The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

These are fun stories. I’ve got two more.

Again back in the 1980’s. Estate sale in a MCM ranch home. Owners dabbled in antiques. Green case Edison Standard. Two portable cylinder suit cases with very moldy contents. But they were available separately. Horrible condition brown wax. Ignorant me paid $20 for the case with five pink cylinders. Sold them when there was still an October Union shows. See it pays to use your public library & their copy of “From Tinfoil to Stereo”.

Garage sale this time. Mid 1980’s again. Family selling items from a great aunts estate. VV-XVX 1912 with slat horn & wide horn doors, mahogany. Probably stored in a hot attic as the finish was boiled a bit with ingrained dirt/dust. All record books with popular records. Patent labels, batwings, scroll labels up to the early RCA period. Music cabinet also full of records. All Victor records but with a stash of Hit of the Weeks in one cubby space. Guess they were a somewhat strict Victor family.

Unfortunately the whole package deal was $350 for all. No offers were being accepted. I came back late Saturday, hoping there would be haggling time and it was gone. Story was they got the $350. But that would have been a fun group of records! My parents probably would have kicked me to the curb though. And $350 wasn’t chicken feed back then.

Great thread! I got (kind of) close, once -- there was a large floor model machine (I can't remember the manufacturer, but I believe it was a Victor acoustic machine not all that different from my floor model Victrola) in an antique store about 10 minutes from my hometown, and there were about one or two dozen records in it. A few of these were Sam Lanin and Harry Reser dimestore discs, nothing valuable, but at the time I didn't have much in my collection and pretty much any dance record was of interest to me.

The price on the machine was way too high for my budget -- $425 or something like that. Probably not even a good deal if I had the money, given the condition of it. I tried to make an offer to the shopkeeper for the records alone, but she was only going to part with them if they went with the machine. That was a firm nope for me. I'd stopped back in there a few months later, and, surprise surprise, the machine was still there! And I would not be shocked if it still sits there as I type...

The other way round - I was once obliged to buy about 5000 78s in order to get several rare gramophones.

I once offered a seller his full (and modest) price for a Pathé machine with a collection of records and accessories. He could keep the machine, something I did not have room for. All I wanted were the Pathé needles, various needle tins, some Kactus needles, some of the records (including a selection of Pathés), and the accessories (including a needle sharpener). He agreed to the sale.

When I arrived to pick up the stuff, I discovered that he had made another deal with another buyer for the machine and the Pathé needles and records. I was slightly annoyed and disappointed, but in consolation he reduced his price to a mere fraction of what I had offered him, less than the value of some of the individual items in the remaining lot.

I drove away with a trunk/boot full of records, some of which were great.

I gave away some of the extraneous stuff (including records) that I did not need or want.

In the end, I was mollified, but besides the needle sharpener, what I had really wanted were the Pathé needles and records.

Bitter sweet experience. / I should have just taken everything and tried to sell the Pathé machine on.

With my second Diamond Disc machine (BC-34), I was originally interested in the records: there were some good foxtrots there. The seller offered the phonograph for another $50. I had to borrow a relative's van to move it; then I restored it. Not my 'go-to' machine, but nice of its kind.

- Bill

These are all great examples of true phonograph trading valor. Thanks to all for sharing!

John

Orchorsol wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 6:29 am The other way round - I was once obliged to buy about 5000 78s in order to get several rare gramophones.

Curious: was there anything good or interesting or collectible in that 5,000?

Woody wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2025 10:21 am

Orchorsol wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 6:29 am The other way round - I was once obliged to buy about 5000 78s in order to get several rare gramophones.

Curious: was there anything good or interesting or collectible in that 5,000?

All classical, but yes, some nice things - I kept some and passed some on to friends - however it looked as though a dealer had had his pick beforehand. Sadly (although it's against my collecting religion!) some of the 5000, the really lacklustre stuff, had to go to landfill in the end.

I once bought around 1000 78's (I think they originally came from a London record shop clearance) for the 20's dance/jazz records. But about half of the collection was classical, vocal comedy etc. All of it from the 20's and 30's apart a few Edwardian recordings. Fortunately, I was later able to sell these to the one guy who was bidding against me!