Where have all the transistor portables gone?

[Thyratron]

Anyone notice how much harder these seem to come by now? What used to be a common find in any thrift store now seems to take a lot more looking to find "in the wild." And as for the currently produced ones, well, there just aren't too many any more! Radio Shack apparently carries a couple, and Sony still seems to make one, which I saw in a Sears not too long ago. Other than that, they seem to have died out. It's too bad, really, but at least I have a few old ones to enjoy; nothing else really gives "that sound."

[Thyratron]

To clarify, I was referring to "shirt pocket" type radios, but even the carry-handle types seem to be a lot less common than they once were.

[Nakdoc]

It's a conspiracy!

[Mark W.]

Collectors with hundreds of them

[Celt]

And landfills with thousands more...
Remember, most people think that everything newer is better and put still useable items to the curb.

[Arkay]

Where have all the transistor portables gone?
Gone to trash dumps everywhere.
When will they ever (re)turn?
When will they e-e-ver (re)turn?

Apologies to Mr. Dylan.

So many things like this just gradually fade from the garage sales, flea markets and thrift shops... I can remember when most flea markets had at least one office "dictaphone"; haven't seen one in years. Remember metal lunchboxes with current TV shows on them? Don't see many of them any more. Plain, blue denim-covered 3-ring notebooks like most schoolkids used to carry? All plastic now. How about clock radios? Telephone answering machines using cassette tapes? Big desktop calculators (esp. the plug-in type, let alone the old mechanical ones!). Typewriters are getting rare. VHS taoe rewinders shaped like racing cars. Old hand-cranked pencil sharpeners that screwed to the wall. AM-only and pocket transistor radios, as you say. Those "executive look" telephones in a faux-woodgrain and black box that sat on a desktop. Portable black-and-white TVs in rounded shapes and orange colors. All these and many, many more things (that I can't remember, of course) are just gradually disappearing from the planet, and soon from collective memory... save for the "memories" of collectors who nostalgically cling to a few.

[tgunner]

Arkay: I have most of what you mention in my basement.... I like the old stuffs.

[Celt]

Originally Posted by Arkay

Where have all the transistor portables gone?
Gone to trash dumps everywhere.
When will they ever (re)turn?
When will they e-e-ver (re)turn?
Apologies to Mr. Dylan. .

Actually, it was Pete Seegar. Kingston Trio had a hit with it in '62.

[epoch5]

The government has traded them to the arabs for oil.

[Sandy G]

A lot of 'em got shit-canned ages ago. Typical scenario: A kid got an AM/FM shirtpocket radio for birthday, Christmas. He carried it until the pull-out antenna got broken one day, the battery leaked, it got stolen, fell off a table & broke, the kid got a "real" stereo & simply outgrew it. Since most of these things weren't exactly a king's ransom to buy in the 1st place, into the garabage they went...

[majoco]

Oh dear, nostalgia is not what it used to be.....

I've got some of these oldies but goodies in my collection. Feel free to browse, maybe your first transistor radio is shown.
http://vicsradios.com

[Jack Lord]

Jeez Arkay! You are depressing me and making me feel old.

Lousy sound, but they make great avatars!

[knobsrmisn]

I have several hundred of them in my garages packed in boxes ,some I haven't seem 40 years. Time to sort them out and start to move'em out.