The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Each one I aquire is another one saved from decorators and repurporsers who love to gut and paint every thing in sight. These machines were probably someones pride and joy. They are a testament to innovation and early technology that still function today. How many I pods or laptop computers do you think will survive or even function in 80 plus years. I do have too many, 300 plus in the house and three other buildings but I enjoy every one and rotate my listening stock perodically. I will eventually run out of room and money, but life is short..enjoy it!!! Ed

FloridaClay wrote:As I mentioned one time on another post, I am very fond of Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume's two "inviolate Laws of Collecting":

First: Space will expand to accommodate an infinite number of possessions regardless of their size.

Second: Shortage of finance, however dire, will never prevent the acquisition of an object, however improbable its cost.

Clay

Yes indeed - until (usually only for a short time) one or other or both become uncomfortable!

People are amused or horrified when I tell them I have had to strengthen my floors to take the weight of thousands of 78s.

phonojim wrote:m0xiemama: you need to get into cylinder machines. They are just so different and so fascinating. I came face to face with my first cylinder machine, an Edison Standard I believe, when I was maybe 10 years old. I begged my Dad to buy it for me, but $40.00 was a lot of money in 1954. I was totally hooked for life but it took me until 1971 to get my first one which I still have.
When you get to that point, check in here. We can give you a lot of useful advice about what look for and what to avoid.

Jim

Oh I plan on it. Most of the machines have now were just great time/great place opportunity. The ones around here have only come up for $1400+. I will be doing some machine searching once I wrap up my current purchase.

I have around 70 machines and I just keep telling myself: The one who dies with the most toys wins!

I've never really tried to justify having multiple machines (well, except for during the 5 year period that I was married), but then I've never had to confine my collection to one room either, even when I started collecting at 13 yrs old. I've always been fortunate enough to live in fairly big 2 storey houses, and had basically an entire floor that I could use as I pleased, so my restraints have mostly only been financial.

I actually haven't counted my spring driven machines for a couple years but I must have around 60, and if you add the various antique radios, radiograms & record players, there would easily be 100.
The only only justification I need, or offer others who question my obsession, is that I like them, and thats the only justification I need, whether its a gramophone, a vase, a chair or a cruet set.
I've had friends & relatives ask why do I want all this junk & why dont I sell it all, and my responce is always "because I like all this junk".
I've never bought antiques of any kind as an investment or with the intentions to resell something for a profit. I get pleasure from being surrounded by things that I see as things of history & beauty, and I love to find things that most people would use as firewood, and turn them back into the useful stylish functional items they were intended to be originally. I could never come close to deriving the same amount of pleasure by sitting in a boring lifeless lounge chair looking at a laminated particle board wall unit & wide screen TV, while holding a bank book with a bunch of numbers in it.
Those things could never make me happy.

That said, I can certainly appreciate that most people wouldn't be happy living in a cluttered museum, & can understand that most people have boundaries &/or limits on their collecting, whether it be due to space, reaching a happy medium with a partner or 100 other reasons.
If I were in the same situation as CarGuy, I would probably take the sensible route & think about selling the Victrola too.
The only advise I would like to offer is that if the Victrola is in exceptionally fine condition (even if a very common model) and you're not strapped for the cash, I would try & find a safe alternate storage option for the machine if at all possible.
After 30+ years of collecting, I've found machines that I've thought could be easily replaced or find again later on down the track, have become either near impossible to find or prohibitively expensive 5 or 10 yrs later, so it sometimes pays to put machines that are a little unusual or in fantastic condition away somewhere & forget you own it for a few years

Shane said: "I've had friends & relatives ask why do I want all this junk & why dont I sell it all, and my responce is always "because I like all this junk"."


To paraphrase something I read on a car forum: "If I had all the money I've spent on Phonographs, I'd buy more phonographs!"


Mark

Way back when I was much younger, like 11 or 12 years old, I started collecting acoustic phonographs and records. This was back in the 1960s-early 70s, and it was fun and relatively cheap at the time. When I was old enough to go to college, my parents made it clear that I needed to get rid of "that junk in the basement". I was permitted to keep one phonograph in the upstairs hallway, this was a light oak upright Brunswick 207. For a few years this one machine was enough. Sure, I regretted selling off a number of the records I'd had (and I still do). But as something to listen to, I was happy enough.

Or was I?

After graduating college, away from home and on my own, I met a few other collectors, just by chance. I admitted that I'd always wanted a Credenza Victrola, after so many years of seeing one depicted on the Orthophonic record sleeves. Just one more phonograph. And you know the rest----just one L-Door Victrola, just one Edison cylinder machine, and just one Period Model Victrola, and maybe a suitcase portable, and so on. Each new acquisition had its attributes, a good reason (or reasons) why I liked it enough to haul it home. As hobbies go, this one is still relatively affordable (as compared to, say classic cars or boats). I'll go through periods where I think it's just plain nuts to keep all of these, but then I lift the lid, put on a record, listen to the music, and remember why I loved this or that machine in the first place. It's probably a lifelong affliction....

kirtley2012 wrote:ok, lets put it this way, im 15 with 8 machines, along with hundreds if not thousands of records, a turntable/stereo system, a homemade gramophone im working on and a emg horn crammed mostly into one room, and i can say, im not slowing down my aqusitions and my parents arent complaining yet so im sure you can get away with a decent collection, just try to keep it organised and dont let it go out of control (arrangement wise)

HA! Let's see this. Sounds like good clean fun, parents indulge you with an allowance to purchase machines and records?

EFearing wrote:Each one I aquire is another one saved from decorators and repurporsers who love to gut and paint every thing in sight. These machines were probably someones pride and joy. They are a testament to innovation and early technology that still function today. How many I pods or laptop computers do you think will survive or even function in 80 plus years. I do have too many, 300 plus in the house and three other buildings but I enjoy every one and rotate my listening stock perodically. I will eventually run out of room and money, but life is short..enjoy it!!! Ed

I have a Pathé' machine which is a POS , but thinking a custom paint might actually look nice, make it look like one of these black and gold fancy smancy oriental themed machines. Not this year yet anymore however.

SquireWill wrote: HA! Let's see this. Sounds like good clean fun, parents indulge you with an allowance to purchase machines and records?

dont you beleive me? , they dont so much endulge me with it, just put up with it!, even if they sold every one of my machines and records i would only build them up again so they would never win