HMV Monarch, or not?

[nostalgia]

I only got this photo, of this horn gramophone for sale, without a horn and soundbox. To me it looks like a Monarch, do you agree or not?

[jamiegramo]

Perhaps not early enough to be a Monarch but yes it’s a Gramophone Company machine. Either HMV or Zonophone.

[nostalgia]

Thank you, Jamie. It is for sale for € 40, and if I am able to get it I will buy it, even if both the horn and the soundbox are missing.

[jamiegramo]

Good heavens! €40, the horn elbow would be worth more than that alone. It’s a difficult part to find. Move quickly.

[Steve]

I'm continually astonished how there are still very small pockets of bargain basement items existing today in the UK, USA and Europe when the vast majority of people globally have some idea of what things are worth OR how to find out if they don't already know.

40 Euros for this is insane. As Jamiegramo has said the elbow is probably worth 3 times that price alone. Unfortunately for me I live nowhere close to any bargain basement items. Everything I've seen that interests me is always priced at "retail" or top of market price. Only the utter tat falls into the super cheap bracket.

[Oedipus]

Not a monarch, but either an HMV Model 'B' (H.B.O.) or a Zonophone Model III (H.Z.O.) of 1913-15.With any luck, even if there is no transfer, there may be a label on the base giving the code.

[nostalgia]

I never was able to buy this gramophone, the seller did not want to ship it, even if wanted to pay for both the work and the shipping costs ( of course). One can not win every time;)

[Inigo]

One can understand the seller... He doesn't want to get into the complication of packing it safely and the further responsibility of shipping accidents.
I've always thought about that... In the event I wanted to sell some of m my machines. I don't know how to pack it properly. I would sell them also on pick-up option. This is to avoid any responsibility on damages. One never knows what will happen.... If any day I decided to start selling records and gramophones, I will have to learn how to ship them properly, and given my tendency to reach perfection, it would be a great task for me! And expensive shipping too!
Actually, I imagine myself as leading a stall on a record fair or something alike. It looks more safe and comfortable... if I managed to sell anything!
Actually I already have some 1500-2000 78s ready to discard or sell, and maybe some machines, but I've not yet decided how to do it... I want to reduce my collection, this is clear. Lately I've been discarding any 78 that I play if it is not a marvel for myself. Some are easy to discard, but others aren't, as they have some kind of interest, discographically rare records, or special labels... Not only the music or the recordings on them are important to me. Some I keep only for sentimental reasons!

[nostalgia]

I think the seller was a rather young person, and was not very interested in taking the time to pack it, carry it to the post office etc. The seller preferred instead to sell it locally. Of course, packing a horn gramophone, even without a horn, is tedious work even if I already had given the instructions on how to do it, but as you say Inigo...risk of accidents, complaints from buyers etc..is always issues to take into consideration for a seller.

[epigramophone]

Although I have sold and posted many portables via eBay with no problems, I would never risk posting an open horn machine.
The only such machine I have ever sold, and since regretted, was locally by word of mouth.

Unless they are of value, records are not worth the considerable work of packing for postage. Most of my surplus records are either given away to fellow collectors or to the few charity shops which still accept them. To clear the collection of a deceased friend a few years ago, I and a couple of friends took a stall at the CLPGS Phonofair, where we raised a worthwhile sum for his widow.

Sadly the 2020 Phonofair was a casualty of the pandemic, and I fear that 2021 will be no different.