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You've got to love silly auction estimates!

http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/aucti ... t-17777412
Chippenham Auction Rooms
Antique & Collectables
Lot 333

A mahogany cased His Master`s Voice table gramophone labelled J.T. White Barnstable. Bideford. Ilfracombe.
Estimate:
£50 - £80

Cheers,
David.

I'll go 100!

Sean

Oh my, wouldn't I love to have it for that sum!!

Clay

Does anyone know what it went for?.

£680. Some estimate!

That's still cheap. I had expected well over a thousand.

Yes, that seems very cheap, especially given the condition of the pleated diaphragm.

Still, who knows what it looked like in person, and whether there were other "issues"? It does seem to have masking tape holding down the corner of the motor board.


Meanwhile, at the other end of the silly estimate / price scale...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HMV-157-Gramo ... 1032210656
...I'd want a nice 163 with original grill cloth for that much!

EDIT: has the world gone mad? 157s sometimes struggle to reach £100, but then...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HMV-Model-157 ... 1061261454

Cheers,
David.

Alas there is no shortage of sellers with unrealistic ideas about the worth of their eBay item.

Clay

157's aren't bad machines at all - they give a good indication of the sound quality available from the 5a soundbox/tone-arm and folded internal horn. They are not as good as 163's as the 157 is not as big and is not a proper re-entrant, but more like half a re-entrant. I don't like them personally as they remind me of the bedside cabinets in Victorian hospitals. I always think there is going to be a bowl inside them when I open the doors! Notwithstanding their austere looks a good 157 can still fetch £300 but it needs to be in perfect condition. The one on Ebay at £550 is in poor condition so the seller is woefully optimistic. However the other example on Ebay at £265 is not bad really unless the price goes much much higher.

That Lumiere appears to be cheap at the price but the problem was (or is generally) that auctioneers do not provide enough information or pictures to give the prospective buyers a good indication of whether the item is worth spending £50-100 on petrol to go and look at in the first place! Not to mention half a day or a day of our time on this precious earth. I suspect that had that example been close to me it would have gone for a lot more as I would have bothered to get out of bed to go and see it and maybe would have bid / bought it. But do I really need 4 Lumieres? Not really!