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WDC - Norman. I'm curious why you tried to use eBay for the Donley auction. Donley's website clearly links to Proxibid for this auction, and I don't recall seeing anything about eBay from Donley. Of course, I have zero understanding about how all this works, so I may have no idea what I'm talking about. But it doesn't seem to be Donley's fault from what I can see.

Jim Nichol

Thank you both for your comments, which I appreciate very much.

A very large of the lots was on eBay live auctions, associated with their regular eBay account. And looking at several of the closed items now, I do now that I was willing to place bids above what they were sold for.
There are 695 items shown on their account donleyauctions on eBay

I checked the description carefully and there was no mention of any delay time to sign up. While later watching a couple items, they wouldn't let me do anything else, you could see the incoming floor bids, as well as eBay live bids, indicated as "FLOOR" and "EBAY" on the yellow chart when they came in.

What I do find most frustrating is their silence on this forum after having posted so actively to promote their auction. Problems can occur and do happen, but going back into hibernation afterwards is not going to leave a trustworthy impression behind. From what I have experienced in my 30 years of collecting, this is what I clearly call unprofessional.

WDC wrote:Thank you both for your comments, which I appreciate very much.

A very large of the lots was on eBay live auctions, associated with their regular eBay account. And looking at several of the closed items now, I do now that I was willing to place bids above what they were sold for.
There are 695 items shown on their account donleyauctions on eBay

I checked the description carefully and there was no mention of any delay time to sign up. While later watching a couple items, they wouldn't let me do anything else, you could see the incoming floor bids, as well as eBay live bids, indicated as "FLOOR" and "EBAY" on the yellow chart when they came in.

What I do find most frustrating is their silence on this forum after having posted so actively to promote their auction. Problems can occur and do happen, but going back into hibernation afterwards is not going to leave a trustworthy impression behind. From what I have experienced in my 30 years of collecting, this is what I clearly call unprofessional.

Perhaps a phone call to them could clear things up? It's not like they're ignoring you. They probably have not looked back here, since they're probably unaware of any issues to be resolved.

WDC: Oh! I didn't know that Donley had an eBay presence. I bet they are unaware of the problems you've mentioned, since they'd have little motivation to come back to this message thread. Of course, their ability to fix eBay may be about as likely as you or I fixing it.

Seems like eBay has grown too big to care about its users any more. Their CEO must be a goofball. I read that when Apple was planning to come out with their Apple Pay payment system in 2015, they offered to include PayPal somehow. But eBay's CEO forbade PayPal to talk to Apple. This dramatically hurt PayPal in the financial press, and shortly thereafter, eBay's CEO decided to sell off PayPal. Seems to me that instead, eBay should have fired their CEO and begged Apple to come back and talk to PayPal.

I came across this catalog (for sale on ebay here but that's not the point... don't even know if it is Jake's below) but noticed that that original spruce horn was listed as a $10 upgrade.

But has anyone ever seen the $15 inlaid pearl wood horn??? (I'd pay double that for one of those! )

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 9&start=20 :

long_island_phono wrote:I think I just found a bit of information that will shed some light on the red bedplate question. I was searching this morning for my copy of the 1910 Edison phonograph catalog to double check the pricing on the special order features to get a better idea what my Gold plated Model D Triumph originally cost (I initially checked the Frow book but as we know the information may not be entirely accurate!). Well, I was curious to see if the Idelia had any special upgrades and found that in October 1910 the Idelia was marketed WITH a "dark red and gilt enamel" bedplate! The list price was $100 and for $125 it came with an oxidized finish.

I don't have any earlier cataogs that feature the Idelia, or Ideal for that matter, so I am curious how the machine was initially offered to the public.

-Jake

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Schlick wrote: But has anyone ever seen the $15 inlaid pearl wood horn??? (I'd pay double that for one of those! )

I don't recall ever seeing a S&V inlaid pearl Cygnet horn, but there's a photo of a S&V inlaid pearl horn for Victor on page 53 of Antique Phonograph Accessories & Contraptions, as shown below...

George P.

I have an all original S&V Mahogany Inlay and with Mother of Pearl horn on a Columbia BY that was purchased from the original owner's family. I have been told that it is the only original, unfinished Inlay and MOP horn that exists. Not sure about that...but it sure is special.

Here is my late model E Idelia described in the pamphlet with the mahogany cygnet horn. It has the red enamel bedplate, nickel plated mandrel, but still has some oxidized bronze parts.