Wot's it worth?

[Mighty Ant]

Copied from Blank Canvas, as I don't know where to post this being a newbie.

I have an elderly relative who has offered to sell me a minto Radford SC22 and single MA 15 Series 3. It's been located in a Largs cabinet all its life and consequently it's in mint condition, cosmetically. I have no idea what it's worth and how easy/ costly it will be to find another MA 15. The last thing I want to do is to cheat the old guy out of badly needed money.

Any indications on value and ease of obtaining another MA 15 would be greatly appreciated. Audio Jumble is full of ads wanting a single mono power amp, just like what I would want.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Anthony.

[aquapiranha]

Loads! Radfords are very sought after. Use the completed listings on ebay for reference.

[spendorman]

An SC22 and two MA15's would be worth lots and lots. Obviously just one MA15 reduces that a bit. What happened to the other MA15? I presume that there was one.

You might want to join the Yahoo Radford Newsgroup:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/radford/

A pure guess, SC22 £200, MA15 £600, prices can vary so much.

I have an SC22 and STA25 III, suspect that the STA25 is worth about £1100

[Mighty Ant]

Hi Spendorman,

There's only the one as he bought it when mono was still king. If he hadn't been so 'careful' it would be a wonderful set. It's the cosmetics that are mint, obviously electricals going on for 50 years old would need a service, at least.

Anthony.

[spendorman]

Hi Spendorman,

There's only the one as he bought it when mono was still king. If he hadn't been so 'careful' it would be a wonderful set. It's the cosmetics that are mint, obviously electricals going on for 50 years old would need a service, at least.

Anthony.

That SC22 is stereo

I might have been slightly optimistic about the SC22 price, and pessimistic about the MA15 price.

[spendorman]

This link may be of interest.

http://www.adventuresinhifiaudio.com...d-electronics/

[Mighty Ant]

This link may be of interest.

Thanks for that. BTW you must be not far from me, I'm in Barnet, but you wouldn't want to know me. I'm

Anthony.

[DSJR]

The SC22 is only really of use to collectors and as it's in mint condition, it should fetch a hundred or three (hifi dave sold a slightly tatty one recently and got a couple of hundred for it IIRC).

The MA15 is another matter and it may take a long time to find another single one. I understand that these are the best of the series and valuable because of it. Having said this, in real terms a good modern ss or valve amp would probably eat it alive in the real world out there, despite the Radford being one of the very best of its period. Don't be hard on yourself if you sell it instead of keeping it and waiting for another to come up, there's always a Croft Series 7 instead

[spendorman]

Thanks for that. BTW you must be not far from me, I'm in Barnet, but you wouldn't want to know me. I'm

Anthony.

Yes, not far from you. PM (Private Message sent)

[nat8808]

See, it's hard to say what you should offer because the way in which someone would get the high prices would, I guess, be out of reach of the guy anyway..

If selling on ebay to a world-wide audience of potentially thousands or millions AND offering to ship it to a guy in Hong Kong, one may get £2k for a pair.

Selling one alone will fetch less than half that because of the pain of finding another - may as well pay more for two and save yourself the hours and hours of finding another single one.

The guy you potentially are buying from would most likely not sell on ebay and probably, if he advertised it in small ads locally or nationally (even if on the internet) he may only get that £600 - £750 (edit - not even sure he'd get that, but he might) for it anyway but then wait and wait for a buyer. Same with the pre-amp.

So... Do you offer him what it's worth on a world-wide scale that is out of reach to him (probably) anyway or do you offer him what he would possibly otherwise be able to get for it through his own efforts? Also would depend on how quickly he wanted to sell as to what he would get for it on his own.

Many people are happy to, and actually seek to, sell to dealers in order to shift something, knowing full well that they will only be offered say half the value the dealer thinks they can get for it. Oddly though, people aren't always happy when a private buyer has intentions of the same thing - never understood that.

Happiness is a very valuable thing! The best situation would be that you are both happy - he is happy (if not astounded, depending on what he's expecting) with the money and you are happy with the price (try to make the happiness as even as you can!) then surely that is a good thing.