Selling at the APS show for the first time

[Curt A]

Those were mine. I have no shame.

WTF... why bother going?

[gramophone-georg]

Those were mine. I have no shame.

WTF... why bother going?

Oh cut it out. Maybe those are just Lawrence Welk and Partridge Family LPs.

[Jwb88]

I completely understand how a stack of corny record bowls can be controversial. I’m very sorry for all those I offended. If this is going to ostracize myself from the community I guess that’s inevitable and I should have foreseen it. It was a bad decision.

As for “Why I even went:” for some reason, it’s the same price ($80) for two people to get in Saturday as it is to have a table to sell. I inquired on Wednesday and was told Thursday that there were two tables and so I thought, why not get one, put some stuff out, and maybe even pay for the admission?!?” My opinion is that the Saturday entrance fee is too high for buyers and too low for sellers, but I’m sure there’s probably a reason for this.

The bowls were made by me. They’re stupid and silly. I admit it. I have a garage full of Eddy Arnold and New Christy Minstrel LPs that have destroyed sleeves or damage. I find them fun to make. They hold sunglasses well and I throw change and my wallet in them at night. I make fun of them. I told people that noticed them that you can surely place them between two sheets of glass in the sun and they’d be just as good as new (that glass trick almost never works on anything but the slightest warps for me, LOL). I would have thought a community based on mostly pre-1930 recordings wouldn’t have cared if a Harry Belafonte LP with a scored groove got made into a bowl. I WAS OBVIOUSLY WRONG AND I’M SORRY. (I shouted that)

I would like you all at least to consider the amount of time I’ve spent on saving painted and otherwise badly-restored machines and achieving a decent level of authenticity that I honestly don’t see from many others here. The huge amounts of self-taught experience that I’ve shared with people at these shows who were obviously wanting the info for profit. I give out what I know because I figure it’s for the good of the machines. Furthermore, I have spent years working on restoring sound quality through reproducer rebuilds using my own gaskets, making my own Edison rice paper diaphragms. Yesterday, I was amazed at how bad some rather high-end machines sounded. Not many people seem interested in getting them sounding right. That’s fine. Some collectors buy for looks. I buy for sound. I don’t hate them.

I’ve been in this hobby since I was a kid. I love phonographs. I love the sounds they can make. I love the way they can and should look. I do this for fun. I have a house loaded with them because I feel like I need to rescue so many of them (which is bananas) and so if the gut instinct about the record bowls was how good records were ruined or how it’s an example of capitalism at its worst, I get it. I honestly do. I guess I misjudged the seriousness of the community, which I found to be overwhelmingly concerned with sales yesterday and so maybe tensions are high or something.

If you think less of me because of a stupid decision I made to bring these bowls, I’m sorry.

[gramophone-georg]

I completely understand how a stack of corny record bowls can be controversial. I’m very sorry for all those I offended. If this is going to ostracize myself from the community I guess that’s inevitable and I should have foreseen it. It was a bad decision.

As for “Why I even went:” for some reason, it’s the same price ($80) for two people to get in Saturday as it is to have a table to sell. I inquired on Wednesday and was told Thursday that there were two tables and so I thought, why not get one, put some stuff out, and maybe even pay for the admission?!?” My opinion is that the Saturday entrance fee is too high for buyers and too low for sellers, but I’m sure there’s probably a reason for this.

The bowls were made by me. They’re stupid and silly. I admit it. I have a garage full of Eddy Arnold and New Christy Minstrel LPs that have destroyed sleeves or damage. I find them fun to make. They hold sunglasses well and I throw change and my wallet in them at night. I make fun of them. I told people that noticed them that you can surely place them between two sheets of glass in the sun and they’d be just as good as new (that glass trick almost never works on anything but the slightest warps for me, LOL). I would have thought a community based on mostly pre-1930 recordings wouldn’t have cared if a Harry Belafonte LP with a scored groove got made into a bowl. I WAS OBVIOUSLY WRONG AND I’M SORRY. (I shouted that)

I would like you all at least to consider the amount of time I’ve spent on saving painted and otherwise badly-restored machines and achieving a decent level of authenticity that I honestly don’t see from many others here. The huge amounts of self-taught experience that I’ve shared with people at these shows who were obviously wanting the info for profit. I give out what I know because I figure it’s for the good of the machines. Furthermore, I have spent years working on restoring sound quality through reproducer rebuilds using my own gaskets, making my own Edison rice paper diaphragms. Yesterday, I was amazed at how bad some rather high-end machines sounded. Not many people seem interested in getting them sounding right. That’s fine. Some collectors buy for looks. I buy for sound. I don’t hate them.

I’ve been in this hobby since I was a kid. I love phonographs. I love the sounds they can make. I love the way they can and should look. I do this for fun. I have a house loaded with them because I feel like I need to rescue so many of them (which is bananas) and so if the gut instinct about the record bowls was how good records were ruined or how it’s an example of capitalism at its worst, I get it. I honestly do. I guess I misjudged the seriousness of the community, which I found to be overwhelmingly concerned with sales yesterday and so maybe tensions are high or something.

If you think less of me because of a stupid decision I made to bring these bowls, I’m sorry.

I can't speak for Curt, but for my part I was flinging dung. Glad some stuck!

[Jwb88]

I had a feeling, but it's so hard to judge on here, so I wrote that ridiculous, long, unnecessary explanation.

No hard feeling on my end, even if there are on some others.

[gramophone-georg]

I had a feeling, but it's so hard to judge on here, so I wrote that ridiculous, long, unnecessary explanation.

No hard feeling on my end, even if there are on some others.

At least it wasn't Esquivel.

[Damfino59]

Jwb88:

I drive by two of the largest garbage landfills in the Winnebago County area on a daily basis. This sight always reminds me of the fate of many of the things us humans hold dear.

Yesterday I went on a road trip to help a friend transport a collectible 1940’s Scott television set to a international shipper in the Fox River Grove area. My friend is a rabid vinyl collector while I’m more into shellac. So we stopped at several estate garage sales, antique malls, thrift stores etc. From what I can tell there must millions of worn insignificant LP’s, those missing their album covers. So if you want to repurpose them in any manner you see fit I myself do not have a problem with that. It certainly is better then becoming permanent landfill.

Also a shoutout to your restoration skills on several of your machines. Your work keeps those machines from becoming landfill or Etsy fodder!

Regards,
Glenn

[Jwb88]

Thank you, Glenn.

Let's not hijack this thread any more than I already did.
It was Mike B.'s thread and he's a great guy so I apologize for getting way off-topic.

[MikeB]

In that case, I'll get this derailed train back on topic...

I sold better than expected, and had a great time. I only sold one machine though. I brought a couple of my antique slag glass lamps and they brought more attention than anything, and I sold them to a nice couple who were going to put them around their machines.

From a selling standpoint, I think that selling common machines at the show is difficult for a couple of reasons. The most obvious is because of the sheer number of them in the room. It seemed like just about every dealer had an Edison cylinder machine, or a common Victor. Another reason would probably be that many of the collectors who showed up already owned those machines. So, in general, I imagine that the machines which would have the best chance of selling would be realistically priced rarities, cheap project machines, or good common machines that would be priced low enough to be attractive for resale. I did talk to one nice gentleman who was looking to buy his first cylinder machine, and I was happy to see him walk out with an Amberola.

The same goes for common cylinder records. They were hard to sell, probably due to the sheer number of them in the room. Most customers didn't even bother to look at them. I had a suitcase of cylinders on the table, and when people opened it and found what it contained, they got an "Oh, God, more cylinder records" kind of look on their face and ran away.

Mike

[Curt A]

I had a feeling, but it's so hard to judge on here, so I wrote that ridiculous, long, unnecessary explanation.

No hard feeling on my end, even if there are on some others.

No problems here, just overreacting to the Etsy stuff. I really admire your restoration work on the machines you have displayed and appreciate the time it takes to post that on the Forum.

I apologize for my knee jerk response... I have always been a record collector first and a machine collector second, so I cringe when records get made into anything but records... no coasters, clocks, popcorn bowls, BB gun targets, etc. Someday, maybe someone will be searching for one of those LPs and lament that it was destroyed... or not.

I'm obviously not a fan of the recent repurposing movement, unless it involves IKEA furniture, which is arguably already junk. Destroying records equates in my mind to trying to deal with a troublesome pet... Do you put it down or find a new home? Personally, I would rather see records dumped in a landfill, since you will never see them again. Making them into something else makes me crazy, especially if I find a desirable record that is now a popcorn bowl and can never be restored...