78 records not worth the effort apparently

[poodling around]

78 records at auction.

Never a photo of them.

No description of them.

Sometimes a photo of an old dusty cardboard box etc which presumably contains them - tantalisingly out of sight.

Nearly always mentioned as an aside but then - absolutely nothing.

[epigramophone]

Unless they are of some rarity and/or historical interest, most 78's are of little monetary value, so most auctioneers do not bother with detailed descriptions. SAS Auctions, the only specialist firm left in the UK for our field of collecting, do at least categorise records into lots with brief catalogue descriptions and pictures. Their latest sale takes place this week.

Only a few days ago a collector friend in my village was offered 5000 78's for £200 including delivery. Who has room for 5000 more 78's? Not my friend and certainly not me. There may be a few gems among the 5000, but for most people the sheer bulk would be overwhelming.

[Wolfe]

I once telephoned a place that dealt with liquidating estates, to inquire about 78's. They told me that when they get 78's in that they just throw them out.

No surprise. Most of the record stores where I live that deal heavily in vinyl will refuse to deal with 78's. Too much trouble handling heavy, fragile records for a limited return.

[phonogfp]

A few months ago I went to a "vintage record store" in a nearby city with a couple of friends. It was primarily vinyl, with some tapes, hi-fi equipment, and posters. We asked about 78s or cylinders, and were shown a shelf with a number of record albums and loose discs. My friends and I looked through them, but aside from a copy of The Charleston on a bat wing Victor and a handful of interesting titles, there wasn't much to get excited about. When we took the records up to pay, the woman said, "Oh no - 78s are free!"

Yes, we went through the records again and brought home a few more...

It's a great time to be buying. Not such a good time to be selling.

George P.

[AmberolaAndy]

A few months ago I went to a "vintage record store" in a nearby city with a couple of friends. It was primarily vinyl, with some tapes, hi-fi equipment, and posters. We asked about 78s or cylinders, and were shown a shelf with a number of record albums and loose discs. My friends and I looked through them, but aside from a copy of The Charleston on a bat wing Victor and a handful of interesting titles, there wasn't much to get excited about. When we took the records up to pay, the woman said, "Oh no - 78s are free!"

Yes, we went through the records again and brought home a few more...

It's a great time to be buying. Not such a good time to be selling.

George P.

Wow a copy of The Charleston for free! Now that’s a find! I wonder how many late 40s/early 50s records of easy listening, polkas, waltzes, and Ken Griffin\Jesse Crawford organ solos you had to sift though to find that!

[jboger]

I have no complaints if an auctioneer only poorly photographs any 78s coming up for sale--or even if the records are ignored completely and not photographed. After about four years, I have probably purchased about 1000 78s. I buy them in bulk and have seldom paid more than 10 cents each. True,of that 1000 I have already consigned about half of them to other auction houses, where again someone only pays about 10 cents a record. But I have found three Bessie Smiths records (two on the Flag label and one on the Vitaphone label) a Tampa Red record, a whole lot of early one-sided Victors, many off-labels, and all sorts of things. Wonder records, Zonophone nine-inchers, etc. I still have a lot to go through, so I will soon consign another batch. This method can be time consuming and is not to everyone's taste.

[drh]

To be fair, most generalist antiques dealers and such don't know enough about records and phonographs, and often don't have enough general knowledge of music, to make intelligent listings even if they wanted to. (I remember one lovely occasion when I got an operatic Edison diamond disc of some value for next to nothing because the eBay seller listed the selection as "Explanatory Talk.") Those of us who collect classical or operatic records run into this problem all the time, and it holds true for LPs and CDs as much as for 78s--unless the seller is a specialist, to the extent listings exist at all, they usually are assembled by and for pop music fans and simply don't convey adequate information.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I actually took many times advantage out of this. A friend of mine who owns a used records shop sometimes acquires entire collections with mixed LPs and 78s, and he usually pass to me the 78 almost for free or at symbolic prices. As already written by someone, he considers absolutely not profitable to stock records as heavy as 78s and that would surely be cracked by the first teenager that would come by.