Testors parts - How wrong we were

A long time ago..... 1993~1994 I was closing down and turning in all the equipment for a US Army helicopter battalion in Germany

Many items were "off book" because of the Operation desert Storm war and as we tried to properly turn in or dispose of items the agency to take them would not accept anything that was NOT ON THE Property Books.

Lots of frustrated soldiers were putting all kinds of things in the trash dumpster and forced each installation to have a dumpster monitor

I was that monitor for Echterdingen Army Airfield near Stuttgart Germany. On my morning rounds I would find all sorts of re-usable items (too many to retrieve and keep for myself). A lot of what I found went to German business or friends if it truly was "Off Book"

I am an HAM radio Operator and one day I found a whole case (12) hand held Walki Talki radios: AN/PRC-127 (RT-1594) Radio is a handheld transceiver operating in the 136-160 MHz range used by the US Army, as well as other NATO forces.

These were procured for cheap and considered "disposable" with no value to field or depot repair. In other words if you got issued one, and it went wonky, the commo section would usually just take it and give you an new replacement.

In a unit we generally used them as CB radios for convoys or sergeants talking to sergeants coordinating stuff administratively. All operational communications were done on more secure normal unit radios.

OK this is turning in to too long a story

A decade later I still had 5 of these and decided to put them on E-bay just to let somebody get use of the new items

A bidding war started and eventually a Fire Department in Illinois won for $590. These babies were never worth that much and had cost me zero.

I contacted the winning bidder, started a phone conversation, and got the fire chief to accept that I wanted the final cost to me that e-bay was gonna charge me and true cost of shipping and I would donate the radios to his station to use ONLY for admin use. I had to explain that the radios were not reliable for emergency command and control of a event.

I had expected them to bring $75 to $100 total

E-bay bidding is strange and I am sure every body reading this has a similar story or experience with these auction sites