-end consumer market. It cost me about $960 fifteen years ago. Now it sells on Ebay for $450, despite the fact that it rates about as good as the best new receivers that sell for $1300. For some reason, people think the new radios are better (like the new Drake R8a and R8b, which have substantial ergonomic improvements, but from what I've read, don't rate substantially better than the original R8).

So far I've destroyed three shortwave radios - my original Sangean 803A (which did tremendous duty, and a LOT of travelling before breaking), a Grundig Yacht-Boy 400 (I broke the telescope antenna listening to FM dx, and it went downhill after that), and most recently a Sangean 909 (Which committed suicide with some kind of internal software bug! I reset it, and the light and test mode works fine, but it refuses to turn on. Weird because the hardware is in fine shape.)