User Panel
Posted: 1/16/2021 12:29:30 AM EDT
I have resold Baofeng UV-5R radios for years. I have sold thousands of them over the last 3-4 years. I buy them in bulk lots off ebay and Amazon because the cost is roughly the same as I was quoted by the manufacturer/importer for buying direct (at least the quantities I wanted). Last week someone posted a sale on them at Amazon where the single unit price was roughly what I typically paid per unit for bulk lots. That reminded me I should grab some more so I bought a lot of 20 for the same price they've been for years. I only bought a single lot of 20 but submitted a request for a price on 10 lots of 20 which is a typical quantity I would buy. The request came back immediately with the same price per lot for 10 lots as a single lot so I waited.
I go to buy more today and almost everything is gone. Sellers I've bought from before don't have them listed, the items on Amazon are there but not available, and the few on eBay are 50% more than I typically pay. Even when there was a huge scare a year or so ago about the FCC cracking down on imports, the pricing and availability was unchanged. Now overnight and with no news they've either disappeared or the price has increased dramatically. Is there some news I've missed? |
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[#4]
It's morons who have no idea what it is and what to do with it.
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[#5]
Quoted: Have you read the news today? View Quote Then I'll say this, this is far more dramatic than the FCC scare a while back as I mentioned. With it there were multiple threads about that on this forum and every other similar forum. There were blog posts and videos. All saying go buy a UV-5R before they are banned. And it did *nothing* to the availability or pricing of the radios. This did it overnight. |
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[#6]
I've got 4 I picked up a few weeks ago.
We had some friends over last night and they said they've been been looking into getting some with everything that's going on. Pretty much the same story as ammo, guns, n95 masks, toilet paper, whatever. I'm assuming lots "prepper" types have had comms in the back of their minds, but the past couple of weeks were a wake up call. |
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[#7]
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[#8]
With all the threads lately on the subject, you’re just now asking?
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[#9]
Hello, yes, welcome to 2021 where everything’s fucked and we’re still just getting started.
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[#10]
Quoted: Pretty much the same story as ammo, guns, n95 masks, toilet paper, whatever. I'm assuming lots "prepper" types have had comms in the back of their minds, but the past couple of weeks were a wake up call. View Quote For a frame of reference, I own a survival and gun store. I am not new to this. I've been through the Obama panics, elections, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, etc. These radios disappeared faster than a PMAG and stripped lower after Sandy Hook. |
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[#12]
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[#13]
Quoted: For a frame of reference, I own a survival and gun store. I've been through the Obama panics, elections, Sandy Hook, etc. These radios disappeared faster than a PMAG and stripped lower after Sandy Hook. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Pretty much the same story as ammo, guns, n95 masks, toilet paper, whatever. I'm assuming lots "prepper" types have had comms in the back of their minds, but the past couple of weeks were a wake up call. For a frame of reference, I own a survival and gun store. I've been through the Obama panics, elections, Sandy Hook, etc. These radios disappeared faster than a PMAG and stripped lower after Sandy Hook. So bizarre, do they realize what they do, that they are relatively line of sight devices? |
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[#14]
I got one a week or so ago for 20ish bucks. It kinda sucks to program. I like my ft3d a lot more.
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[#15]
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[#17]
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[#18]
Quoted: speak for yourself....i'm hitting repeaters in the next county from my living room View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: So bizarre, do they realize what they do, that they are relatively line of sight devices? speak for yourself....i'm hitting repeaters in the next county from my living room Yea, it's called RF line of sight which includes some bending and refraction and reflection. It's not a cell phone you call grandma on from 1500 miles away which is what I wonder they think it is. |
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[#19]
Quoted: speak for yourself....i'm hitting repeaters in the next county from my living room View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: So bizarre, do they realize what they do, that they are relatively line of sight devices? speak for yourself....i'm hitting repeaters in the next county from my living room That is still line of sight |
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[#20]
Quoted: Then I'll say this, this is far more dramatic than the FCC scare a while back as I mentioned. With it there were multiple threads about that on this forum and every other similar forum. There were blog posts and videos. All saying go buy a UV-5R before they are banned. And it did *nothing* to the availability or pricing of the radios. This did it overnight. View Quote With AWS, Google and Apple doing what they did with parler. With what godaddy did to arf. Twitter purging the presidents account and thousands of conservatives. Folks have been looking at ham radios. Every single prepper, survivalist blog, says by the uv5r. That's why they can't be found. There has been a HUGE uptick in my friends asking me about ham radios. People are genuinely nervous. These are folks who were worried before. |
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[#21]
Quoted: Hello, yes, welcome to 2021 where everything’s fucked and we’re still just getting started. View Quote Attached File |
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[#22]
Quoted: With AWS, Google and Apple doing what they did with parler. With what godaddy did to arf. Twitter purging the presidents account and thousands of conservatives. Folks have been looking at ham radios. Every single prepper, survivalist blog, says by the uv5r. That's why they can't be found. There has been a HUGE uptick in my friends asking me about ham radios. People are genuinely nervous. These are folks who were worried before. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Then I'll say this, this is far more dramatic than the FCC scare a while back as I mentioned. With it there were multiple threads about that on this forum and every other similar forum. There were blog posts and videos. All saying go buy a UV-5R before they are banned. And it did *nothing* to the availability or pricing of the radios. This did it overnight. With AWS, Google and Apple doing what they did with parler. With what godaddy did to arf. Twitter purging the presidents account and thousands of conservatives. Folks have been looking at ham radios. Every single prepper, survivalist blog, says by the uv5r. That's why they can't be found. There has been a HUGE uptick in my friends asking me about ham radios. People are genuinely nervous. These are folks who were worried before. They are in for a rude awakening if they hold normal online type conversations over radio. The Ham people out there are like the worst facebook censor times a billion. Think FUD crossed with 80 year old cranky man + Karenzilla. Some of these guys treat the whole god damn radio spectrum like their personal moderated forum. Scanning channels to find someone to listen to. Then butt in if they don't like the conversations. |
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[#23]
Nah I don't see any reason why people are buying emergency preps en masse.
Totally boggles the mind since nothing eventful has happened in the past year. |
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[#24]
For a guy selling radios, it seems like you were out of touch.
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[#25]
Quoted: They are in for a rude awakening if they hold normal online type conversations over radio. The Ham people out there are like the worst facebook censor times a billion. Think FUD crossed with 80 year old cranky man + Karenzilla. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Then I'll say this, this is far more dramatic than the FCC scare a while back as I mentioned. With it there were multiple threads about that on this forum and every other similar forum. There were blog posts and videos. All saying go buy a UV-5R before they are banned. And it did *nothing* to the availability or pricing of the radios. This did it overnight. With AWS, Google and Apple doing what they did with parler. With what godaddy did to arf. Twitter purging the presidents account and thousands of conservatives. Folks have been looking at ham radios. Every single prepper, survivalist blog, says by the uv5r. That's why they can't be found. There has been a HUGE uptick in my friends asking me about ham radios. People are genuinely nervous. These are folks who were worried before. They are in for a rude awakening if they hold normal online type conversations over radio. The Ham people out there are like the worst facebook censor times a billion. Think FUD crossed with 80 year old cranky man + Karenzilla. Not really, depends where you are. There are 2A nets around here. |
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[#26]
> owns survival and gun store
Wait until you see ammo prices! Seems maybe you’re a bit out of touch with your survival market? No big deal, but the comms panic has been obvious if you hang out ... well ... anywhere like arfcoom? There was definitely a rush this past week, but the build up over the past year should have been obvious. |
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[#27]
I saw prices basically double within the past week. I bought a couple more UV-5RTP radios off Ebay this month as hand outs. I have weather channels, repeaters within 100 miles, frs, gmrs, and murs programmed. I can also scan a few local fire/law channels that are simplex or simulcast on VHF. Seems like a lot of people are tossing them in a drawer and have no idea why they bought them.
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[#28]
Quoted: They are in for a rude awakening if they hold normal online type conversations over radio. The Ham people out there are like the worst facebook censor times a billion. Think FUD crossed with 80 year old cranky man + Karenzilla. Some of these guys treat the whole god damn radio spectrum like their personal moderated forum. Scanning channels to find someone to listen to. Then butt in if they don't like the conversations. View Quote Spot on. During CW2 those guys will be hunted before anyone else. |
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[#29]
Quoted: Yea, it's called RF line of sight which includes some bending and refraction and reflection. It's not a cell phone you call grandma on from 1500 miles away which is what I wonder they think it is. View Quote It's definitely not a cell phone, but I've listened to people from Manitoba, Washington state, and Florida this week. It's all about the repeaters with these things. I also have a SW receiver. I don't really have anything to say so just being able to listen in was my goal. ETA: I'm receiving from over 50 miles away with a Baofeng and whip antenna. It helps that Pikes peak is just about 60 miles from my house. |
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[#30]
Quoted: It's definitely not a cell phone, but I've listened to people from Manitoba, Washington state, and Florida this week. It's all about the repeaters with these things. I also have a SW receiver. I don't really have anything to say so just being able to listen in was my goal. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Yea, it's called RF line of sight which includes some bending and refraction and reflection. It's not a cell phone you call grandma on from 1500 miles away which is what I wonder they think it is. It's definitely not a cell phone, but I've listened to people from Manitoba, Washington state, and Florida this week. It's all about the repeaters with these things. I also have a SW receiver. I don't really have anything to say so just being able to listen in was my goal. For sure, but you seem to know a bit. Just saying that some people seem to think it works like a phone without infrastructure. I just hate to see them get them and realize they are going to be able to comm to the other guy direct about 1 mile max in urban terrain. |
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[#31]
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[#33]
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[#34]
Quoted: > owns survival and gun store Wait until you see ammo prices! Seems maybe you’re a bit out of touch with your survival market? No big deal, but the comms panic has been obvious if you hang out ... well ... anywhere like arfcoom? There was definitely a rush this past week, but the build up over the past year should have been obvious. View Quote Actually, the cost of ammo hasn't changed much at all. ;-) Again, I am aware there has been a dramatic increase in sales of comms, ammo, body armor, etc over the last year because I've been the one selling it. A bunch of it. So that's the frame of reference I'm coming from when I say these radios disappeared unlike anything I've ever seen. And I still remember hitting F5 on distributor's websites the night Obama got elected and watching tens of thousands of pmags disappear from inventory with every refresh. |
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[#35]
Quoted: For a frame of reference, I own a survival and gun store. I am not new to this. I've been through the Obama panics, elections, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, etc. These radios disappeared faster than a PMAG and stripped lower after Sandy Hook. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Pretty much the same story as ammo, guns, n95 masks, toilet paper, whatever. I'm assuming lots "prepper" types have had comms in the back of their minds, but the past couple of weeks were a wake up call. For a frame of reference, I own a survival and gun store. I am not new to this. I've been through the Obama panics, elections, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, etc. These radios disappeared faster than a PMAG and stripped lower after Sandy Hook. People who don't know any better seem to think it'll be a replacement for the internet. One of the baofeng threads were commenting on the UV-5R being out of stock. I mentioned the UV-82 model and it immediately went out of stock too. People are crazy. |
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[#36]
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[#38]
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[#39]
Quoted: > owns survival and gun store Wait until you see ammo prices! Seems maybe you're a bit out of touch with your survival market? No big deal, but the comms panic has been obvious if you hang out ... well ... anywhere like arfcoom? There was definitely a rush this past week, but the build up over the past year should have been obvious. View Quote His ammo sells out within an hour of opening. |
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[#40]
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[#41]
Quoted: Then I'll say this, this is far more dramatic than the FCC scare a while back as I mentioned. With it there were multiple threads about that on this forum and every other similar forum. There were blog posts and videos. All saying go buy a UV-5R before they are banned. And it did *nothing* to the availability or pricing of the radios. This did it overnight. View Quote People are taking things seriously this time and prepping for shit to turn ugly. |
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[#42]
Are you prepping your inventory for sale with this thread OP?
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[#43]
Quoted: I got the BaoFeng BF-F8HP. I don't know what to do with it. View Quote Get the CHIRP software and a programming cable. |
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[#44]
Quoted: Actually, the cost of ammo hasn't changed much at all. ;-) Again, I am aware there has been a dramatic increase in sales of comms, ammo, body armor, etc over the last year because I've been the one selling it. A bunch of it. So that's the frame of reference I'm coming from when I say these radios disappeared unlike anything I've ever seen. And I still remember hitting F5 on distributor's websites the night Obama got elected and watching tens of thousands of pmags disappear from inventory with every refresh. View Quote Fair enough. It is pretty wild. I spent Sunday night tabbing through 20+ Amazon prime delivery filtered pages of all kinds of individual baofengs/multi packs/custom packs. Watched them all fall off availability priced low to high. Sometimes you could see the panic and anxiety in real-time(6 left FOMO). Did still see ~$200 10 packs Monday, but now poof. |
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[#45]
I noticed that tonight while looking for an external mount antenna for my truck and lapel mikes and thought it was crazy. They should work for what I may need them for, just wish I'd grabbed another two while I was at it as handouts to two of my neighbors.
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[#46]
Quoted: People who don't know any better seem to think it'll be a replacement for the internet. One of the baofeng threads were commenting on the UV-5R being out of stock. I mentioned the UV-82 model and it immediately went out of stock too. People are crazy. View Quote Thanks for that mention. I was able to get a UV-82L on eBay that night?? |
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[#47]
For such a big seller you aren't keeping up with market driving forces.
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[#48]
They needed them so the could coordinate all the pee stops for all the busses headed to dc.
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[#49]
I have several of them that we use while four wheeling, but I don't understand everyone buying these in case the net goes down.
They're really easy to track and not at all secure. If this is how we communicate, we're fucked |
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[#50]
Since I already have mine, let me just say that the Radioddity website has some good products in the under $100 range.
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