The Joy of the Trade

[N8PQB]

It seems this time of year money gets a bit harder to come by. At least that is the common feeling of more and more hams that have families. I mean no dishonor to the older guys with families that have left the nest, but rather am addressing maybe the minority. I recently seen an ad that said, "5 week old radio... ending in, "no issues, radio is the greatest, I just want to try something new". At least for this ham, with the complexity of the current line of rigs, there is no way I could evaluate a radio, with all its tricks, in only 5 weeks!
Anyway back to the original intent of this posting....
It seems most ads that list a trade being possible, are after a certain rig, often times involving a trade up or down with respect to the rig being advertised.
In the 15 years of my ham career, some of the biggest joys have been in leaving the trade options open. Remembering the old adage, "One man's junk, is another man's treasure", I have enjoyed the thrill of finding some very unusual items. Often times it may not even be a ham related item, and a few times I have made trades for items I didn't even know I wanted. Hi Hi
I keep an open mind, sometimes trading off an item I just received, to someone else that was looking for what I just received. Trading is like a garage sale, you never know what's there if you don't stop and look.

So I offer this idea to all who are reading this rambling, don't develop tunnel vision on what your after, life's treasures often are like a sheep in wolf's clothing, just waiting to be explored.

73 to all, may all your deals be fruitful.

Tom, N8PQB