How rare are these aerials?

Comments

• matticus_bricks Member Posts: 648

  April 2015

  http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3144
  
  There's the Bricklink entry for this part. Your light grey ones seem to be fairly rare and valuable! I would guess the "semi-translucent" ones you mentioned are what BL calls "milky white," which seem to be the least-rare of the colors. It looks like yours are in great condition, so great find!

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• oldtodd33 Denver 4800 miles to BillundMember Posts: 2,469

  April 2015

  I'm guessing the reason they wanted them so badly isn't necessarily because they are rare but they are pricey and were looking for a bargain from a newb.

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• woony2 UKMember Posts: 336

  April 2015

  Finding them intact is the difficult bit. Without looking them up I'm sure they were used in lots of the early 'space' sets and I think 'town' as well. I seem to remember them on top of police and fire stations. But as they were from the era when all Lego sets got played with the horizontal bars often broke off.
  Yours do look good.
  

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• madforLEGO Chicagoland USMember Posts: 9,540

  April 2015 edited April 2015

  The gray ones were often on more expensive sets and constantly broken so they tend to be more sought after. Especially as they are in many larger classic space sets as well as larger city sets (like a Police Station and Cargo Center) (I have many stored for MOCs or for replacing in a set I'm rebuilding).
  I would say the other reason why the ones in the picture are sought after is because they:
  1) have all their little sprues/ antenna pieces and not appearing like the are barely hanging onto the main piece
  2) they appear to be very straight and not bent up like many other are.
  3) do not appear to have teeth marks, as apparently kids used them for teething. :-P
  
  The Milky ones are from many older non-minifig sets and also I think basic brick sets and are not typical as sought after as the classic gray I believe
  

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• VorpalRyu AustraliaMember Posts: 2,303

  April 2015

  I was born in '76 & before I was crawling, my parents' family & friends were stockpiling Lego sets for me, so I even have some doubles of some sets. My dad had the attitude that you take care of your toys (else you won't get more), any stuff I've got that's damaged is due to my cousins, I was able to keep them away from my Lego for the most part, so most of the aerials have survived well.
  
  As for a newbie, my brother was working at a collectibles store for a few years & when I recently got back into Lego, I was looking all over for info, including the aftermarket, curiosity mostly, as to how collectible Lego was these days. Besides, the moment someone looks like they want to lick their lips as you mention having a few of an item in storage, generally its a safe bet its worth something, at least to them... :smiley:

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• ecmo47 North CarolinaMember Posts: 2,101

  April 2015 edited April 2015

  woony2 said:

  Finding them intact is the difficult bit. Without looking them up I'm sure they were used in lots of the early 'space' sets and I think 'town' as well. I seem to remember them on top of police and fire stations. But as they were from the era when all Lego sets got played with the horizontal bars often broke off.
  Yours do look good.
  

  https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=3144&in=S
  
  I did look it up and your exactly right. The white aerial first appeared in 1969 and was included in many sets until 1973. Light Grey's run was from 1979-1984. Milky white had the longest run as it first appeared in 1976 in set # 565 Moon Lander. I received that set for Christmas that year and it the antenna for the rover moon car. It last appeared in 1987 in a basic building set.
  

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