The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

A neighbor of mine came over last year and told me and eventually most everyone in the neighborhood that I collect old phonographs and I hoard them. LOL

Well I only have maybe 10 machines give or take. I don't understand the logic of people thinking that it is too many machines. With their mentality I suspect one machine is too many. LOL

I have heard the argument from a few friends that make remarks like "They should be in a museum", my come back is that us collectors have restored and preserve these artifacts far better than a museum will ever do. I am always happy to exhibit machines when I can.

Case in point, there is a museum in Lake County, Indiana that has a old Edison Standard, the machine could use a good cleaning, overhaul and rebuild, but the curator said they would not want it touched, even for free. LOL

Museums tend to only want a couple of items which represent the era and as such could never think of preserving as many machines as found in private collections.
That being said collectors should be responsible for their machines and share them with the general public when they can.

I also had an interesting experience with a museum in Dawson City, Yukon, a few years ago. They had a couple edisons on their shelves which literally came out of leaky back sheds. When I mentioned that I restore phonographs and these machines had lots of potential the curator looked at me like I had three heads. Oh well those machines will likely be on those shelves a 100 years from now and be no closer to playing the music that their original owners loved.

Some museums would rather have something as original as possible, even if it did not work, rather than have something restored to make it work. The approach is more obvious with old radios: do you want to keep the radio as originally sold full of components that are dead, or a working "1930s" radio where half the components were made in 2013.

Either approach had its justification. sadly photos in general museums seem to get a third approach: couldn't care less.

Anyway, I can tell you definitively that ten machines is NOT hoarding!

Cheers,
David.

David is correct... ten machines is not hoarding. It's just a good start. Jerry

I believe hoarding would be defined by piling up machines to the point of them being inaccessible. I don't mind having a smaller cylinder machine on top of a larger victrola, orthophonic, or diamond disc, but would not want to tripple stack or have one or more machines placed directly in front of others.
I do not have macchines on the dinning room table, couch, love seat, etc.
I currently have fifteen machines in my collection and feel like that is what my modest home comfortably allows for.
My 2 cents.
Gene

PS One of the nicest displayed collections I've had the pleasure to view in person was that of the late Dave Heitz. Dave built a two-story carraige house on his property to house his extensive collection. Every one of what must have been well over one hundred machines was beautifully displayed and accessible for playing purposes. In his case having that many machines was far from hoarding!

I fear I am a hoarder. Expect to see me on one of those horrible cable programs. Wait, no - I'd never let them in !

Edisone,
I can help you with your hoarding.
My intervention;
Bring a couple dozen machines (including that Amberola V) to my house.
Its the least I can do!
Gene

In the minds of most consumer-types these days
the term "hoarding" applies to any amount of
anything saved up by anyone, for any purpose.

Most people alive today have absolutely no
understanding whatsoever in regards to having
on-hand a sufficient amount of parts and materials and tools to be able to carry out
any real work.

Most people throw away useful items that they
simply find themselves not using at the present time. Waste. Wide-spread blatant waste.

Anything other than these wasteful ways is
termed "hoarding", as if to give saving things
for future use a bad name. I think the way
this word "hoarding" has been brainwashed into
the masses, is a way to manipulate them into
needing to be endlessly buying replacements
for all the cheaply made modern things.

Clean house. "Throw it out". Get a new one.

Oh...another rant about museums:

There is a library-museum in the little town
of Atlanta, Illinois (population 1500), that
has on display an Edison Standard machine.

Someone NAILED a small brass label to the front
of it with the donator's name engraved.
It is nailed right OVER the Edison decal.

I darn near threw up on the display case when
I saw that.

Chuck

If I had the space to display the machines properly, and the money to buy them all, I would let anyone and everyone call me a hoarder. As long as I enjoyed them that is all that would matter. Someone on the forum asked what if you could have only one machine. I ask what if you could have every machine you ever wanted?

Rich Gordon

My definition of hoarding is when people indiscriminately keep everything, like every machine or record, and it is no longer about collecting in a somewhat organized manner. Many collectors including myself are probably in danger of becoming hoarders, because we simply love the things we collect. The other danger is about spare parts etc that "I may be able to use some time". Every screw and nail etc might still have some use, so being conscious about what I keep or not is important. At least for me it is and always has been a constant balancing act between collecting and holding on to usefull spare parts, versus keeping everything that might still have some use at some point. Hoarding is when "accumulating things" takes over someone's live and consumes the person to a point where he/she is only obsessed with accumulating more whithout enjoying the collection. Many of the hoarders depicted on TV snapped over from collecting to hoarding when they experienced a bad life event or hardship that they couldn't cope with in any other way. The beloved collection was the only constant and their live started revolving around getting more of it. It starts becoming a mental disorder when the person drifts deeper and deeper and looses more and more control.

Again, I think many collectors might have a pre-disposition for becoming hoarders, but just having a large collection does not make one a hoarder. The question is, who is in control; the collector or the collection?

Andreas