The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

emerson wrote: Wed Nov 30, 2022 8:14 pm Being a "collector", The Emerson Collection is stuffed away and cannot be displayed with the Victors and other machines stuffed away with them. Three living areas of the house are consumed by the collecting addiction. Now being in the early 70's age group, it is time to let the non Emerson machines go, so I can display what I have worked on to make -----just about all the Emerson models from the catalogs and related Emerson ventures. Thanks Chris for creating this post.

I am heading down that road, too - but with the Granby models. That is my true passion. I hope to thin my collection out "one day" and maybe keep one premier example of a Victor product, Columbia product, Brunswick, etc. But, having a Granby room (or "rooms") is going to probably be the final result....

Many of us have gone for our PhD's.*

bob stutz

*Piled higher Deeper
Borrowed from PatheLogical

When we retired my wife and I moved out of town to a nearby village. Friends asked whether we were downsizing.
Far from it! We moved to a larger house but with a smaller garden, and soon built an extension.
We did downsize cars from three to two, and converted garage number three into a workshop cum hobbies room.
Fortunately we are both collectors, and our collections expand into however much space is available.
We are now again at saturation point, but there is always room for one more.

The "Collector's Conundrum": If you have enough money, you'll run out of space. If you have enough space, you'll run out of money.

I keep saying "after this machine I am done. I don't have the space and shouldn't spend the money". Then something pops up and there is magically *just* enough space to fit one more.

Fortunately living in an apartment now really puts a cap on how many I can have. Things were different when I was still living at home

David

I am always confused by those with hundreds of machines and a seeming constant source of them. I have TWO machines right now. I don't have a lot of room nor money so I'm quite picky on what I get. Truthfully, when I see listings for phonographs they're nearly all bad- overpriced or just a bad machine (common or broken)- and often a combination of the three. Those that ARE nice I've usually bought. Is Minnesota just an awful state for phonographs?

I'm trying to reduce my 5,000 78s, but I find it very difficult. My subjective and personal criterion for discarding records changes from day to day, so every now and then I'm revisiting the pile of discarded records to play them again and ask myself why this record was discarded...
I have only twelve machines: seven portables, three tabletops and two uprights, and I'm always thinking of discarding all but one upright and one portable. But which of them? Aha.... Impossible! And yet I'm hoping to add another two or three dream machines, if I ever find them at a suitable price... One EMG, one good external horn HMV, a Meublephone no7 like grandpa's machine, one L-door grand HMV upright... The thing with me is that I'd love to have only a perfect upright and a perfect portable. Those two I already have, but it's impossible to get rid of the others. Each one has its own charms...

Inigo wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 1:41 am I'm trying to reduce my 5,000 78s, but I find it very difficult. My subjective and personal criterion for discarding records changes from day to day, so every now and then I'm revisiting the pile of discarded records to play them again and ask myself why this record was discarded...
I have only twelve machines: seven portables, three tabletops and two uprights, and I'm always thinking of discarding all but one upright and one portable. But which of them? Aha.... Impossible! And yet I'm hoping to add another two or three dream machines, if I ever find them at a suitable price... One EMG, one good external horn HMV, a Meublephone no7 like grandpa's machine, one L-door grand HMV upright... The thing with me is that I'd love to have only a perfect upright and a perfect portable. Those two I already have, but it's impossible to get rid of the others. Each one has its own charms...

You only have 5000 78s? Beginner.

No, seriously. I've been always a cherry picker, so these 5000 have been bought along all these years (44) in small quantities. I never had the money, nor the space nor the courage, all at the same time, to buy big lots. Something was missing at the few chances I've found to buy a big lot... I'm referring to buying in the wild, not online, which is a very different matter.
I buy but very few records now, only a dozen or two a year... I buy only special things, and now, if I do 'experiments' I rarely get something I like very much. Besides that, in every pile of 78s I examine in the stores of flea markets here, I already own 80% of the records. Even sometimes I buy records I already own!
Indeed I would like to be left only with the very good records ( to my taste) but I find it difficult to get rid of other good records, or curious, or whatever, that I don't like very much. The tastes vary with the days, moods, etc. And all that is because of space... If I could have all them in two big shelves in the same place, as it was when I only had half of them... I would love with them all.

We buy (I bought) a much bigger house and then run out of room again! Tally ho!