A green Columbia 205, worth saving?

Discussions on Talking Machines of British or European Manufacture
JerryVan
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Re: A green Columbia 205, worth saving?

Post by JerryVan »

nostalgia wrote: Mon Feb 13, 2023 6:02 am Jerry, I am as far away from being a dealer as is possible. :mrgreen: I am first, last and always a collector, and my main interest is repairing, trying to save what can be saved.
The rhetorical question about this green Columbia 205, was philosophical and to possibly ignite a small disussion about saving less valuable machines, that still may be hard to find. If becoming a dealer, I could probably not start at a worse end than with this cheap Columbia too :mrgreen:
BUT, I also know they are scarce, when googling, I can't find any green Columbia 205 online, and knowing they are part of the history, my historical interest ( that is quite strong) enters my conscience. How many green Columbia 205 could there be left...5,10,50, 100? That's my main thought, and not as financial gain, since there probably also ain't any, but to possibly save it from the landfill. Being 61, I have witnessed different kind of items ending on the landfill for decades, and later on everyone asked...why did we throw that item away, where do we find a copy today. We all know this is a cheap style gramophone, but does it still deserve it's place in history and be saved from being crushed?
That would be my only motivation for saving this green Columbia 205, it would never be displayed, since I have no room for it, at least not if I dont' move to another location where I can display all the portables, which would be nice of course, but still rather unlikely, since I am storing close to 50 in my storage locker. Of course I have a small space for it in my storage locker, and I also have a tone arm for it, so the lingering question really is, how scarce are they, and do they deserve to be saved if they are scarce? If it was a black HMV 87, I would not bother, since they are plenty.
I am not saying I will drive out to buy it, to save it, and store it, but the "worth" here is only used for historical reasons, and not financial gain.
I see how you could have possibly misinterpretted my posting above. I realized that you weren't measuring "worth" in the monetary sense. I was simply saying that if you think it has merit and should be saved, then it's worth it for you to do so.

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nostalgia
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Re: A green Columbia 205, worth saving?

Post by nostalgia »

No hard feelings, Jerry :)
It will alwas be a discussion what to save, and what not to save, and also a rather dead end discussion, since the answer is impossible to give. There is of course a natural tendency wanting only to save the best of the best of gramophones, and saving items of low value, low interest, and even low quality will always be a question.

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