billybob62 wrote:As Bernard Baruch once said to the Lady who was complaining about how terrible the prices from the 1929 stock market crash were, "Not for the Buyers, M'am".
The down market for phonographs stings when I think what I have paid in the past for machines. However, it does create many great buying opportunities. I was at Stanton’s and I was thrilled that I was able to take advantage of the great prices. I ended up bringing home a lot more machines than I had planned on buying. I went planning to purchase 2 or 3 rare machines that don’t often hit the market, but I came home with 10 pretty rare machines. I am very happy with my purchases and the great addition to my collection that they make. For me my collection gives me enjoyment as I find, learn about and purchase these historical items that fascinate me. My main motivation in collecting is for enjoyment. It would be nice if they turn out to be a good investment, however if not they give me lots of enjoyment. Since I don’t consider them part of my retirement plan, I guess my kids are the only ones that will truly know what kind of investment it was when the sell off my collection after I am gone. I have stressed to them that there are some valuable pieces so that hopefully they will get a fair market value for my collection when that time comes (including detailed records of what I have paid for everything).
I am very thankful to Stanton’s for the really amazing auctions that they put on. They put a lot of time and effort into bringing these machines to market. There is really something for everyone - from the common to the impossibly rare, from the pristine to fixxer upper, form difficult to find parts to complete machines. When you consider the work that they put into every auction - tens of thousands of miles traveling the country to find and evaluate pieces to be brought to auction (from individual pieces to complete collections), then transport, catalog, store, put together a catalog with excellent descriptions of everything, promoting the auction, then transporting organizing, cleaning and organizing the machines and parts for auction. It boggles my mind to think of the work that goes into it. (I think how I had trouble keeping the reproducers, cranks, horns record nuts etc. straight and put back with the right machine for the 10 machines that I bought- mutiply that by the almost 900 lots for sale - seems impossible to me) Steve Stanton pointed out that his 94 year old mother (sitting front row at the auction), spent 3 days dusting and cleaning all of the machines after they had been transported to the auction site from storage. Much of my collection has been possible thanks to the hard work of Steve Stanton and his crew, and for that I am very thankful.