The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Yeah my bud actually was the first one among us to acquire a phonograph a victor IV I believe. This of course made me want one real bad and we've been collecting ever since. That is how I started my collecting!

That's not a Victor IV, but a Victrola IV. It's also the first version with the stamped steel grille instead of louvers.

George P.

my mistake.

Torjazzer wrote: the only thing that saved it was that it was an Edison DD.

Sometimes not even a Diamond Disc can save the pile: Imagine THREE DDs, sleeveless & stuffed diagonally into a flimsy Priority Mail box .... all 3 cracked from edge to spindle hole, including 51542 (Charleston) ... that was a sad day.

Yikes! I've never ever seen a DD crack.

i digitize wax cylinders and 78s as a hobby as well as collect modern music digitaly i collected 200,000 mp3s so far
people know that i do this and i get a lot of leftover records from local record dealers (78s are not their thing)i digitize them and give them away (at least the ones that are not extremly rare) quite a number of these arive in pieces unplayeble and unrestorable after a while the stack of broken dreams was so high that i wondered what to do with them
i got an idea i took a pair of scisors ment for metal and carefully cut the labels out and nailed them to the wall it does make a difference to a bare wall
luckaly most arive intact so i can keep on filling my digital archive with mp3s i also thought what to do with the shelac pieces i crush them in to little pieces and safe up enough to make a garden path than i will be walking on music in my garden perfect!

greetings
tino

ps what to do with moldy cylinder boxes that are falling apart restore them? no because your cylinders would grow moldy in those
here is an idea isn't that a atractive conversation piece? well i think so

I have had the same experience. Really frustrating. This person wanted me to send back the pieces to him before he would refund me! I refused to pay the return shipping and sent him these pictures instead. Never have been able to replace this record. Notice he just wrapped it in paper and said "do not bend" Laughable. By the way, does anyone have a copy of "Santa Claus is on his way" by Sammy Kaye. Not rare, but just a fun little swing record.

mrphonograph, I like your recycling ideas, although the garden path sounds like it might be a bit rough on the dog's paws! I might do something similar to what you have done to display original 78 disc sleeves. I absolutely love these old graphics!

As far as the fragility of shellac 78s, my novice observation so far (roughly 3 months and 100 78s into collecting) is that they are amazingly resilient. My guess is a 78 has to take just the right type of impact and when it does the damage is catastrophic. I recently took a chance on buying a couple lots of 78s on EB. I knew it was risky but the cost was not high and I desperately needed to replenish the diminishing stacks occupying most of the space on my coffee and dining room tables. I prayed I would not receive boxes full of pieces of discs. 20 10" discs arrived in one USPS box and 15 10" packed with 15 12" in another. They were all simply stacked and placed in the box with crumpled cardboard around to prevent movement. They were packed tight and heavy. I was pleasantly shocked when they arrived with NOT ONE crack!