@walkman archive wrote "to invest maybe in another expensive hobby like photography or... who knows " While I know that photography can be very expensive I was thinking that at the point and shoot end of the market it has become like Walkmans were twenty years ago. To try and prove my point I started looking up prices for some of my old cameras. I am surprised that someone paid £40 for this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204398497689 There again I paid £200 Tax Free for mine on Tenerife about thirty years ago so maybe someone wanted to replace one they had in their youth or buy something they could never afford back then. This was more like what I expected https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-Digital-Ixus-V3-With-Battery-And-Leather-Case-/385630834556 I paid £400 for one of these 21 years ago ! Taken to extremes, at a car boot sale I bought what had been a £200 Canon off an everything 50p sheet. When I fitted batteries not only did it work but it came with an SD card with some pictures on it. I hope they had transferred them somewhere else. p.s. Just writing this I have realised that you might mean that photography is expensive because whatever you buy halves in value every year. I know that there are some vintage cameras like Leica which have been going up in value but what has been happening to "man in the street" cameras like Practica SLRs ?
Yeah, I understand. point&shoot cameras are today like walkmans in 2010: just garbage to thrown out for most people. When I mean photography I mean high quality gear aimend for advanced aficionados (prosumers), which is VERY expensive. Take for example the brand new Nikon Z8: around 4500€. Or the SONY a7RIV, 3600€. A high quality optics like the 24-70 f/2.8 from Nikon: 2500€. Sony equivalent? 2000€. Canon? 2500€ And so on...
If Raul had said the original cost is the equivalent of $18 - $20 today inflation adjusted, that would have been more accurate. But saying it costed $18 - $20 originally, is not correct.
Ok, you have a point that today's money is worth less in goods that it was 30-40 years ago. Still I think my point is valid as the chance, that this tape is in condition like new is close to 0. It could be usable, but not near they original quality or audio value. Anyway, when I see that smarphone of company with logo of partly eaten fruit cost and it even doean't have a way to easily connect wired headphones maybe walkmans with 2 jack ports seems like Back to the Future done right. And Guardians of Galaxy shown young people alternative of how to listen to music they wanted but never had chance to experience. And for that you pay more, especially when you totally don't learn a bit about what you are buying.
I agree with you. One thing I can say is, the amount of people paying £100+ for a sealed Metal tape that are going to use it for the intended purpose is close to zero as you would say. These people are collectors and I guess most of them only want it for display purposes. So, whether it’s usable or not is of no importance to them.
100 for a blank tape, that's just madness i guess money is worth nothing anymore....i can only justify buying something like the speakers i paid 600 for because they were 2 grand new in 2010 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155644727031?hash=item243d260ef7:g:83sAAOSw66tfsugL&amdata=enc:AQAIAAAA0F+nFlBEEOVX2pz8eiTqMwZIRr+Pjex3DwsR/jsGezMcGcpfXdedVSGJWnpA6Mo/m0sX9htrEQPhka3hEe4ZFJBL3H6Qh2H0qwsSpaD7Tfxjei9PA2YNMKyXDUTtk/jmaEG4FVoZSul6mfU5k+QEfPWzk0IMeQrc+XVY8vR4W2xPC0WlkMgfBG6AVTiGgBff7ZAY28oyVJB+/uf7UygLvaSBPqGPBT699CaQ3e0ylXnee8/FgWmGbGsndmHSnCF8YVI8g1pRwkAsuEtffvvzcSU=|tkp:Bk9SR9zmwsGzYg
never liked apple from the start and Samsung have gone the same way....2k for a phone no chance lol. my phone cost 30 for 3 0f them lol
Inflation caused by COVID during the last few years affected the value of EVERYTHING. You need to spend more at grocery store or supermarket for essential items. Different states (US) raised the minimum wage which subsequently raises the price of essential items in supermarkets again. talking about this issue will turn to a political ugly discussion . I have been monitoring walkman prices sold on Ebay and Buyee for the last 5-6 years and I am sure certain walkman units will go up on value significantly. Social media is the main driver for the value of collectibles nowadays. Most of the units that we collected over the last several years are not real collectible items. I have over 500 walkman units and only 20% of them are actually collectibles. So the price of non-collectibles are going to go down or in the best scenario remain same but real collectible ones will gain the value. Same thing happened to other hobbies, Watch prices went up crazy. You are lucky if you find an authorized dealer (as a friend or family member) to sell you a Daytona or a Nautilus or a Royal Oak. So many people want these items and as we speak only celebrities can get a chance to buy these watches. regular people should look for non-authorized dealers with 2 or 3X price tag! Watch market is a huge entity compare to vintage electronics which is like comparing a drop of water to an ocean. but regardless certain walkman units will easily sell twice of current value.
This discussion is in all the forums I visit (cars, audio, tools). With a background in industrial design and an eye for "stuff" I've been pulling out treasures for years. One man's boat anchor is my new vintage Pioneer Rack System. I try not to let market value guide me, I like cool vintage products that I can still use, and some shelf queens. Everything is going up, I'm putting it down into investing into tangible items, I've got two vintage drill presses that actually get used, when I retire, they're worth 3x+ what I paid for them, I have a shop full of tools like that. The quality of some products from 20-50 years ago is hard to match today without spending a ton of money and a few years ago, it was pretty cheap. I don't think putting a market cap on a product or segment will work, those products take a lot of people to put together, some highly educated, some tradesmen and some workers. They did something similar here with luxury boats back in the mid-90s, they taxed the heck out of them (for the people) and the industry imploded, manufacturer's went out of business, the worker's got fired and nobody benefited except the off-shore companies now making the boats in a tax-haven overseas account paying dollars a month to the workers. Some of the world's oldest (and mostly useless) treasures were paid for with silly money but we all look at them in awe today. The reality is we've been talking about prices going up since the forum began, even in 2008 things didn't drop much and 2-3 years later they were back up again. It's also a world-wide market now with the internet, shoppers could be from anywhere. There's so much Made in USA Vintage Stuff in Japan, they love it. The local vintage shops here tell me the buyers, from Japan, come over here with $100 bills stacked up and clean out the stores. They want to fill a container so it makes more sense for it to be full of anything cool they can get. Some of you might remember Arkay's Stories of vintage audio equipment being shipped, by the container, to Africa, I imagine China and other emerging countries also would love this equipment since they didn't get a lot when it was initally made.
