The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

My absolute "Best Buy" was an 1894 Columbia Perfected Graphophone Type G, which was not cheap, but was found by accident in an antique shop in Tennessee... I looked on the Forum one day and noticed that someone on here had seen a Cygnet horn for sale for $150 and didn't buy it. So I PM'd the guy and asked where it was. He told me the town, but didn't know the name of the shop. So, I Googled all the antique shops in that town (there were ½ a dozen or so) and called them all asking about the horn. Each one that I called had no idea about the horn, until I called the last one on the list. He said he thought he knew who had it, but the shop was not online and he gave me the owner's cell phone number.

I called and he verified that he had the horn, so I bought it. I then asked the guy if he had anything else phonograph related and he described a crapophone, which I politely declined... I pressed him again and he said he had one more machine that he didn't want to sell, which was in his house and some collector had offered him a substantial amount for it. I asked him to send me pictures of it and he emailed them to me. Honestly, when I got the pics, I wasn't sure what it was because it had a wooden mandrel and I was not familiar with that machine. He also reaffirmed that it wasn't for sale...

I couldn't get it out of my mind and did some research which showed that it was a genuine rare machine. I called him back two weeks later and asked about it again... fortunately for me (not for him) someone had lost control of their car and crashed into his shop causing structural damage that wasn't fully covered by his insurance... So, this time I offered him $1,000 more than the previous collector had offered and he accepted it. I immediately got into my car and drove 4+ hours one way, to Tennessee with the cash to buy it before he changed his mind.

When I got there, I discovered that it was in near mint condition and came with an exhibition case that the original owner used to demonstrate the machine to the public. It was literally a time capsule. It had moldy brown wax cylinders, handbills, a handwritten booklet that he recorded his cylinders in like a playlist and original tickets in the box along with the original horn that he used. I was ecstatic...

I finally bought this incredible machine and had only owned it for a few days, when I showed it to Mike Lund. He was extremely interested in it and it now resides in his fantastic collection...

Around 1970 a buddy of mine and I were walking around an indoor/outdoor flea market. We went into one of the stores, and it had a bunch of upright cabinet phonographs. I don’t remember much about the others, but one of them really caught my eye. The guy wound it up and played a record and I knew I had to have one. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said $45. My friend and I went outside, pooled our money and only had $44. I went back in and told the guy that we had $44 but we both wanted to buy a hot dog for a dollar each, so all I could give him was $42. He accepted and my friend and I hauled home a Victrola XVII in excellent original condition. I still have it sitting in the parlor of my 1900 home.

One other time, probably 20 years later, I looked at the classified ads in the Sunday morning paper and saw where a guy was selling off some phonographs, including a Victor IV. I called him and asked about the Victor IV and he said he was selling it cheap because it had the wrong horn. I think he was asking $800. What I didn’t tell him was that I had bough a small, smooth mahogany Victor horn in an antique mall the previous year for $90. I didn’t have any wooden horn phonographs at that point, but I did have a horn. I told him that I wasn’t worried about the horn and went over to look at the machine. It was, in fact, a beautiful Victor IV in near mint condition. What sealed the deal, however, was the fact that the mismatched horn was a large, fluted, oak Victor horn. It now resides on my Victor V that had no horn when I subsequently bought it on ebay.

audiophile102 wrote:For my birthday in 2015 I purchased a Sonora Invincible for $700. I consider it a steal of a deal. I enjoy it every day. It's the show piece in my living room and I will only consider selling it when I'm too old to stay in my home.

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I love these machines!

Also, how old are you? If I am younger I will take it when you get too old

Circa 1980, I walked into a junk-tique shop on 7th Street in Saint Paul, MN, and spotted an interesting looking suitcase on an upper shelf. I took it down, opened it up, and found that it was a VV-1-5 portable ( http://www.victor-victrola.com/1-5.htm ) in near-perfect condition, inside and out. The only problem was, it was missing its sound box. Still, the price was eight bucks at a time when most of the portables I spotted at flea markets were in the $50-100 range, so I figured, what the heck. I remember the frumpy looking lady at the counter--a second runner up in the Margaret Hamilton look-alike contest--didn't say a word to me when she rang it up.

When I was in my car, I inspected it more thoroughly and found that the sound box, removed from the tonearm, was tucked into the mouth of the horn. It was one of the early all-bras #4 sound boxes and in perfect condition; even the diaphragm and gaskets were pristine and soft. I had it for about 18 years and it was the only Victrola I've ever owned that I regretted selling.

OrthoFan

In terms of value for money, I'd say the VV 8-9 I got this summer for $150 is probably tops, followed by a VV-100 in American Walnut that I paid $100 for about a year ago. I posted about both of those machines earlier.

In terms of enjoyment and performance, though, I'd say my best buy was an Edison Model D standard with a 2/4 minute Model S reproducer (like a Model K, but larger diaphragm), faux oak grain cygnet horn, and home-made "crane". Much as I love my Amberola 1A, the Standard outperforms it in virtually every way!

I hope that the stories keep coming. Stories of good and bad buying experiences are interesting. A big part of collecting, for me anyway, is the hunt, and especially the find and catch, (among other things like playing and restoring them, and having them all around me).

I'm lucky enough at a young age to have had the chance and worked hard enough to buy some very good machines, an Expert Junior, EMG Xa, 2 phonographs with Cygnet horns and a red gem are all I currently have, the Xa must be my best buy, I got it cheap (Cheap for an EMG anyways) because some numpty in the past had painted the horn with an awful thick layer of gold, a lot of work revealed the original internal horn papers, the outside needed to be re-papered, it was worth every penny as it's now a wonderful EMG and it sounds amazing, so good that even the Expert doesn't get as much play these days

I have never found a best buy machine from a low price perspective, like others have reported here. I consider my best buys a Zonophone Grand Opera that I found on eBay for around $700 without horn. It cleaned up beautifully and together with the brass flower horn I got from Jerry Blais it is my favorite machine. By favorite daily player is my L-door VV-XVI that I bought at auction for around $650, which I thought was a good price then. Nowadays they seem to pop up everywhere for under $400. Because of the fact that it seems that I over payed for all of my machines I will never be able to sell any of them without loosing money, but other hobbies cost money as well

Andreas

Overall I have gotten many really great deals but this Columbia table top I paid $20 for blows away Victors, Sonoras and Brunswicks in sound quality making it my best buy.

Steve