Been looking around the Australian eBay and noticed that valve radios fetch much more money than the equivalent radios do in the American eBay. Not sure why, other than 2 factors I can think of: heard the Australian economy is much healthier than the American one right now, and also the radio buying population of Australia when valve radios were new was likely much smaller than that of the American population at equivalent times. Making Australian valve radios "rare". Any other reasons?

It is more often the comparitive rarity of Australian radios than anything else. One other thing is the thrill of a bidding war and the will to win it. Because of this Australian radios are a good investment opportunity for those that can afford it.

One unfortunate aspect of this is that most collectors, including myself, will never be able to afford the upper band of collectable radios, to wit, jade green R31 AWA Radiolettes, mottled brown-on-white Airzone Symphony Leaders, some of the pastel/mottled/cloudy Astor Mickeys, all of which are truly landmark radios and the bottom line is that some people are prepared to pay anything to get their hands on one.

I've seen a jade-coloured Radiolette in mint condition go for just over $20,000 on Ebay. This was a few years ago and I will never forget the night I watched the final bidding war. A white mottled radio of the same make and model has often fetched around the $8,500 mark.

I suppose the positive aspect of this issue is that as people are paying very high prices for some of our radios there is a stronger likelyhood of those radios being looked after and cared for. People won't risk an investment like this and allow their prized possession to fall off a shelf or be played with by kids. I know a few people who have acquired glass cabinets to house their most expensive radios and it is good to see these relics being preserved this way.

One other thing is that imports of foreign brands was restricted by way of extortionate tariffs during the 1930s right up to the early 1970s. This, in a general sense, kept all imports out and allowed a local manufacturing industry to flourish and a nation of between six and ten million people in that period was able to produce far more radios than would otherwise have been the case. This kept the number of different models down and production numbers of each model up. This along with the fact that Australians were hoarders before the advent of the 'throwaway society' meant that there were sufficient numbers of even the rarest receivers to make enough people want to vie for them. In the era that saw the transistor take over from the valve we saw the entire population purchase that new transistorised radio for the kitchen and relegate the valve beast to the laundry, backyard shed or garage. The valve sets were never dumped on clean-up piles or taken to the tip - it just wasn't the done thing.

These days when an iPod or Walkman gets dropped or develops a problem it is simply chucked out and replaced altogether.