Kutztown update!
 

The show is up and running full steam! Full disclosure...I am a VP of the DVHRC sponsoring club. I hope to be honest about our show with this report and used this category for ease of browsing. Please move if needed.

We had some vendors arriving Thursday night and in mass on Friday. The canopy was almost at 75%. The overflow had another 15 vendors and Saturday is yet to come.

The early crop of radios is fantastic. Very good items available. I am watching a battery Freshman Masterpiece that has my name on it. Lots of battery and plastic and all inbetween. Consoles everywhere. Much good hi-fi around. I helped show a vendor with a Luxman receiver how to operate it. He got it for $35. Much more than I paid for mine. He hooked it up to his speaks and played his vinyl of Inna-Ga-Da-Vida for me. You have to be here to understand!

The TV crop is a bit thin this fall. They seem to be a second thought on what to bring this edition. An 8TS30 went. A 621TS from a vendor is still available. $$$. A shoulder-type Moto is still around. A slope-front Airline is waiting for an owner. How about a RCA neon sign? No color in sight. I did get a Sony TV-906 B&W that looks new. Watching the news now on it. DC restoration is not good on this set.

Tons of fun stuff. I got a NIB set of walkies from the 60's for $12. 9V batteries and the walkies still wrapped. And a Bluebird reproduction in green glass for cheap. A real Bluebird is around for $2500. Just some fun stuff to fill the spaces between the great stuff. My personal collecting tends to be very low or very high.

The vendor prices for good items seem high to me for now given the economy. Stay tuned for Saturday sale and auction details.

Our changes to our auction seem to be well received so far. I did get a indication that vendors are willing to send good pieces to our auction to get rid of them. The economy?

I will give an update on the trends in the auction and invite our auction sellers to comment on our changes online. And some photos. I forgot the camera today!

Dave A

I was there today. If you have some serious cash, there are plenty of great console radios to choose from. I also spotted a great set of Bozaks as well. My personal favorite was an early RCA superhet in what looks like a converted Victrola cabinet. The hot thing most dealers seem to be looking for are hi-fi tube setups.

I was really looking for a 10" b&w set to work on, and while there were a few at the show, none were really in great shape. I thought I found my dream set for what was a slightly high, but still reasonable price. But as I was pulling my money out, I spotted a toasted flyback, which had the seller change his story from "this is in great shape" to "oh, I'm selling this for a friend" to finally "well, it's really being sold so you can put a new tv into the cabinet." I found an okay metal tabletop that the seller quoted $450 dollars for, so I left the show empty-handed this year.

On the way home, I stopped by a tiny thrift shop and found some CED discs in good shape, so that lessened the sting of having a full wallet a bit.

I was there this morning (Sat.), lots and lots of interesting stuff, but only needed a few parts so bought them.

Reece

Had a ton of fun there today. Got to talk radio and TV with everyone. PERFECT weather. And best of all, I DIDN'T come home with any more TVs! (The van was already full with last week's finds :)) Some day I'm going to get there on Friday for the radio bonfire. Thanks to Dave and all the folks at DVHRC for another great Kutztown show.

It sure was tempting-one day, maybe next spring, I'll ride up. Some of my stuff was there, though! I sold a bunch of cheap radios, test equipment, etc, to a local guy who was setting up. I really hope he did well with it.

It would have upset me to learn that the place was loaded with cheap tube color! I did halfway consider getting up early today and driving up but by the time I got there it would have been getting pretty late.

Sunday update
 

Thanks for all the comments on our show. Saturday was a bit down in attendance but not vendors. We suspect the holiday and school being back in session. A happy new year from the DVHRC!

Friday was a major day of buying and selling. And a few showing up on Thursday for setup and camping for Friday. And the steak dinner was a hit again.

On Saturday I did find a Freshman Majestic battery set in the overflow section that finally called my name. I hope someone can help me with the model number! I borrowed a pic from ARF to show it as it is still in my car. Let me know. I have it's twin in the horizontal cabinet. This set could be right from the store. Clean as they get. The cloth wire inside is like new. Speaker passes the battery test. More later as I get back to it.

TV was a bit thin as noted before. A Philco 10" did show up in the auction that I did not see before. A cracked bezel hurt it but it did sell for a bargain.

Our changes to the auction seemed to be a hit. We managed to inform all of our vendors of the changes beforehand in person and it was received very well. One buyer said that this "looks like a real radio auction". We hope we have found the formula for the future. A pix attached.

The auction had about 60 bidders inside the auction hall and about 110 items for an 1:40:00 auction. By the end it was still 40 bidders. Our famous BIN sale was spectacular with the donations from all of our vendors giving to our club effort at this show. You missed your chance for an original BellTel mobile phone base station for $1. We added a golf cart to help donors so they did not have to haul the items to the new location. The Donormobile will be back.

And lastly, our thanks to Renniger's for their hosting of our show! Let us know what you saw and what you want. Our show is your show,

Dave A
DVHRC VP