[Steve Davis]

I found this Philco 90 Low Boy shipping crate at an antique mall in Springfield Missouri. The asking price was $189 so it might be there a while

[Image: http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/ae335...oCrate.jpg]

[Image: http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/ae335...elable.jpg]

Steve

[Marsupial]

Thats a nice crate, would make great decoration piece!

[gary rabbitt]

Thanks a nice crate. Not sure if the price is good or not. I would probably pass on it too. Keep an eye on it, they might have a hald price sale or something one day. Personally, I don't know what I'd do with it other than store it away.
Thanks for posting.

[Phlogiston]

I have the original box one of my 1930s radios came in. I know that I kept it - somewhere.

[TA Forbes]

My asian mail order bride came in a crate like that.

[Arran]

I was thinking that the vendor may end up getting buried in that box before they sell it at that price. In fact I think they would have trouble getting that price for an actual Philco 90 Lowboy, even one in nice condition and working. I could see maybe between $50-100 for that thing but it is only really of interest to a radio collector, it's still just a wooden box with minimal esthetic appeal, now if it still had the NOS radio inside it that would be a different story. I honestly think that some so called "Antique" dealers are really a front for a tax writeoff or a money laundering scam, since they don't seem to care whether they sell anything. There are some store here that have had pretty much the same junk in the same spot for ten years with an outrageous price on it.
Regards
Arran

[DeckApe]

Eh, you might get that price for the radio itself out here on the west coast (there just aren't as many radios out here) but the crate? No way.

[Ron Ramirez]

Crates are very cool, especially if you have a radio that is the same model as what was in the crate originally. But they take up a lot of room, and there isn't much you can do with them except possibly display them with the radio inside.

Two have passed through my collection in the past.

That having been said, I agree with all that $189 is too much. I didn't pay anywhere near that for the two I have previously owned.

[Marsupial]

I think that most antiques dealer are purposely putting high prices.

1- they do put time to make what they sell presentable.
2- if they sell less, at higher price, they make about the same money as more for less.
3- if all antiques store sell with high-price, the average antique price will go up.

This said, that's a big collectible. Should go in a museum.

[Keith]

That crate is very neat. If that was out this way it would be snatched up for that price. To bad the crate is empty..

[rocketeer]

That's a nice crate but realistically they take up too much room unless someone has a very large display area, such as a museum.

My one and only shipping carton:

[Image: http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab191...li_box.jpg]

Larry

[Radioroslyn]

What model came in it? The Halscratchers
Terry

[Arran]

I think that most antiques dealer are purposely putting high prices.

1- they do put time to make what they sell presentable.
2- if they sell less, at higher price, they make about the same money as more for less.
3- if all antiques store sell with high-price, the average antique price will go up.

But you missed the point, they hardly sell anything. How can you keep the lights on and pay store rent if you don't move any merchandise? The average antique price is set by how much a buyer will pay, not some arbitrary price set by a dealer. As the old axiom goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, it's better to actually make a sale a the first reasonable offer then to try seeking those "two birds in a bush" prices because it costs money just to keep it there. Many just don't understand this, merchandise looses it's value the longer it stays in a store, if they paid $50 for something, price it at $100, if it stays there for six months the profit on that item has already been eaten by the overhead, if it stays there for a year it ends up costing them more then what they paid.
I can give you an example, there is a store near me that has a Philco 20, a plain box Philco 20 that does not work, has a dumb sign on it saying that it "Needs a tube", they want $330 for it. It needs a pair of 71As which some dummy replaced with a pair of 45s, I've gone in there and explained this to them, my uncle has done the same and has offered to sell them the right tubes but to no avail, and it still has that same dumb sign on it. That was a year ago and the Philco is still sitting there along with the same Bakelite radios they had 10 years ago. Plain and simple they don't do anything with their wares to make them more presentable, they just don't care.
Second hand stores at least, of which most antique stores are pretty much a glorrified version, depend on foot traffic coming into the store to make a sale. There are people that browse the stores once a week or once every two weeks, if they see the same stuff sitting on the shelf week after week, month after month, and nothing new coming in they stop going to that store. Around my area these places come and go almost as frequently as restaurants because of this, they just simply have no business plan. Many of the ones that stay open but still don't sell anything have to be either tax write offs or money laundering operations, there is no other way that they could pay the rent and keep open otherwise.
Regards
Arran

[rocketeer]

What model came in it? The Halscratchers
Terry

Model R-48 speaker which dates it to the mid 1960's.

Larry

[gary rabbitt]

I honestly think that some so called "Antique" dealers are really a front for a tax writeoff or a money laundering scam, since they don't seem to care whether they sell anything. There are some store here that have had pretty much the same junk in the same spot for ten years with an outrageous price on it.

Some of the antique shops here are more or less a 'hobby' venture for the owners. Mainly a wife with a well to do husband that funds the shop, just to get the wife out of the way for a few hours a day. Neither one is focused on actually selling anything, the stuff is so high .
I asked one lady about the prices and she said if they were any lower, her shelves would be empty. Well duh! Isn't that the goal?
A hobby business. Usually the stuff will show up at an auction complete with the old price tags, and be liquidated in one afternoon.