The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I've been collecting for about 25 years, the last 10 years I have been very inactive in the phonograph world, I've had other things occupy my time, things like that pesky job of mine and saving for retirement etc. I am curious to what machine prices in general have done. Are the common machines still bringing the same prices they were 10 years ago, are the rarer machines going for more or less? When I first started collecting, a long time collector told to not collect phonographs for an investment but rather for the enjoyment of the hobby. But still ,one day most of us will sell our collections. Any market opinions?

Most nice external horn disc machines have held their own. Many internal horn machines have slipped a little bit, partially due to there being many more survivors than what was known 20-30 years ago. Ebay and craigslist have coaxed many examples out of hiding since the late 1990s. The same is true with the more common models of Edison cylinder machines.

"tictalk," my impression--mostly from watching a report of the top 20 sellers on eBay each week (completed sales, not asking prices, which are sometimes silly) is that the market took a significant downturn starting about 2008 with the recession, but is now trending upward again.

An average external horn machine is probably always going to bring significantly more than an average internal horn machine. Unfortunately I don't know of anybody keeping track of sales prices of a range of particular models over time, although that would be interesting indeed.

Clay