HMV 130 advice please

[Inky Pete]

Hi All,

I inherited an HMV 130 gramophone from my Dad, who I think in his turn had inherited it from his parents. It was in a slightly sorry state when I got it with the speaker cloth mostly disintegrated, cracks in the speaker grille, and the mechanics pretty well gummed up when I lifted out the deck and took a look.

I've given the mechanics a good clean and overhaul, replaced the speaker cloth, glued the cracked parts of the grille, and generally cleaned up and touched up the case. It now plays quite nicely - certainly at least as well as I remember it doing when I was growing up with it as a kid. And I now know why I found a rag stuffed in the sound box, it's pretty loud!

There's also 64 records which are housed in what looks like the case from another gramophone - a Decca

I don't really have the house room for it so now it's going to have to find a new home, the question is how do I go about re-homing it?

I'd appreciate any advice on whether it's readily saleable. What might it be worth? How to go about selling it? And when selling something like this how on earth would I go about shipping it? It's not exactly a lightweight!

I've attached some photos and a video of it playing.

[epigramophone]

A good guide is the "Sold" listings on eBay. Here is the latest sale I was able to find :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186477286340 ... R5b9ks-wZA

The HMV130 is considered to be one of the best table models ever made, and in good order should be worth a minimum of £100. Yes it will be heavy to pack and post, but it is worth the effort as it will greatly increase the number of potential bidders. If you specify collection only, you restrict your market to bidders living within easy travelling distance to collect.

[Steve]

The cabinet appears to have been refinished which will sadly reduce the number of interested buyers as this model is very common and finding a good example in oak is not exactly difficult.

The reason I think it has been refinished is because the grille is much darker than the rest of the case (which wouldn't normally be tackled by an amateur restorer for obvious reasons) and you can see where the veneer has chipped off. With the replaced grille clothe I personally don't see this making more than £50-75 so if you do not wish to follow Roger's advice with regard to offering postage on Ebay, I would suggest putting it into a local auction where buyers are typically looking for odd and unusual items (to them anyway) which are cheap. I think it might raise £50 on a good day and you won't be responsible for anything if it gets lost in shipment.

[epigramophone]

I would suggest putting it into a local auction where buyers are typically looking for odd and unusual items (to them anyway) which are cheap. I think it might raise £50 on a good day and you won't be responsible for anything if it gets lost in shipment.

Local auctions are an easy option but an expensive one. Be prepared to pay at least 20/25% out of the sale proceeds.

[OrthoFan]

If you're not in too great a hurry to get rid of it, you might start out by posting an ad in the For Sale section of your local Craigslist. In the UK, it seems that legitimate gramophones/phonographs are seldom listed -- https://london.craigslist.org/search/ss ... allery~0~0 -- so you may attract a few potential local buyers who scour the site. If you go this route, post a selling price along with some photos, but be willing to negotiate. The advantage here is that For Sale ad postings are free and there are no seller's/buyer's fees.

An alternative to Craigslist in the UK is Gumtree -- https://www.gumtree.com/ -- which does have a few Gramophones listed at this time. The basic "for sale" service is free.

OrthoFan

[Curt A]

Since you are going to sell it, don't include the orange Columbia round needle tin. Sell it separately, since it is probably worth as much as the machine... Personally, since its came from your family, I would keep it or find someone in your extended family who would appreciate it...

[Inigo]

You can also donate it to a local museum who would appreciate it...

[Damfino59]

You can also donate it to a local museum who would appreciate it...

You can never be too sure with local museums.

I’ve done volunteer work with several small local history museums. Usually because they get wind of my phonographic & other hobbies.

Usually they are saddled with more artifacts than they can adequately maintain. How many family bibles & great great grandmothers wedding dresses are there in this world? Unheated storage and damp basements to house this excess.

In my undergraduate college years, my small college received a collection of items from a local family. One of the local founding Industrialist’s of the region. Rare books and a vast collection of 78 records. Along with a large prewar E.H.Scott radio phonograph.

I worked in the library for a summer and passed this hoard, in the back loading dock on a daily basis. In the pile of 78 records were many Berliner discs. One day they were all gone. The librarians determined what books were important and tossed those deemed unimportant. The records were of an obsolete format. All were put in the dumpster. The E.H.Scott became a liquor cabinet in the presidents private dining room.

I could have walked off with a pile of Berliner’s. But they were not mine and I wasn’t going to jeopardize my employment. It was a real good position!

Later on the librarians did some more culling of the books. I eventually went through a box jutting out of the dumpster. Amongst some 19th century literature I was able to rescue a pre WW1 Victrola Book Of The Opera.

Keep the HMV as a family heirloom or sell it on your preferred e-commerce website. Or local auction. Hopefully some young music & gramophone aficionados will notice.