here we go again....

[Jack Crenshaw]

Ray, I used to work at Heathkit, like a lot of folks here, I guess.
Heathkit always had occasional returns of kits that had been bought.  Most
of the kits had indeed been opened, often by someone who said, "I can't do
this" and sent it back.  but there were always a few unopened kits.
Typically, it was a kit bought by some old (or sometimes not-so-old) ham,
who then went and died or got himself killed.  The widow would send the kit
back to Heathkit for a refund, which Heathkit was kind enough to give.

Once returned, the kits were no good to Heathkit.  They wouldn't put them
back on the shelf, precisely because of fears like yours.  (For the record,
this kind of thing doesn't bother places like Home Depot, Sears, or any
other mass outlets, who routinely put returns back onto their shelves).
And to take the kit apart and return the parts to inventory would cost more
than the kit.

To get rid of the unwanted merchandise, Heathkit maintained a company store
for employees only.  Once a month or so, they'd put all the returned kits up
for auction.  Some would be partially completed kits, some would be horribly
butchered (can we say, "acid core solder"?), and some would be opened but
unbuilt.  But there would always be a few cherries of the returned-by-widow
type, which were considered highly desirable by the Heath employees.  We
used to scramble to get them.

Of course, not everyone sees them as desirable, and that's your choice.

Jack



Once the kits are return
----- Original Message -----
From: Ray F <rayfri at NETWORLD.COM>
To: <HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV>
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2001 3:27 PM
Subject: here we go again....


> Starting bid $2,850 bucks....
> HEATHKIT SB-1000 KIT - UNBUILT AND UNOPENED.
>                                    Item # 1277561211
> If he bought it himself, he didnt even open it to see what was inside?
> If he bought it from someone else, he still didnt even open it??
> If it IS unopened, I sure as heck wouldnt pay this kind of money not
> knowing
> what was inside....
>
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