Re: Unreasonable price for a HP-35? Message #4 Posted by Ellis Easley on 7 Mar 2003, 6:39 a.m., in response to message #3 by James M. Prange
How about these completed Ebay auctions I stumbled on yesterday:
A pair of 1 meter RCA cables made with silver wire for $99, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14965&item=3008209821
10 ft of 24 gage silver wire for $16 to use for wiring inside audio equipment - seller recommends letting it "break in" for 100 hours to hear the improvement in the sound quality, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14965&item=3006912524
25 ft of 96% tin/4% silver rosin core solder .032 in diameter for $14, I need to figure out how this compares to normal prices which are stated per pound or per ounce, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14965&item=3008213768
A duplex AC wall outlet that has been cryogenically treated - cooled to below -315 F - which somehow allows it to contribute to the sound quality of your stereo system for $39, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3284&item=3002648461
Same again for $46, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3284&item=3006913469
A set of turntable tonearm wires - 4 wires 2 ft. long terminated at one end - made of silver, need 150 hours to "break in", for $71, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3284&item=1943237279
This guy has about 280 positive feedbacks and his specialty is this silver wire and 96/4 (tin/silver) solder, which I have learned recently has become fairly common, you can get it at Radio Shack or Home Depot, it's one of the new lead free alloys being popularized for common use. I give the seller credit that he provides some of the solder and teflon tubing with the silver wire "at no extra charge" and plus, I don't blame any seller of luxury items for the prices his customers are willing to pay. What gets me is the extravagant claims made for the power of silver wire to improve the "depth and breadth" of music by using it to connect low level signals. And how much impact can the AC wall outlet have on the quality of the sound coming out of the speakers? $39 worth? $46 worth? You know, wire wrap wire is silver plated. How many people would be able to tell silver plated copper wire from solid silver wire?
I was looking for information on soldering stainless steel and I came upon the Indium Corporation of America which makes many products from Indium including specialty solders, many without Indium. Now, for pure Indium wire (which has the amazing property that if it is cleaned properly it can be used to solder things together without any heat at all) they charge $180 for a minimum quantity of 3 feet of solid wire .03 inch in diameter. Well, maybe that's what Indium goes for - and this Indium is very pure - but they also sell 63/37 (tin/lead) solder, the "eutectic" alloy of tin and lead (a word whose definition I finally learned today, basically means it melts and solidifies at the same temperature) and a very commonly used alloy for electronic soldering, either it or 60/40 has been used for just about all electronic soldering for ages, it costs about $10 per pound - for the same 3 feet by .03 inch dia., the Indium Corporation charges $150!!! For a 1 pound bar - no, I misspeak, it's a 500 gram bar - they want $250. This might be very pure 63/37 solder, but they are selling it for use in a pot or a wave solder machine. I can only imagine that those prices are for unqualified customers. Or that there are some extremely critical applications that require whatever its properties are. While I didn't find what I was looking for (a formula for stainless steel flux), I did learn a lot about solder!
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