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 over recent years. The raw data for this summary may be had from here as an MS Excel .xls file, which shows the number of completed sales for each model type per month over differing price bands, the cumulative totals, and a calculated average price per model based on those totals.

 H500

600

8G005

G500


2007 2008 2009 2007 2008 2009 2007 2008 2009 2007 2008 2009
Jan
29 25
37 28
13 11
7 9
Feb 48 37 20 73 39 36 11 14 12 19 4 6
Mar 40 33 28
 72 43 54
 19 14 15
 20 7 14
Apr 31 37 26
 44 48 42
 21 18 10
 11 10 8
May 43 36 20
 56 51 37
 17 14 8
 14 9 4
Jun 14 19 24
 25 42 24
 10 10 7
 3 6 7
Jul 24 39 23
 38 45 36
 13 20 11
 6 13 4
Aug 31 22 19
 29 45 35
 10 26 8
 9 16 8
Sep 31 17 20
 37 16 28
 21 5 9
 3 9 9
Oct 41 28 21
 56 32 48
 23 8 5
 17 5 8
Nov 34 35 35
 48 45 35
 18 8 14
 13 16 12
Dec 27 20 23
 34 38 21
 14 13 8
 7 9 5
TOTALS 364 352 284 512 491 424 177 163 118 122 111 94


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 (all variants): 269,099
  • R-520/URR (Militarised H500): 7,218
  • R-520A/URR (Militarised 600): 2,973

As we can see from the spreadsheet data, 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: 9th January 2010 Comments & Suggestions to askme@zenithtrans-oceanic.com