Zenith Flashmatic control on the bay

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

I paid $125 for a fair-condition Flashmatic gun, and seen several sell for the range of this most recent one.

Charles

Over $100 for something that is nothing more than a glorified flashlight? Good grief. As I mentioned in another post to this thread, in a pinch, any cheap flashlight will operate a FlashMatic TV just as well. I wonder how many people were aware of that if/when their FlashMatic controller went bad for any reason. I can't see the sense in paying so much on the used market for something so simple. I realize the FlashMatic was Zenith's first wireless television remote control system, but for the controllers to be priced so high on eBay, et al. over five decades later, IMHO, is crazy.

What was it about the FlashMatic ray-gun controller that was so special, anyway? If this were a mint-condition CT-100 color TV I could see a high opening bid, but since the device in question here is a glorifed flashlight, it makes no sense (IMHO) to pay $100+ for it, at auction or otherwise. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $5 for one of these things if I had a Flash-Matic set that needed a new remote; in fact, I'd just use a common cheap flashlight and think nothing of it. If the FlashMatic ray-gun controller had gold-plated (not brass) parts and was housed in a 14-karat gold case, then it might be worthy of an insanely high opening bid in an auction, but as it is, the Flash-Matic controller is not worth anywhere near $100, let alone $300 or more as is often seen as an opening bid for these on eBay. Sheeeeeeesh.

I think this is just another case of a seller, not knowing what these things actually are, wanting to get as much money as he or she can from the auction. Things like this happen on eBay (and probably Craigslist as well) all too often these days, and there is little or nothing we can do about it since it is not illegal, by eBay's rules or otherwise.