2020-03-31 Collecting Novelty Transistor Radios

Also FB group Vintage Transistor Radios

Collecting novelty transistor radios has a few drawbacks, the most obvious is that they are much rarer than regular transistor radios. Generally the new novelty transistor radios are much more expensive then a regular radio due to their limited production. The customer who just wants a radio is going to buy the utilitarian regular radio, not the novelty. New novelty radios are sold mostly for special occasions such as Christmas and birthdays. So the vintage novelty radios are much less common, and since the supply is so limited, the prices are higher. The limited supply and higher prices of vintage novelty radios makes them out of reach of most vintage radio collectors.

Another factor in their rarity is that many novelty radios are popular with youngsters. They get played with and handled roughly, and that leads to abuse that often makes the radio undesirable as a collectible. And of course time takes its toll. The combination of rarity and rough use make it even more difficult to find vintage novelty radios.

I used to watch Antiques Roadshow on PBS, and I can’t remember ever seeing a radio, much less a novelty radio on the show. I’ve seen many toys, but radios, even ones with fine cabinets seem almost non-existent. The same thing seems true for antique telephones. I’m not sure if it’s because the program considers both of them to be too specialized or there are too many collectors’ associations that cause the market to be very narrow. In any case, novelty transistor radios are too few to be “collector friendly.”

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