40. Where to buy radio's?

If you want to visit my country (continent), perhaps even settle here, and set up a nice collection of radios, where could you go to find them? For people from large countries it may come as a surprise that our country is so small, that you can often find nice radios within driving/cycling range.

Caution: Information about places to buy changes quickly! This article was written in January 2017, and reflects the situation and my opinion of that moment.

Forum

The Nederlands Forum over Oude Radio's is a discussion group, established in 1999 by Otto Tuil. The Forum discusses mainly technical aspects of tube radios, but also, radios and equipment are often offered for sale. You must register (free) to see offers.

For solid state materials, the NFOR has a partner forum, the Nederlands Transistorforum, with roughly the same culture and rules (and the same people). When posting, be aware that the separation between tubed and solid state discussions is maintained quite strictly!

Principle language on both Forums is Dutch, but you can post in other languages (posting requires registration). German, English and French will be answered swiftly. Posting in other languages, though maybe not prohibited, is useles because nobody can read it and you'll get no answer. Most of the frequent sellers on NFOR and NTF have their city listed, so you can select on offers nearby.

Marktplaats

My country may be small, but we have a national counterpart of eBay: Marktplaats. I often find nice radio's in the categories Antiek en Kunst, sub TV's en Audio, and in Audio, TV en Foto, sub Radio's.

Nice about Marktplaats is that you can enter your location, and search within a desired range (like 5 or 25km). Not so nice is that the site has become quite commercial, and floods you with paid advertisements.

Some sellers operate on semi-commercial basis and offer top goods for top prices, but you also find worn out stuff for low prices. And, of course, worn out stuff for top prices, but you can ignore that. And incidentally, cheap a golden find. For example, I bought this Philips B1X42A, well repairable, for €12.50, which I consider a nice buy.

Kringloopwinkel

Most cities in The Netherlands have one or more Kringloopwinkels, or Recycle Stores. On the right you see Kringloopwinkel Simpel, a large one near Soesterberg.

Despite the common label Kringloop, the shops differ quite a lot in what they offer. They mostly provide used household articles (furniture, books). Usually there is a section that carries electrical equipment, including audio stuff. But nice radios have become quite rare, although one can always be lucky here. For spare parts and bastling material it is a good place: speaker boxes, PC parts, etc., are usually found at low prices.

In Zeist there are Kringloopwinkel De Wegwijzer in the Jan Postlaan, Kringloopwinkel De Markt in de Voorheuvel, and Het Goede Doel in the Johan van Oldebarneveldlaan.

NVHR Ruilbeurs

The Nederlandse Vereniging voor Historie van de Radio, or NVHR, organises a radio swap meet four or five times per year. Please do not confuse the NVHR with the NFOR; the society and the forum share a lot of members, but are independent. The location for the swap meet is the Sport Hall Hoenderdaal in Driebergen. This meeting is not public; to enter, you must be a member of NVHR, or be introduced by a member (in which case you must pay an entrance fee).

Activiteitenmarkt

The churches in my town organised an annual market called the
Activiteitenmarkt. Stuff was collected by volunteers and sold cheaply on the third Saturday of June. I went there every year and quite often came back with a few small transistorized radios. Prices were just to laugh about, like €2.00 for this Philips D2122 (photo).

Unfortunately, sufficient volunteers could not be found in 2016, and the Activiteitenmarkt didn't take place. The future of this activity is unclear.

Rommelmarkt

Selling superfluous materials is almost a national hobby, and flea markets are organised throughout the year. In Dutch these activities are called Rommelmarkt, Snuffelmarkt, Vlooienmarkt, or Kofferbakmarkt, and occasionally other terms are used as well. My own observations suggest that on these general selling platforms, it becomes less and less common to find (tubed) radios.

To find Rommelmarkts close to you, you can search (by province) on Meuk is Leuk. On King's Day (April 27, King Willem Alexander's Birthday) there are King's Day's Markets in almost every city and village.

Bazar

When in Central Europe, do not search the Yellow Pages for shops under Second Hand if you want to buy radios. Second Hand in Central Europe means: used cloths. The search term in Central and Eastern Europe is: Bazar or (in Czech) Starozitnosti.

In Czechia there are many, in Slovakia there are less.


Gerard Tel.