[TowerTalk] Cheap Hams

Jim Brown jim at audiosystemsgroup.com
Sat Mar 25 14:29:12 EDT 2017


On Sat,3/25/2017 9:34 AM, Rudy Bakalov via TowerTalk wrote:
> Let me offer some examples:

Good suggestions, Rudy. But have you ever run a biz with employees? Ever 
done retail? I've done both, and I can say that it's cut-throat, both 
with vendors of the products you sell and with other sellers like you. 
Profit margins have gotten smaller and smaller, the vast majority of 
buyers seem to look far beyond price.

If all a vendor is doing is handing (or shipping) me a box and taking my 
money, I don't consider that worthy of much profit margin, so I'm likely 
to buy from a known reliable vendor with the lowest price, shipping 
included. OTOH, if that vendor is adding value, as in some of what 
you've suggested, or with in-store displays or an operating setup with 
the gear, I will buy from that vendor if they're selling what I want to 
buy, even if they're more expensive.

The recently closed ham store in Sunnyvale that started this thread DID 
have a station setup with a tribander on the roof, but I didn't want to 
buy the HF gear they sold (my HF gear is Elecraft) and I never found 
their sales staff particularly helpful. I did buy incidental accessories 
from them that were in stock, and one or two FM rigs. And in one 
transaction early on, I was treated badly with respect to warranty. As a 
result, the only thing I felt badly about when this store closed is that 
the staff lost their part time jobs.

As to those extra services -- those are functions that, in the great ham 
tradition have always been provided by other local hams. Some call it 
"elmering," others mentoring, others call it "paying back" or "passing 
it on" for how we were helped when we started out. As a teenager with a 
new General ticket, I was given my first rig by an older ham, was taught 
CW and electronics/radio by the local ham club, got help with antennas, 
was mentored in contesting, all by local hams. The technical writing and 
teaching that I do is payback for all the help I've received over the 
years.

73, Jim K9YC



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