Re: Pricing Victrolas.. how on earth do you actually know?!?
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 11:34 am
A few thoughts out of left field from an inveterate collector of many things and a dealer in a few:
1. Nobody really needs an antique phonograph. "Need" is a self-delusional belief that acquiring x, y or z will make one happy. This may or may not be the result, but hope springs eternal.
2. As a collector, it is hard to "overpay" for something that you really want. Of course, paying 10x the "market value" would be silly, but anything within a range of 10% - 50% may not be unreasonable when one factors in convenience, trust, etc. And a VV-XI sitting 2,000 miles away vs. one a short drive away would certainly justify "overpaying" for the closer one.
3. A true gentleman and major collector, Aaron Cramer, once told me during a visit to his house: "look around, Raphael, everything you see here I paid through the nose for." And with his sharp eye and the passage of time, in retrospect he indeed seemed to have gotten bargains on all of his pieces.
4. As one enters my house, there is an antique musical clock on the wall that I bought about 20 years ago. The $10,000 I spent on it seemed like all the money in the world at the time. I agonized for weeks before doing the deal. Within a few months, I forgot about the pain of writing that check, and have enjoyed the clock ever since. And, it is now worth about 4x what I paid for it. That's why I use it as a prime example to visitors, that when buying for myself, my best investments were the pieces I "overpaid" for.
Raphael
1. Nobody really needs an antique phonograph. "Need" is a self-delusional belief that acquiring x, y or z will make one happy. This may or may not be the result, but hope springs eternal.
2. As a collector, it is hard to "overpay" for something that you really want. Of course, paying 10x the "market value" would be silly, but anything within a range of 10% - 50% may not be unreasonable when one factors in convenience, trust, etc. And a VV-XI sitting 2,000 miles away vs. one a short drive away would certainly justify "overpaying" for the closer one.
3. A true gentleman and major collector, Aaron Cramer, once told me during a visit to his house: "look around, Raphael, everything you see here I paid through the nose for." And with his sharp eye and the passage of time, in retrospect he indeed seemed to have gotten bargains on all of his pieces.
4. As one enters my house, there is an antique musical clock on the wall that I bought about 20 years ago. The $10,000 I spent on it seemed like all the money in the world at the time. I agonized for weeks before doing the deal. Within a few months, I forgot about the pain of writing that check, and have enjoyed the clock ever since. And, it is now worth about 4x what I paid for it. That's why I use it as a prime example to visitors, that when buying for myself, my best investments were the pieces I "overpaid" for.
Raphael