The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

It has been a long time since I last regularly posted on the forum as work and later health issues have been a bit of a distraction. But I am now picking up the hobby again but and beginning it with a big packing up exercise as we are moving overseas again this time from New Zealand back to the UK. We moved over here 7 years ago but have now decided that we will relocate back.

I don't have a large collection (approx 2,000 78's and 7 machines) but even so packing everything up again is proving to be a time consuming task! I'd forgotten how much time it took when we moved 7 years ago...although it was worth the effort as everything arrived in one piece and no damage...not even a chipped 78! I am very much hoping that I will be as lucky moving everything back in the opposite direction....

Last time we moved I got good advice from other members of the forum here particularly on the packing of records..using stout cardboard boxes and packing the records very tightly inside, cushioned with bubblewrap inside the box. Machines turntables and sound boxes removed and packed separately, tone arms secured. With the radiograms similarly turntables were removed, pick ups secured and the valves removed and packed separately in smaller boxes.

The packers arrive this Friday to begin the packing up process - although I would of packed all the 78's already in boxes and prepared the machines for boxing up. Hopefully everything will arrive back in the UK safe and sound by early October. When I have arrived back and settled back down I am looking forward to more fully picking this hobby back up again and being a much more active member of the gramophone and record collecting community than I have been in the past.

Wish me luck!

Richard

Safe travels for your family and you! Steve

Nice to hear from you again Richard!

Hello Richard
Nice to hear from you again(Been a long time since we talked)
It's Johan from Denmark.

Billehifi wrote:Hello Richard
Nice to hear from you again(Been a long time since we talked)
It's Johan from Denmark.

Hi Johan
good to see you have become a member. I haven't forgotten I have something here for you so I will send you a private message and you can let me have your details so I can send it. I will do it before I leave NZ otherwise it may get lost in all the other house stuff which wont arrive in the UK until October!

Also Hi Bruce - yes it has been a while but I am back now and thank you Steve.

Hi Richard Hawkey,so sorry to see you leaving the big smoke Auckland. Returning home to the motherland. Mark Dawson. Napier New Zealand.

Richard,

Can you please show some pictures of your record-packing method?

Sincerely,

Garret

Yes Garret.

I have used the standard sized book cartons given to me by the packer. These are made of very thick / stiff cardboad. I made sure the bottoms of the boxes were well taped as they would be taking a lot of weight.

I made the decision early on that there would be two different standards of packing. "Premium" for my best disks and standard for the rest.

For both lots i lined the bottom of the box with 4 layers of bubble wrap to protect the records if the box was put down hard.

For the standard packing i lined the inside of the box with a double layer of bubblewrap. I then packed the records in tightly and at either end of the box where there were gaps (the boxes were longer than the records) i scrunched up paking paper into tight balls and packed it in tight to the gaps.

When full i put a layer of scrunched up paper on top and on top of that a double layer of bubblewrap. Then i sealed the box.

For the premium packing i grouped the 78 into batches of about 20. These batches were wrapped in layers of bubblewrap to make a padded parcel. I made three of these parcels and packed them into a box lined with bubblewrap as above. Top of the box was also lined with bubblewrap and gaps at the end of the box packed with scrunched up paper.

With both types of packing valueless 78's were used to be at the outer edges of the box just in case.

It took ages to pack them all up and loads of packing materials! I used a similar method for my 16" disks as well. Now i am keeping my fingers crossed as i have done everything i can

Thank you so much for sharing! This is instructive!

Garret