The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I sold two Model-D reproducers for $750.00 each and an Automatic Recorder for $175.00. So they alone are worth the current bid. We'll see how high the price goes.

Rich Gordon

I would think this has to be a pretty rare machine. A search of completed listing on eBay shows no examples having been listed recently. Phonophan has one at $4,250. Skinner auctioned one off for $3,173 in 2002 and another for $2,875 in 2001. One went for $1,300 in 2012 on liveauctioneers.com, but it was one of the later models with a banner case. This one on eBay looks to be a fairly early one.

So does the bidding so far look wild? Not for a New York minute.

Clay

The biggest concern I see for the buyer is how the seller plans to ship it. The buyer will need to get involved with how the machine is packed. The mechanism should be double boxed on it's own with the carriage and mandrel removed. The case can be single boxed with the mandrel, carriage, reproducers and crank packed inside.

The best way is to go get the machine if close enough!

Andersun wrote:The biggest concern I see for the buyer is how the seller plans to ship it. The buyer will need to get involved with how the machine is packed. The mechanism should be double boxed on it's own with the carriage and mandrel removed. The case can be single boxed with the mandrel, carriage, reproducers and crank packed inside.

The best way is to go get the machine if close enough!

I fully agree. A novice packing & shipping an Edison Concert is a disaster waiting to happen.

George P.

Shipping is indeed an issue. A seller promised to ship the case and mechanism of a Triumph I bought some time ago separately. He didn't and the case was kindling when it arrived.

Clay

To fran604g:
Those of us who attended an auction in Salem Ohio last fall saw this guy buy up at least a dozen perfectly good machines, outbidding all collectors by paying exhorbitant prices. Then he began almost immediately selling off the pieces and parts from these machines on his ebay site.
Yes I (and we) know for sure he does this.
John

welshfield wrote:To fran604g:
Those of us who attended an auction in Salem Ohio last fall saw this guy buy up at least a dozen perfectly good machines, outbidding all collectors by paying exhorbitant prices. Then he began almost immediately selling off the pieces and parts from these machines on his ebay site.
Yes I (and we) know for sure he does this.
John

With all respect, not all of us agree.

Opinions may differ on what constitutes a "perfectly good machine," (or even "exorbitant prices"). It's also difficult to be sure if a part offered online came from one of those "perfectly good machines" or another of the same make/model. I see Mark set up at various shows with complete, perfectly good machines on his table for sale.

There certainly are people who part out perfectly good machines on eBay, and I deplore the practice.

George P.

fran604g wrote:

welshfield wrote:Two guys are going after it in a bidding war so all we can do is see how far they will go. Unless croakinfrog out bids everyone and sells it off as parts.
John

That's a pretty unfair statement. Do you know that Mark actually does that?

Best,
Fran

What I do know is Mark (croaking frog) outbid me in his own auction, with a 2nd ebay profile, thus revealing my max bid, 188.88 for something I really wanted (a recorder), then then turned around and offered me a '2nd chance' offer to buy it at my max bid. Bad karma, called him out on it, and reported to ebay. He has paid ebay so much money they wouldn't dare discipline him...

Three of us at the auction thought they were perfectly good machines.
Three of us were outbid at prices bid by him way above anything reasonable
Three of us have e-mailed each other noticing parts from those machines offered for sale on his ebay site.
(also several piles of music box discs that came up on his ebay site)

He could never have sold his purchased machines at the prices he paid for them at that auction.

n2wheelies wrote:

fran604g wrote:

welshfield wrote:Two guys are going after it in a bidding war so all we can do is see how far they will go. Unless croakinfrog out bids everyone and sells it off as parts.
John

That's a pretty unfair statement. Do you know that Mark actually does that?

Best,
Fran

What I do know is Mark (croaking frog) outbid me in his own auction, with a 2nd ebay profile, thus revealing my max bid, 188.88 for something I really wanted (a recorder), then then turned around and offered me a '2nd chance' offer to buy it at my max bid. Bad karma, called him out on it, and reported to ebay. He has paid ebay so much money they wouldn't dare discipline him...

How exactly do you "know" this? Are you able to see masked bidder ID's that other people cannot see? What kind of proof do you have that the winning bidder was in fact the seller?