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Somehow having been transformed over my life into a non-lurker type,
might I just point out regarding Frank's little-worn newer sextants
on eBay.  The worn ones would tend to still be in use and not for sale!

Fred

On Jan 15, 2007, at 9:18 PM, Ken Gebhart wrote:

> OK Frank, lurk inclined as I am, any time someone says that CN is
> of little interest to people these days, I have to raise my voice.
> Now that you have said that CN is of enormous superficial interest,
> and that the number of people with greater than a casual interest
> is debatable, I will call it a day and quit while (I think) I am
> ahead.
>
> Sincerely, though, I really appreciate your willingness to come
> forward with your views, and welcome others.
> Ken
>
>
> On 1/8/07 7:33 PM, "FrankReedCT@aol.com"  wrote:
>
>> Ken Gebhart wrote:
>> "Frank, may I ask on what you base this conclusion?  We (at
>> Celestaire) are
>> seeing sextant, nautical almanac, sight reduction tables and CN
>> calculator
>> sales all up over previous years. This is the case as reported by our
>> dealers in the UK and Australia as well.  At most of the US
>> sailboat shows,
>> attendance at CN seminars is much higher than 10 years ago, and is
>> quite
>> respectable."
>>
>> That's certainly very interesting. First, let's not discount the
>> fact that you personally are doing something right. Imagine a
>> grumpy old man sitting in a booth saying to prospective customers,
>> "Yeah, it's a sextant. You're holding upside-down, moron. And no,
>> it doesn't have anything to do with sex. Don't even think about it
>> until you read these three books!" You can imagine that this
>> imaginary sextant merchant would see declining sales. But of
>> course, that's not you. You're a skillful, interesting public
>> speaker, an enthusiastic advocate of the art of navigation, and an
>> all-around nice guy. No flattery intended. As the available
>> options for learning about celestial navigation have dried up in
>> the past twenty years, the remaining business should rather
>> naturally gravitate to you. So that's part of the puzzle.
>>
>> More generally, I think that there is enormous superficial
>> interest in celestial navigation. Sextants are "cool". They look
>> like they might be really fun to use. If a person could become a
>> celestial navigator in three days or fewer, or better yet three
>> hours, I am sure that the market for the tools would be very
>> large. As it is, many potential students are eager to buy "stuff"
>> but very few indeed get around to trying them out. How many of
>> those boat show sextant sales end up on ebay a few months later?
>> There are used Astra IIIb's on ebay on a regular basis, and the
>> auctions almost always include these phrases: "hardly ever used",
>> "used once", "never used, stored in a closet for ten years".
>> You'll never see phrases like "normal wear from use" or "used on
>> three Atlantic crossings". Those phrases do appear on auctions for
>> old Simex sextants, Tamayas from the 1960s, and so on. And, of
>> course, the great majority of sextants on ebay are purely
>> decorative. But they sell well.
>>
>> The number of people with a greater than casual interest in the
>> subject is debatable, but I think it's very low.
>>
>> -FER
>> 42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
>> www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> >


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