More often than not a buyer will unscrupulously dicker a price down as much as they can. Selling an active business is a risky venture at best. You as a seller will invariably will want to recoup your expenses as much as you can regardless of depreciation. And depending on how much you want to be done with it the shrewd buyer will take full advantage of it. After being in retail for many years you learn the longer an item sits unsold, the less value it has until it passes 25 years Then its declared antique. Its value will the start trending upward but only to collectors and not general public buyers. (Durable equipment only)
Enjoy your retirement! I still use my J-38 key bought from Fair Radio Sales & it has given me a lot of enjoyment. Jilly KR4EE
Wow ... as already said, another icon is leaving the game. It is a shame. IMHO, a lot of blame goes to the way the government disposes of excess comm gear. Gone are the days when just anybody could go to auction and bid on a pallet of mostly working R-390s or Harris transceivers (as an example) .... now our surplussed military gear is "de-milled" to the point of uselessness to anybody but scrap metal processors .... either that or it's sold intact to foreign "friends". Only a small amount of "leak-by" shows up on ebay .... and at prices that made Fair Radio Sales and other surplus dealers, when we had them, look like a yard sale. I'll miss F.R.S. Those guys are wonderful, and I pray they'll land on their feet just fine. Remember, they prayed for us .... a LOT.
I spent a few hours wandering around the Fair Radio store in Lima OH during a Hamvention trip (in 2004, as I recall). The place reminded me of the HAMRAD store in Cape Town, South Africa, which I used to patronise as a young Ham (ZS1ZG) and an EE student at UCT. HAMRAD had approx. 4000 sq. m. under one roof. The fruits of my visits to that RF paradise can be seen here: https://www.ab4oj.com/1st/main.html
And another one bites the dust... Damn shame. Add Fair to the long list of past greats: AES - Amateur Radio Supply Adirondack Radio Supply Airex Radio Allied Electronics Barry Electronics Grand Central Radio Harrison Radio Heath Company Lafayette Radio Radio City Radio Shack The Ham Radio Shack/The Ham Station Universal Radio World Radio Labs Oops... I almost forgot: Burghardt Amateur Center Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. tnx es 73 de K3SSB Tom G, Sr.
Some old hams are interested in things like that. Or like at hamfest they walk by your table. And say I used to have one of those years ago and walk on by. Most of the new hams not interested in the boat anchors or anything with tubes. Just want to digital operations. Or just throw a g5rv up. Nothing to do with towers, rotors or beam antennas. I know hams live in HOA communities. Or don’t have the big enough real estate. That’s why the things that interested us old hams. Growing up in this hobby has gone by the wayside. Plus the market and financial situation mentioned in other posts. Are part of the closing of or mom and pop stores. And the owners kids don’t want the business. Just like farmers kids worked growing up. And don’t want nothing to do with it after high school.
Yup, it's an aging hobby and any younger people entering the hobby have no interest in 60+ year old radio technology. I honestly didn't think Fair Radio was even around anymore. I've only been licensed for 38yrs, so I am a youngster. Unless they could charge a cover charge at the door for wandering and reminiscing in their building, I'm not sure how they paid the light bill in 2023. I feel bad for the guys at hamfests sitting in the middle of 60+yr old equipment and parts. They are emotionally attached to a bygone era, and when they die, their family is going to order a big green dumpster and deposit everything. I've seen pristine, basically NIB phone patches guys are trying to sell. I'm guessing the last hf phone patch over a twisted pair of copper occurred sometime in the very early 70's during the Viet Nam war. I know I've never heard one......"Over".
Very very sorry to hear about Phil and his Christian family calling it quits. They had a very long run of it. I remember making many trips up to Lima from Zanesville (1959 - 1962) and also from Newark (1962 to 1977) Ohio (The Buckeye State) to purchase a lot of military surplus radio communication gear, parts, test equipment, field instrumentation, military field antennas, Navy keys, 19-inch wide rack cabinets, generators, vacuum (valves) tubes, coaxial cable, guy wire, telescoping field masts, and military desks and tables. Sure conducted a lot of business with Fair Radio Sales over the years. Not all of it made it to Wichita, Kansas, but quite a bit of it did. God Bless You Phil and Family!
I still have an O-scope here in my ham shack I got from FAIR RADIO SALES. Used it quite often and now it sits as a reminder of the past. I never knew they were still in business after all the years until just now. Our guard unit here had a transmitter/receiver set and got a service manual for the thing through Fair radio. Their radio man could not find any reading materials on it until they were told that " call Clyde down in Fairlee, he's a ham operator, bet he can get one! " and I did.
Got my first crystal radio parts (c.1950) from Johnson & Smith Catalog. http://shazamaholic.blogspot.com/2020/02/johnson-smith-company-rip.html 73, Jim EARTH: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT
The value of the Real Estate towers over anything they could get for the business. When that happens its get out the bulldozer and pull down the building. There is no point in even attempting to sell the business as long as they have the Property Deed in hand.
fairradio.com 2395 St Johns Rd Lima, OH 45804 approximately 70 miles north of Dayton OH on I-75. 73, Dave N4DJS
Back in the 1970's and 1980's, I was a traveling salesman in Ohio and would stop in to their previous location (just off the railroad tracks) about once every couple of months. I can remember getting all sorts of straight keys, plug-in coils, and other treasures there. I also remember the very unusual tubes that were on the wall behind the register. I wish them a very happy retirement.
The Eastern Bloc??? A bygone term that went into oblivion 30 plus years ago with the demise of the old Soviet Union...
