How Much Does A Good Trans-Oceanic Cost on eBay?


Here, I shall attempt to provide monthly price data of those T/O's that underwent completed sales on the internet auction site www.ebay.com. I have restricted myself to that site and tried to limit the search terms for ease of use. Why eBay? Simple, they present the fastest and easiest opportunity, for the great majority of T/O enthusiasts, to acquire examples of this radio. Ebay is also, by far and away, the largest market source for the T/O and has the most representative sampling of such sets for sale.

Below is a summary table for sales in 2007 and 2008 - the raw data may be had from here as an Excel .xls file. It shows the number of completed sales for each model type per month, the cumulative total, and a calculated average price per model based on those totals.


 H500
600
8G005
G500

2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008
Jan
29
37
13
7
Feb 48 37 73 39 11 14 19 4
Mar 40 33 72 43 19 14 20 7
Apr 31 37 44 48 21 18 11 10
May 43 36 56 51 17 14 14 9
Jun 14 19 25 42 10 10 3 6
Jul 24 39
 38 45
 13 20
 6 13
Aug 31 22 29 45 10 26 9 16
Sep 31 17 37 16 21 5 3 9
Oct 41 28 56 32 23 8 17 5
Nov 34
48
18
13
Dec 27
34
14
7
TOTALS 364 297 512 408 177 142 122 86
Note: data was extracted by manual examination of the results of a 'completed items only' search using the terms 'zenith trans* -transistor -switch' in 'All Categories'. Searches were performed about every 14 days with a suggested margin for duplication error of 5%. Ebay now only provides 10-14 days of historic data free of charge.


Used Prices

On the suggestion that this represents a not untypical series of transactions, there are some interesting points raised. Given the production numbers for each model, we would expect to see very many more of all types of the 600 series than any other model. Bryant & Cones give those figures thus:

  • 8G005: 110,567
  • G500: 89,681
  • H500: 245,544
  • 600 Series: 269,099
  • R-520/URR: 7,218
  • R-520A/URR: 2,973

As we can see,  the H500 is well represented at the lower end of the price range and I believe that this is because it is the least desireable model that is still in plentiful supply. However, the 'militarised' version, the R-520, is much rarer and its occasional appearance does not distort the average price.

By contrast, the 600 series has many examples of the rare militarised type as well as the brown leather variant offered for sale on a frequent basis. These sets command much higher prices and the distortions of average price can be seen by the effect of such outliers. Additionally, there are professional restorers selling very high-grade examples of their craft and such sets usually command US$300+.

The 600 series represents the maturation of the tube-type Trans-Oceanic design and it was one that incorporated many consumer-oriented features - such as the dial light, log charts and cord retractor. This has kept its popularity very high amongst used examples.


Last update: 10th November 2008 Comments & Suggestions to askme@zenithtrans-oceanic.com