EMG Mk VIII Conversion of a HMV Junior Grand

[chunnybh]

Here it is again and in the safe hands of Tom Barnard who kindly send me some pictures so I could put together a web page on it.
I love all Wilson horn gramophones, this one is no exception. In fact this is simply marvelous to my eyes.
If I was in the UK, I would have snapped this up, no questions asked. The fact that it took so long to sell, is telling of the state of gramophone collecting in the UK.

https://www.gramophonemuseum.com/tom-barmard-hmv.html

[Steve]

With all due respect the reason it took so long to sell was that a) the vendor over-valued it and b) the auctioneers also over-valued it and did everything possible to frustrate and obstruct a sale.

I'm curious though. How did Tom manage to buy it when the auctioneers apparently refused to respond to any emails after the sale and every offer I made on it?

I'd like to speak to Tom and would appreciate being put in touch with him please.

And yes, the UK market is pretty dismal.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Of course you both must be joking. The British gramophone market is the best in the world, perhaps second only to the United States - but only under some sides, as some machines are almost non-existent over there.

[Steve]

Of course you both must be joking. The British gramophone market is the best in the world, perhaps second only to the United States - but only under some sides, as some machines are almost non-existent over there.

One problem we have here is that a lot of collectors don't want to put money into anything they can't flip quickly for a guaranteed profit. I think a lot of that comes from crap TV programs about antiques that have flooded the broadcast media for the past 50 years. Or we're a nation of miserly types. You decide!

Connected to this issue is the fact that a lot of collectors won't buy anything that isn't pictured in a convenient reference book to validate its authenticity for them.

None of this is helped much by the incompetence of auctioneers in general and the sad state of the trade. There aren't many dealers around but one glance at some current websites reveals a disconcerting lack of knowledge, care and attention to detail when presenting or describing machines.

Lest I forget Ebay. We don't have the monopoly on braindead casual sellers but we're more than proud of our high reaches in this department. If I had a Pound for every listing that shows six near identical photos inside a portable gramophone and yet not one of the case, I think I'd be a millionaire by now.

Second only to the US, hey? Now I know who's pulling the chain!

[Steve]

Well I'm pleased to have been able to correspond with Tom Barnard today, thanks to Chunny. Tom confirmed what I'd already suspected, namely that the auctioneers whilst busy playing games with prospective buyers have completely dropped the ball with this one.

I kept asking myself why would any vendor place their trust in this outfit to get the best price for an EMG? Then the penny dropped. Hadn't they had a 10B pass through their hands, making a handsome £6500 plus commission in recent times? I doubt any auctioneers at the best of times could claim that as a success on their part. It's simply the luck of the drawer and who arrives on the day, surely? I think this might be where the value of EMG's got slightly misconstrued though. No doubt the vendor was happy to go along with it.......at least initially.

Anyway, Tom was very happy to confirm that he was sold the machine for a significant £300 plus commission less than I offered. How's that working for the vendor?

Well done, Tom, I know you'll get hours of pleasure from it.