Tubegroover said: "
The amps sold for 198.00 each new during the time of their manufacturer from 1955-1961."
Just to put things into perspective, I worked the graveyard shift for Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica in 1957. With overtime, my pay maxed out at $110.00 per week. I bought a 1955 Chevy Bel Air hardtop with 2400 miles on it in 1957 for $2200.00. In 1965, I bought a brand new home in Huntington Beach for $20,650. Payments were $147.00 per month ... and that included taxes and insurance. So, considering the times, what we now call "classic" audio gear was quite expensive.
For a lot of collectors,the classic gear is like collecting postage stamps. Records (lp's) can be the same. There are folks who pay multi-hundreds of dollars for original Blue Notes, etc., when they could have pristine reissues on 180g vinyl. Why is the original so important to them? Because they are collectors first and listeners second?
The real question is: Has the value of the classic gear gone up ... or has the value of money gone down???
Just to put things into perspective, I worked the graveyard shift for Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica in 1957. With overtime, my pay maxed out at $110.00 per week. I bought a 1955 Chevy Bel Air hardtop with 2400 miles on it in 1957 for $2200.00. In 1965, I bought a brand new home in Huntington Beach for $20,650. Payments were $147.00 per month ... and that included taxes and insurance. So, considering the times, what we now call "classic" audio gear was quite expensive.
For a lot of collectors,the classic gear is like collecting postage stamps. Records (lp's) can be the same. There are folks who pay multi-hundreds of dollars for original Blue Notes, etc., when they could have pristine reissues on 180g vinyl. Why is the original so important to them? Because they are collectors first and listeners second?
The real question is: Has the value of the classic gear gone up ... or has the value of money gone down???