Very Overpriced Fire Alarms

Hey all,
Just got back from a day of antique shopping, and thought I’d share this experience because I found it pretty funny.

I found the following shelf in one store, and was very excited…

…until I looked at the price tags!

A Gamewell rebranded Simplex 4251 pull station: $75!
An Edwards Adaptabel: $55!

If anything, I suppose the moral of this story is to be careful looking in antiques stores for fire alarm parts!
Anyone have their own overpriced alarm stories to tell?

At a goodwill where they have the jewelry and other “expensive” items In the glass case, there was a rusty Edwards 27-SPO which retail for $30 but it was for sale for 55. I guess they thought it was super old. Idk it was weird to me

I can’t really say I’m surprised because in this day and age inflation tends to run rampant.

I don’t think it’s a problem with inflation, it’s just that most people don’t know how much money fire alarms are actually worth.

It’s like, half of people think they are worth hundred, whereas others think they are the same as a doorbell. I see listings on eBay for new alarms starting at $4 and others at $120

The main issue seems to be looks. I feel like some people think anything that looks vintage is automatically worth big money, even if it’s something as simple as a beat up pull station.

The thing about antique stores is you almost never pay the price on the tag. You can safely negotiate 10-15% off the listed price without insulting anyone. And if it’s been sitting there a while, you might be able to get it down to 25% off the listed price. Case in point, my wife and I were in a local antique store once, there was a table she was interested in, price was $120. I really didn’t want to pay over $100 for it, so I offered them $100. The guy was willing to take off a couple of bucks but was unwilling to go down to my price. So we walked out. Couple months later, we were back in there, table still there. This time I offered $90. Different guy but again, not willing to budge more than a few bucks. When I told him I knew it had been there for a while and obviously, nobody else was interested in it at that price, he reluctantly agreed to $100 with them paying the tax!

An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it!