The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I wouldn't typically post exchanges like this, but I'm utterly baffled by this person and his responses to what I'd consider pretty reasonable questions. He's been listing and relisting on ebay a decent Victor IV with a spruce horn... there's a reserve that hasn't been met... as each attempted auction has ended, the bidding has fallen well short of 2000 in each instance.

During the last attempted auction, I messaged him and asked what his reserve was and whether he (the auction shows him in PA) might be attending the upcoming Wayne show. He didn't get back to me, the auction ended and then he relisted it again. So I messaged him again and asked what his reserve was. His response...

"it is nowhere near what others are looking to get for there Victor 4
that is all I am autherized to say"

So I replied basically saying I had no idea what he meant by authorized and that I didn't care what others might want for their Victor IV's, that I was only asking him how much he was looking to get for his. I also said I'd just find another, that I wasn't into these sorts of games.

His response...

"you can serch all you want and you will finfd the Mahogany Victor IV Phonograph but not with the with SPRUCE Wood Horn and never a low price as mine .. so now you do care about others prices if you are going to look
haaaaa"

So I replied, "Well, I don't even know your price because for whatever misguided reason you won't disclose it. And regarding spruce horns, I actually see one at just about every phonograph show I attend. And I'm not sure what you're haha-ing about, I don't see anything funny or clever about pushing away buyers who are interested in buying something you represent yourself as selling."

His response...

"hhaaaaa
I see you are no math whiz but you can figure it out see what they want and as I stated double mine
so if they want $ 5000 take half if they want $ 6000 again take half
haaaa"

I'm sure I should have just stopped after his first response, I'm done at this point. But, I don't know, I mean, I'm not going to characterize this one way or another as it speaks for itself... is this becoming typical of ebay though? I thought craigslist was bad enough.

is this the machine / seller in question ? If so, I think if you examine their Feedback, and look at the negative comments, they probably give additional insight...


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mahogany-Victor ... 2a4f11ae0d


If he wants top-dollar, he would do well to wipe the dust off'n it... haaaaahaaaahaaaa....

Hi Brian,
I concur, I don't understand any one who won't answer a question about a reserve number. Whats the point of a reserve? if you are protecting what you paid for it or estimating a value of what you think it is worth, you should be proud to let someone know who is interested enough to ask...if you want to sell it.

I hope it is obvious, but the horn appears to have a massive repair to the narrow end which is detrimental to its value. It would be nice if there were a better picture of that repair, but I guess that just follows suit to this persons attitude about it all. Spruce Victor horns dont have support collars, period. It is likely he is waiting for a novice overseas buyer. See you this weekend in Wayne! John

Hey Brian,

I have run across sellers like this before. What I have experienced, is they have set a real high reserve either with no desire to sell, or they'll sell it, but at too high price. If they revealed their reserve, no one would bid.

If a seller has a real reserve, they will gladly share it so bidders will bid to win if it is reasonably priced.

My advice, walk away.

I suspect you're dealing with a consignment issue... Someone is selling someone else's stuff, and needs authorization to make changes. U can even try to address it that way... "please ask the current owner...."

I could be wrong. But that's my 2 cents.

I also suspect some kind of cultural barrier. Maybe Google translate translates the Romanian word for "respectfully" as 'hhhaaaa'

I would stay away from this as it looks like the horn has had some badly done repair where it goes into the elbow.

I recall he was offering something quite some time back and I asked him if we could provided some additional, more detailed pictures.

His response, "No, I won't."

I replied, that in that case I would not be able to bid on his machine. Never heard back.

It's the great thing about the internet I think - no matter how weird you are there is always someone more weird out there

Steve

stevel wrote:It's the great thing about the internet I think - no matter how weird you are there is always someone more weird out there

Steve

AND how.