The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

John,

I agree with you. 78s were readily available when I started collecting in 1977. There were several shops in the area that specialized in old records, and Victor batwings and patent labels could easily be found in antiques/collectibles venues and flea markets. By and large, those days are long gone.

Rocky

Neophone wrote:Folks,

For the most part, at least in urban ares, I think older 78's are pretty thin on the ground now-a-days. My gosh, when I think back to when I was a kid-seeing stacks of Batwings and the like at every yard sale, flea market, church bazaar and junk shop from pocket change, I could just scream!

E-Bay has been my savior. Before E-Bay I'd only ever seen two DDs in the wild and I bought them both when I was about 11. I'd never seen an unbroken cylinder for sale either. Mind you I wasn't actually looking for them.

If you find a seller you like and trust E-Bay is the way to go in my opinion it's easier to pick what you want I think.

Regards,
John

It does seem as though you have to pay to play on e-bay. I've yet to buy a single 78 there, because they always want too much money, but I may be looking to expore the further reaches of online sources.

Where I live, in the rapidly gentrifying Seattle area, many of the good junk/antique stores that were once decent places to find 78's have been to bulldozed to make room for yet another Starbucks, massage parlor, sushi bar and other of trappings of yuppie life. I've seen them go with my own eyes. I can find 78's "in the wild" still, but I have to do much more leg work than I once did.

Maybe I should have been more specfic, with my last point. I ment, I can not seem to find certain records. "Yes, We Have no Bananas" for example, or "monkey honeymoon", "Tin Pan Parade". I have only one place to buy 78's, but they are bit expnsive.

Paul

Paul,

It's almost a given that you will have to pay a bit more fro a recognizable title. Also searching junk shops and antique shops for specific titles must be very tedious. To me that's the way one finds the unexpected gems, the song you've never heard of that turns out to be a great tune.

Wolfe, I think I averaged under three dollars per record on E-Bay including shipping when I was buying regular. I would buy them forty at a time from one seller for example who held my wins until I reached forty and shipped them all together. I would always try to never buy just one record from a seller. That's how the shipping kills you.

Regards,
John

Edisonfan wrote:Maybe I should have been more specific, with my last point. I meant I can not seem to find certain records. "Yes, We Have no Bananas" for example, or "Monkey Honeymoon", "Tin Pan Parade". I have only one place to buy 78's, but they are bit expensive.

Paul,

I did a cursory search on eBay for you, and came up with the following: “Tin Pan Parade” (eBay Item #380091738598—‘Buy It Now’ price of $15.00 + $2.93 shipping), Victor (Orthophonic) 21149 by The Troubadours (which only 9 people had viewed)—and you can get the sheet music both by Gillespie & Whiting, 1927 (eBay Item #350154239679) [currently $2.95 with $2.00 shipping in the U.S., after 0 bids] and by Ford & Glenn (eBay Item #350156260757) [currently AU $0.99—approximately US $0.64, with US $7.78 shipping, again after 0 bids].

The latter seems like a better deal for Shane. There are currently 16 results for “Yes, We Have No Bananas” (big surprise, right?), but none of them are 78s, and I have no clue whether you would want it on a 45 or to have the sheet music (which is significantly more expensive than the former 2 items).

John offered you some good advice while I was writing this up (above), and he put it better than I could, so I will not even try to echo his suggestions.

I thought these were rather interesting to see (and this is probably my first sheet music transparency), so:

I think you can do better than $15 for that record, so you may just wish to keep watching until you find a better deal, unless you are really hot to have it now. I’ll try looking more later, although you may wish to remind me periodically.

Your friendly internet daemon,

MordEth

Either that, or just waot until, someone wants to unload some 78's, or DD's or cylinders. I'll just have to keep digging.

Paul

The Columbia rendition of Yes we have no bananas by Furman & Nash is available on Ebay. There are three bids, and the price is currently at $11.00. The seller doesn't indicate the condition of the record, which makes bidding a risky proposition.

Personally, I prefer the dance band renditions to the vocals. No offense to Billy Jones, who sung many vocal renditions of the song as well as many of the refrains on the dance band sides. Honorable mention goes to Billy Murray for his great refrain on the Victor fox-trot version and Irving Kaufman for the refrain on the Bailey's Lucky Seven side on Gennett.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Furman-Nash-1923-Ye ... 0332821738

Rocky

It's getting hard to find records in antique malls these days. I was at one on Sunday. There was a case full of hundreds of records- BUT nearly all junk. $0's or later, lots of Gospel Hour stuff, and the few older ones were either worn or cracked. How ever the digging paid off, at least for me. I happen to be a Mason ans was thrilled to find a Victor 10 inch of the Metropolitan Quartet singing a 3rd degree anthem and Pleyel's Hymn- and it was not scratched and broken. It made the trip worth it.

It's not really that important, that I have a copy, it's just that the copy I found, was a bit over priced. Anyway, I still have my usual dealer in 78's to scrounge through, and usually turn up some real gems. I even, started looking for certain labels as well. I even found a few that were never realeased nationally. I even found one that was recorded in Baltimore MD. Not only that, it has microgrooves like a 33, and feels like vynil, but plays at 78 rpm's.

Paul

Well I suppose I'd better weigh in too. I buy records for vaious reasons rougly listed in priority order.
- Title, of course I prefer that it is the type of music I'm most interested in.
- They must also be in at least VG or VG+ condition
- If they are in E+ or M condition I might buy them just to hear what a particular machine can put out with a perfect record.
- I focus on Cylinders, 2 & 4 min of every brand, and diamond discs. Especially with cylinders I will buy any title in mint condition assuming the price is not crazy.

If I already have a copy or two, does not matter. Anyway how would I know? I've never sorted out the duplicates and my collection is spread across two continents.