Vintage gear prices today

[blhagstrom]

Sounds like what my buddies who were stockpiling 70s Minolta, Pentax, Canon, Miranda and Topcon cameras were saying. Their prediction didn't come to pass.

Yet,

I too stock piled 35mm SLRs.

When "photography" as is "audiophile" becomes more of an interest, film cameras may make a come back.

Today, with the fancy digital SLRs any "picture taker" can do photos and modify to their heart content to make a photograph.
But the true art and skill in photography was in doing it with film, a knowledge of lighting and composition and content.
When each frame of film was a one shot deal, you developed a true skill and an eye.
Digital? HA. Snap thousands of pictures and IF you get something interesting, crop and modify away and erase everything else.
The camera does all the focus and exposure settings.
WHERE is the skill and art in THAT?

Artists and (real) photographers may stay with or return to film IF film remains available.

Much like streaming music, digital photos is all about ease of use.
Buying, loading, exposing, developing and printing film is just SO much work.
Receivers, turntables, CDP, speakers, wires, shelves, boxes of LPs and CDs.
Find, unwrapping, placing (LP/CD) on player, turning it all on, selecting source, adjusting levels, flipping LP, removing, wrapping, storing it away. Jeez! How can you expect anyone to do that when I can just shove plastic buttons in my ears and fiddle with the pocket gizmo and have music in my head as I travel around in my self centered world?

I can't believe anyone wants that old stereo junk.
SO much hassle.

 

[Oerets]

Just last Saturday at the Parts Express event a van crammed full of vintage gear was loaded into a Van. Final destination of Cambodia IIRC the country. So with the loss of high end prime and desirable not interested modern the low fi gear. One must feel this will effect supply and prices.
Auction sites and smart phones have driven up local prices, eliminating a good majority of the deals of the past. See sellers looking up on ebay at yard sales the same at thrifts. Most of the time it is not sold prices either!
Agree the increasing age of the ones who enjoy will cause a narrowing filtering of the market. With the TOTL gear and major well know brands being the stronger and desirable. The only downside will be in the service required and spare parts. Both weak areas with the younger crowd as a rule. In general they need watch Utube to use a hammer correctly and don't keep anything around for later.

 

[Balifly]

Are the Asian people still buying up western vintage or has that been hyped? If they are, I would expect prices to remain strong for vintage and some spinoff towards high quality new gear mfg's as well

Most of the Asian people are buying up the made in Japan vintage gears, Pioneer, Akai, Luxman, Sansui, JVC, Sony, Micro Seki, Kenwood, Nakamichi, Yamaha and other high end makes.

Some US made MacIntosh and Marantz are still sought after.

 

[Freds.Bands]

It's like the Heisenberg Principle - the closer we look at it, the more the prices change unpredictably.

 

[sqlsavior]

I read somewhere here on AK that prices for antique radios collapsed as collectors "aged out of the market"....

 

[twiiii]

I had the opportunity to buy Mac tube amps on the cheap working for a Mcintosh dealer. I wonder how much 10 MC 275's in original boxes would be worth. Maybe lightly used dozen of MC 3500's. We were a Marantz dealer, too off and on. 10 model 9's with 5 7C's would be highly desirable I would think. How about un assembled Mcintosh MC30 Kits? Thorens TD 124's demand a pretty premium, though I don't understand why. Only the JBL paragon seems to outpaced inflation in the loudspeaker category. Not to many folks have the space for Harts fields Harkness, Concert Grands, and Patricians. I wouldn't mind having 6 ML-4c's to stack three high with a new pair of Mac 611 amps. But I'd prefer a pair of XR290's. A Technics SP10 mk III would have been a pretty good investment. I still think Shure should have kept making an updated version of the V-15 MK V MR. I didn't like SPU's or SPE's back in the 60's and can't under stand the interest they draw from Audio-philes today. If I had the money I would love a restored MR-70-4 and a ATR 104, with a set of interchangeable two track heads. It night be fun to have a big Studer, too. I'd want 2000 or so 10 " rolls of 1/2 tape and twice as many 1/4 inch. I still have my Mics, but the mixers need to be restored. Finding professional DBX noise reduction pieces would be a chore, too.

 

[chef free]

I'm a member of many "vintage audio" groups on the interwebz and I see more and more horde-like "collections", rooms filled with stereo gear, stacked to the ceilings,unused. ("Collectors", Sheesh!) When these guys start to die off, all that gear will flood the market, a market which, by that time, will be shrinking as the generation that revered this gear dies.

Remember what happened to the tube radio market?

 

[willyrover]

The next big increase will be when most of the remaining working units suffer a mass age related capacitor die off with limited service available.

How long do you think we have before through hole capacitors (and other through hole components) are no longer manufactured?

 

[quiet]

Sounds like what my buddies who were stockpiling 70s Minolta, Pentax, Canon, Miranda and Topcon cameras were saying. Their prediction didn't come to pass.

Apples and oranges. I don't need to pay for film for my digital camera and I don't need to pay for developing the film. Old cameras cost more to use and you need to know how to use them. Completely different tech advancement that served up a big cost and ease of use success with a mostly acceptable result.
Old stereos cost the same to operate and use as new ones. And to operate both you plug it in and turn it on. No skills needed.

 

[quiet]

I read somewhere here on AK that prices for antique radios collapsed as collectors "aged out of the market"....

They didn't provide a service in demand, stereo.

 

[quiet]

I'm a member of many "vintage audio" groups on the interwebz and I see more and more horde-like "collections", rooms filled with stereo gear, stacked to the ceilings,unused. ("Collectors", Sheesh!) When these guys start to die off, all that gear will flood the market, a market which, by that time, will be shrinking as the generation that revered this gear dies.

Remember what happened to the tube radio market?

The stereos are dying faster then the old collectors.
And the tube stereo market is alive and well.

 

[quiet]

How long do you think we have before through hole capacitors (and other through hole components) are no longer manufactured?

Don't know but the working units left will be more in demand as a result.

 

[bluesky]

Even vintage speaker prices are going way up the last year or so.

 

[Bodyblue]

Even vintage speaker prices are going way up the last year or so.

Around my area, vintage speakers sales and prices are dropping fast. I have sold a lot of speakers to a little indie record and equipment shop in downtown Sacramento called Delta Breeze records over the last few years.......but a few months ago he quit buying because he had so much inventory. Only the very unusual or top of the line stuff is selling. Last year he kept calling me if I had anything like mid line Pioneers or Sansuis or Rectilinears etc because he turned them fast. I finally found a set of Rectinlear Mini 3s last month and said he could not sell them. And the stuff he did offer to buy he could not even offer my cost. I know he usually takes, for instance, a set he pays me $75 for and prices at $150. I know this going in so that is what I am mindful of when I buy to flip.......but this last year, prices and demand have dropped so low I just quit buying at all. I still buy to keep and I have a few stashed away for when the market goes back up but I have even quit looking much. I notice that even newer speakers seem to sit on CL and Facebook for a loooooong time when they used to get snapped up like crazy. He is selling turntables pretty well along with receivers etc but it is so weird that the speaker market is so soft around here.

 

[willyrover]

Old stereos cost the same to operate and use as new ones. And to operate both you plug it in and turn it on. No skills needed.

Well...that's debatable.

 

[willyrover]

When each frame of film was a one shot deal, you developed a true skill and an eye.
Digital? HA. Snap thousands of pictures and IF you get something interesting, crop and modify away and erase everything else.
The camera does all the focus and exposure settings.
WHERE is the skill and art in THAT?

That's also debatable.

The technical aspects of photography have changed. That's for sure. Even set to full automatic, digital cameras can produces some "technically" nice pictures. But many of the artistic aspects of photography haven't changed. The darkroom has been replaced by software - but a great camera and a fast computer does not a great photographer make.

 

[quiet]

Well...that's debatable.

Right. You still need to be able to plug it in and turn it on. And maybe read.
Some skill is needed.

 

[mid70s]

I read somewhere here on AK that prices for antique radios collapsed as collectors "aged out of the market"....

Like Model T's.....

 

[corbin]

FWIW, I've had trouble selling my G-9000 locally here in Houston. Just not many interested parties.

 

[DaveVoorhis]

When "photography" as is "audiophile" becomes more of an interest, film cameras may make a come back.

Unlikely, except as a niche quirky plaything. I don't know any serious amateur or pro photographer who sees any value in bringing back expensive film, film developing, and a darkroom full of noxious chemicals and (in the face of digital) pointless enlarging and processing effort, plus lost shots because you've run out of film or the film's not advancing, slow repeat shots, etc.

In short, there is nothing that film (at least, 35mm equivalent) does better than modern digital if you're genuinely interested in photography.