A Berliner apparently + records

[JeffR1]

£29,000.00 !!!
I would not pay that, it looks like it's worth only a couple of bucks.
Something has to look like it's worth that money, and that doesn't cut it.

[Django]

29,000 British Pounds was the hammer price, plus 35.64% in fees, or $53,614.73 USD at todays exchange rate. Apparently, at least two people felt that they had to have it. It’s all relative I guess.

[alang]

If I see baseball cards or other memorabilia valued and sold at over $100k, I think this is a truly historical piece and a bargain in comparison. Not that I have that kind of money to spend on anything hobby related, but it always irks me when true antiques are valued so much less than stupid baseball (football, whatever) cards. Want some 17th century handcrafted masterpiece of furniture? You can get some beautiful pieces for a few thousand $$. But a baseball card...

Andreas

[Steve]

I've spent less than that on 76 machines this year. I wouldn't trade all of those for one machine like this even though I do understand its historical significance and I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to buy one.

[cmshapiro]

I've spent less than that on 76 machines this year. I wouldn't trade all of those for one machine like this even though I do understand its historical significance and I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to buy one.

Hard to sustain space at 76 machines per year, year after year. Spending that money to buy one or two of the highest quality and rarity in a year will always build a better collection, and a better and more sound investment.

[Steve]

I've spent less than that on 76 machines this year. I wouldn't trade all of those for one machine like this even though I do understand its historical significance and I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to buy one.

Hard to sustain space at 76 machines per year, year after year. Spending that money to buy one or two of the highest quality and rarity in a year will always build a better collection, and a better and more sound investment.

Yes, its not been a typical collecting year for me to say the least! As for buying for investment that's a bit of a gamble in any sense. No talking machine is ever going to be an investment in the long term, let's be quite clear. The market is diminishing and will reduce further over time. It also depends on what you're buying. I haven't bought any collection but just continued to seek out rare or interesting models and purchase individually. I haven't bought many common machines at all unless I've completed a few makers ranges of machines eg. Decca portables etc. Most items have been rarities or items in unusually good condition.

[cmshapiro]

I've spent less than that on 76 machines this year. I wouldn't trade all of those for one machine like this even though I do understand its historical significance and I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to buy one.

Hard to sustain space at 76 machines per year, year after year. Spending that money to buy one or two of the highest quality and rarity in a year will always build a better collection, and a better and more sound investment.

Yes, its not been a typical collecting year for me to say the least! As for buying for investment that's a bit of a gamble in any sense. No talking machine is ever going to be an investment in the long term, let's be quite clear. The market is diminishing and will reduce further over time. It also depends on what you're buying. I haven't bought any collection but just continued to seek out rare or interesting models and purchase individually. I haven't bought many common machines at all unless I've completed a few makers ranges of machines eg. Decca portables etc. Most items have been rarities or items in unusually good condition.

I am not implying that you should collect for finantial investment, but buying one or a few very good and important machines will have MUCH less risk of depreciation than buying a whole bunch of common or non-historicaly important machines. Most importantly it will make your collection tell a much better story, rather than pack rooms full of machines that had little bearing on changing or making history. But of course always buy what you like, even if that is a lot of quantity over quality.

[JerryVan]

Or.... buy what pleases you,

[poodling around]

Or.... buy what pleases you,

Very true indeed.