Crapophones even get names now!

[Steve]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271927255063

Is this seller for real? How can anyone buy into this "genuine original" scam?

[fonografica]

Just one more Crapophone...with a nice decal! LOL

[Phono48]

Did someone tell him? I see the auction's cancelled because "The item is no longer available"!

Barry

[Steve]

Well, it was either because I gave him all the links to Crapophone websites or because so many people were beating a path to his door to snap it up for just £150 - a real rarity after all, a Crapophone with a model name - that he couldn't handle the excitement. I'll let you decide.

By the way, I have a question for all you engineering minded folks out there: if Indian and China can reproduce brass panelled horns (whatever the quality), wooden cabinets (likewise), why in heaven's name can't anyone apparently fashion a modern elbow to actually look right? Why are all Crapophone elbows made of two pieces welded together at 45 degrees? If they can make a horn why not an elbow?

[VintageTechnologies]

By the way, I have a question for all you engineering minded folks out there: if Indian and China can reproduce brass panelled horns (whatever the quality), wooden cabinets (likewise), why in heaven's name can't anyone apparently fashion a modern elbow to actually look right? Why are all Crapophone elbows made of two pieces welded together at 45 degrees? If they can make a horn why not an elbow?

I don't know why they can't, but I hope they never figure that out. The fake elbow makes phoney-craps identifiable from a mile away.

[estott]

There is a UK dealer (who will remain nameless) who found a large dealers stock of various unused transfers.

[Oceangoer1]

Hey check this one out. It's an "original radio/phono combination"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLASSIC-LOOK-AN ... 3cfbc6b74f

I don't even know what it is, but it looks like a hodgepodge of parts, plus a Philip's Stereo

[NEFaurora]

Well, At least the seller offers this valuable protection...


"100% Genuine Products | Buy with confident | 14 Days Return Policy"

Who would'nt buy from India?


)

[Retrograde]

I understand this is is a Fecalphone. The decal says "Meriphone", was that ever a real gramophone company? I've not heard of that one before.

[CarlosV]

By the way, I have a question for all you engineering minded folks out there: if Indian and China can reproduce brass panelled horns (whatever the quality), wooden cabinets (likewise), why in heaven's name can't anyone apparently fashion a modern elbow to actually look right? Why are all Crapophone elbows made of two pieces welded together at 45 degrees? If they can make a horn why not an elbow?

There is no technical challenge, Steve, it is only a matter of price, it is much cheaper to braze two straight or conical pieces together than to machine-bend a single piece. And brazing can be handicrafted in a garage, while the single piece bending requires industrial processing to achieve the dimensional accuracy required to allow it to fit at both ends. Crapophones with curved elbows would have to be sold for five times more to pay for the luxury, so there probably would be no market for them, assuming that there is a market for them now. The horns require simpler (and cheaper) machinery, basically stampers for each panel followed by brazing. A good subject for crapo-economics specialists.

To me a more intriguing aspect of the crapophony is their motor - there must exist some factory in this world still churning spring-wound gramophone motors, as it is unlikely that all these crapophones are just cannibalizing old motors. Not that there is any technical challenge in making them, but I wonder if they can make any money out of their production.