[See update below]
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:
This NOS 51-S1 is headed for a record price for an Ebay sale. I have only seen one of these in this condition in my decades on Ebay. This is a rare rack version complete with box and original accessories. The preselector, also NOS, sold earlier today:
I’ll watch this auction just to see how high the price goes. At time of posting, it was at $4,850 US (plus shipping):
UPDATE: The winning bid was $5,500 US plus $56.19 shipping:
It’s the company that put a man on the moon.
It’s not a question of a better radio.
Put it in perspective, one can buy a brand new SDR, Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood etc. today. Leave it in the original shipping box, keep it in an environmentally controlled space, keep it as such for 45 years…… it won’t be worth peanuts. Amateurs will be a thing of the past, any radio will be cheap. A Collins in 45 years from now would be worth a small fortune. An SDR or any other won’t be worth anything.
This is a time when we still have values for the “old ways” but it’s coming to an end. I grew up in wonder of the old ways. I remember pumping the air thing for my grandpa to turn metal red hot, Blacksmith stuff.
I remember churning butter.
It won’t be like that ever again.
What’s this have to do with Amatuer radio operators?
I went to a Federal building in the capital, surrounded by FCC agents watching your every move not knowing if you passed the code and the written or if you passed anything. You either got a license or not. SDR? What’s that?
Even for collectors, that might like it’s appearance, anything above 800-1000 Euros (if you find it in great shape) does not worth for this radio. Not at all.
It is a well built radio, but it is an OLD radio, not compared to modern gear. There is some serious metal and glass in this radio just like in military radios, which by the way can be found in lower prices. Collins S-line equipment was extremely good for it’s age, but nowadays they cannot compare to modern transceivers.
Even the craziest guys that insist to spend lots for old radios, know that Collins gear is overpriced. Yet some still give some serious money to buy them.
Everyone has their own preference of course. But for what it is (internally and externally), it is an overpriced radio.
I DO own that radio and I know very well what I am talking about.
Wow! Remember though, just because the receiver is NIB and NOS from the 1970s, that doesn’t stop “the hands of time”. Components like electrolytic capacitors, etc. will have aged and will need replacement. So…$5500.00 plus shipping, won’t make this collectible “plug and play”.
Just shows you what some folks have stored away over many years, untouched, unopened, and it is great that there are sites like Ebay where rare gems like this can be auctioned off for all the world to see and take a shot at. The last five minutes of these auctions are the greatest and most exciting.
Everyone has their preferences … I would never change one SDR of mine with a Collins.
$5500 plus shipping. Amazing to think there are unopened new in box receivers still out there from 1971!
I agree. It’s the equivalent of those classic car “barn finds.”
I have one mint just no box, beautiful radio unfortunately the golden days or nights of shortwave have ended. I can’t imagine what that would have been like in the mid sixties. I had a StarRoamer and had plenty of fun with that.