The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Recently a friend of mine showed me a Polly Portable that he has.He said he'd let me have it for $300.I also have a Melody made by Boesch Bros.that I picked up recently.It's a run-of-the-mill machine.After seeing my friend's Polly I feel kind of sorry that I bought the other one.What should I do,and is the Polly worth the price?edisonplayer

I cannot comment on your Boetsch portable. The Polly is cool and interesting, but not really a daily player. I would not pay $300 for one, maybe $150 to $200 if in perfect and complete condition.

JMO
Andreas

I paid $175 (shipped) for my Polly Portable. The horn hold-down was incomplete and the horn storage bracket was missing. I also had to replace the little rubber parts on the reproducer and do the usual maintenance. Given the missing parts, I probably overpaid slightly, but not much.

For $300, I would expect a like-new machine showing no wear to the case or horn, all metal parts clean and shiny, and I would also expect the colorful instruction disk to be present and in excellent condition. (These discs are usually not present but replacements are available.)

The Boestch portable is more of an everyday machine like you'd take on a picnic.As for the Polly the carrying handle needs replacement and there's no instruction sheet with it.However,it is complete.edisonplayer

FWIW, I would consider $300 a very top-end price for a machine that's more of a curiosity then a practical device. However, curiosities are fun too, (which is probably why my wife married me ).

these sell for about $100-$150 from what I've seen recently.

I told a friend of mine that I'll wait and see if I win anything in Kurt Nauck's latest auction,then I'll decide on the Polly.For $300 my friend should replace the carrying handle and provide for me the paper instruction sheet.That'd only be fair.edisonplayer

I didn't win anything from Nauck,so later I'll call my friend and tell him I want the Polly and he can bring it to the next flea market show.edisonplayerPS:I did call him last night so he will replace the carrying handle and put a repro instruction sheet with it.

edisonplayer wrote:The Boestch portable is more of an everyday machine like you'd take on a picnic

Boestch portables are generally of nice quality, the maker was Boestch Brothers. They later changed the name to Birch and turned out many hundreds of portables best described as Cute but Cheap, with tone arms that tend to stick with age & are riveted together so you can't easily fix them.

I have seen the Birch portable machines.They date from the 1940's.Last week I took my Boesch portable to choir practice.I played on it the Nick Lucas Brunswick record of "Tip Toe Thru The Tulips"They loved it! .He was the originator of the song in the 1929 film"The Gold Diggers of Broadway"edisonplayer