Unass'bl'd Heathkit Transistor Tester on Ebay

No.

Things become collectible, and hence valuable, when they are scarce. Since people didn't normally buy kits to leave on the shelf, there are a very limited number of unbuilt Heathkits lying around. Plenty can say they have Heathkits lying about, few can say they have one that's never been built.

But the moment it is built, it moves from one category to the other. When it's built, it's just a Heathkit, and unless it's a rare item it's no longer valuable.

They pay the price not to build it, but so they can boast about having an unbuilt kit.

Michael

to 10 meters

budget just to

Don't forget, shortly after that, they released that 2M synthesized rig, their first, and had to recall it because of spurs. And then they came out with a second rig to replace the model.

Michael

The switches, pots, capacitors and other components in this thing will age, even without use ( ....particularly without use).

RL

But if the point is to never build it, it doesn't really matter if the parts have gone bad. There are antique radio collectors who don't restore the electronics, so I gather, because they want the radios to be completely original, so they simply keep the radios on display and never use them.

Again, once it's built it's less valuable than as a kit because the kit is the rarity. You can't point to a built Heathkit and say "this is what it looked like out of the box".

Micahel