So my friend threw out a HMV 202

[12jslater]

I was talking to my friend the other day and he tells me that his nan had a cabinet gramophone. As he knows I collect them and he says to me that it was a bit scratched and battered so they threw it away he showed me the pictures of it on his phone and it was a HMV 202 with a mild scratching that could have been solved with a re-polish and a new grille clothe as it had a large tear. Other than that the plating appeared to be perfect and the motor apparently stopped when playing obviously a weak spring I could have killed him....

[tomb]

I hope I do not have any friends like that. I have given away several of my phonographs to my family and they will tell me if they see any old records around.. Tom B

[Phono48]

I could have killed him....

It's never too late.......

[Marco Gilardetti]

I can't say that I'm surprised by this. Although relatives and family friends all know that since my very early childhood I digged gramophones, tube radios, hi-fi components and alike, with very very few exceptions all of their radios, records etc. have been thrashed rather than passed to me at least for a "final" inspection before the dump.

The most noteworthy episode was a cousin of mine who owned a TEAC 80-8 that he perfectly knew I was very interested in, having made offers repeated times, who eventually trashed it to make room in his garage because "he was in a hurry and needed space".

I do not have a rational explanation for behaviours like these, which range from personal discourtesy to plain stupidity. Perhaps many people, just as they have problems with mathematics, or with grammar perhaps, lack the ability to understand that once a valuable object rich of history is trashed, it is gone and lost forever.

[CarlosV]

As he knows I collect them and he says to me that it was a bit scratched and battered so they threw it away he showed me the pictures of it on his phone and it was a HMV 202 with a ....

Ignorance is the keyword. Your friend most likely did not know any better about value of what he threw away, and probably assumed that nobody (including you) would be interested in some old-fashioned scratched cupboard. To be fair, old cabinets do not arouse greed in any normal people. It is the opposite of china: everyone assumes that grandma's dishes and tea cups are worth fortunes and save them, throwing away the rest. Who knows, maybe I could have traded grandma's pink plumed corset for a couple of HMV202's with a boudoir lingerie collector ... too late now: after I tried it and it was too small, I threw it away.

Most likely, my widow will throw away my HMV202 and EMG before my body cools down, so keep on the lookout, gramophone vultures.

[Nat]

When I was a student, my college had a room stuffed with well-tended 78 rpm discs, including an enormous number of Fonotpias. Shortly after I left they decided that the records were taking up too much room and put them all in dumpsters...

[alang]

My godfather had a very nice Mercedes 220 SE from the 1950s that I admired every time I saw it. It was around 1980 and I was a car mechanic apprentice back then. One day he came in a new car and I asked about the Mercedes. He said there was some electrical/wiring problem with it and he gave it to the junk yard. when I asked why he didn't give it to me, since I liked it so much, he said it was such a money pit that he did not want to burden me with this old junk. It is really all about perspective, not necessarily ill will. I don't even want to imagine how much furniture, maybe even phonographs my grandparents threw out because it was old junk.

Andreas

[Henry]

Ah yes, whatever happened to....the cherry red MG-TD a buddy of mine in high school owned, c. 1958-59. I really wanted a car like that! His was most unusual, too, in that my friend had lost his lower right leg due to cancer, so the car was equipped with a hand throttle (yes, it was a left-hand drive). Aha, the memories.....

[gramophone-georg]

My godfather had a very nice Mercedes 220 SE from the 1950s that I admired every time I saw it. It was around 1980 and I was a car mechanic apprentice back then. One day he came in a new car and I asked about the Mercedes. He said there was some electrical/wiring problem with it and he gave it to the junk yard. when I asked why he didn't give it to me, since I liked it so much, he said it was such a money pit that he did not want to burden me with this old junk. It is really all about perspective, not necessarily ill will. I don't even want to imagine how much furniture, maybe even phonographs my grandparents threw out because it was old junk.

Andreas

Had to have been a 1959 only if it was a sedan or a the last few weeks of 1958 production in July through July 1960 if it was a Coupe as the Coupe / Convertible Fintails did not start until model year 1961. Beautiful car and rare with the injected engine.

I started my apprenticeship with VW in 1975.

[Garret]

There are no words...