The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This statement, regarding shipping would concern me: "The player is quite heavy so all of this will arrive in 2 boxes."

Looking at this situation, I can see that at least four boxes would be necessary... 1 box for the cylinders, 1 box for the broadsides, 1 box for the wooden phonograph case and 1 box for the motor and upper works removed from the case and wrapped tightly to avoid movement, along with removing the reproducer and wrapping it separately...

Looks like a Class M topworks mounted in a
portable case. If it has all the guts, this would
definitely be well worth the effort and expense
of making a special long-distance road trip to go
pick it up.

I would agree that shipping this all would be very risky. It would be well worth the effort to drive and pick it up if the buyer is anywhere nearby. I once had an Ebay purchase of a Columbia phonograph with an oak horn. It was only about 3.5 hours away and I offered to come pick it up. The seller was very happy that I offered to do that because he said he couldn't find a box big enough for it. He had planned on shipping the machine with the horn on. It would have come to me in splinters.

Very interested in what the high bid will be. The value of the Class M is considerably lower than 10 years ago but the historic value of this is enormous! Watching this one with great interest but the budget is too tight to even think about it!

$13,300

Wow Did anyone on the forum buy this? Hope we get some more information on this later.

EdisonWizard wrote:Hopefully this post doesn’t get deleted too lol

Hopefully you don’t post a duplicate post directly after an existing one again

phonogal wrote:Wow Did anyone on the forum buy this? Hope we get some more information on this later.

I hope we're all eventually shown the transformation from as found to restored. That would be a particularly exceptional treat!

Best,
Fran

I think a large part of the appeal on this particular package is its unrestored condition. It looks exactly as if the roaming exhibitor experienced either an insurmountable equipment failure, a decline in business, or perhaps some severe health issue - and the outfit got set aside, untouched ever since.

Thus, it's a time capsule. I would not touch a thing.

My thoughts are that the large amount of North American cylinders fueled the bids.