The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

new member alert

Hi everyone, I hope that some of you will be able to help me.

My father was an avid collector of phonographs and gramophones for 25 years. Sadly he passed away several months ago, leaving behind a collection of 30 talking machines. As my mother will be moving to a smaller house in the next year or so and will have little room for them so we need to value the individual machines and try to sell them at a reasonable price. For example the attached Edison Phonograph Standard type S ca 1898 in excellent condition.

Please note that the collection is located in the Netherlands.

Have you considered hiring a licensed appraiser, given that you have many phonographs?

jvdzee wrote: new member alert

Hi everyone, I hope that some of you will be able to help me.

My father was an avid collector of phonographs and gramophones for 25 years. Sadly he passed away several months ago, leaving behind a collection of 30 talking machines. As my mother will be moving to a smaller house in the next year or so and will have little room for them so we need to value the individual machines and try to sell them at a reasonable price. For example the attached Edison Phonograph Standard type S ca 1898 in excellent condition.

Please note that the collection is located in the Netherlands.

antiek audio 10 002.jpg

You may want to contact this well known dealer who is also in Holland. He buys whole collections.

http://www.phonograph.nl/

Or this collector in Belgium who also buys whole collections and may pay more being a collector.

http://www.phonograph.be/aankoop.htm

Welcome to the forum. The person in the Netherlands is Guido who is shown on the link that Gramophone 78 provided. He can guide you about what you have. I never dealt with him, but I have heard good feedback about him. The machine that you have is an Edison Model D from 1908. The 1898 that you saw was one of the patent dates shown on the plate.
Harvey Kravitz

Probably obvious fact: There are a lot of dealers and even more collectors in Europe who are looking to buy machines.

What you should do is first make an inventory of the collection with photographs. Then circulate it to dealers and collectors. There are a few more dealers in Netherlands than the 2 mentioned, and a lot more just across the channel in UK.

If dealers sell to collectors its obvious where you can get a better price. Do you want to sell en bloc or individually is also a consideration.

Sorry to hear of the passing of your father. Did he not have some documentation about his collection?

With online resources you can get a fairly good idea of the value of different pieces.

On this forum you are at the right place if you need help. And of course we would like to see the machines in the collection!

Dealers are dealers. Most are honorable people who are simply trying to make a living, so if you want to sell the whole collection as one, then that might be your easiest option. Just be cautious as there are some dealers who will rip you off. I know of one dealer who payed $100 for a $5,000 Bettini attachment.
I would suggest you take loads of pictures, even of the small stuff and the people on this forum will advise you if there is something very rare in the collection.
Best of luck.

Thanks everyone, this place is very helpful Just hope you wont get sick of me posting dumb questions Finding out about these machines is an interesting and fascinating experience

We are definitely considering dealers, but as chunnybh mentioned there are bad ones out there. So we are cautious and want to go in prepared, this forum looks like a great starting point for that.

My father did keep an inventory of sorts, but mostly with details as to where and from whom he bought them, they come from Canada to UK and from Netherlands to Scandinavia.

I only have a limited number of pictures at the moment that he took himself for an online gallery he wanted to build. I will post them for your perusal (and identification?) when I have some time, I wont be able to take any pictures myself until I'm back in Netherlands later this year.

As phonofreak identified the one in my first post as an Edison Model D from 1908, could anyone give me an indication as to what price range it would fall into?

jvdzee wrote: As phonofreak identified the one in my first post as an Edison Model D from 1908, could anyone give me an indication as to what price range it would fall into?

Unfortunately, the "worth" of a machine is not that easy. Most of us collectors will tell you the value of a machine is whatever a seller and buyer can agree on and be happy.

What machines are worth in Europe will be very different in North America. Machines that are very common here, may be worth far more in Europe.

So, this will lead to many varied opinions as to what a machine is worth and just make the issue even more confusing.

In your case, being in Europe, makes selling problematic to collectors over here. Logistics is one of the main problems.
Large horns (for example) are over the size restriction for overseas shipping by mail and only very expensive services (like UPS) will ship these and cost...$$$$$.

Also, collectors generally want to physically inspect machines they wish to buy. Although photographs are great, they don't always provide the whole picture of a machine.

If a machine is European in origin, the desire and value will be far greater in Europe. Very few European models are the exception to this.

Therefore, given your particular situation.....the advice some members have offered would be your best approach.

Photograph all the machines and have someone who can come in person to look everything over. There are several reputable dealers/collectors in Holland, Belgium and the UK that can and will pay fair prices for whole collections. Once you are given offers, you will have a far better idea of over all "worth".

Like most services, you may have to pay for an appraisal.

Guido has been dealing in Phonographs and related items for over 30 years out of Holland. If anyone knows what the market will bear....it would be him. He is also considered very reputable and fair worldwide.
However, he is not the only person over there..

There are also many European auction houses. However, unless you have very rare and valuable machines.....it's not the best way to go.

Another suggestion is for you to do a great deal of work and sell each machine on a web site like Ebay or locally like Marketplatz.

Our forum offers a section for members to buy and sell called the "Yankee Trader". However, in your case....I would advice against this given your limited knowledge.

Hope this helps.

I have made some very bad experiences with "reputable" dealers. After learning the hard way my conclusion is that you must know very well about what you are selling or buying. In the ideal case you know better than the dealer himself, otherwise it is always possible that you will be taken for a ride. It is much better to let the market decide! Sell it by public auction.

Thanks everyone for the great advice so far. Have been busy with starting a new job but over the next week or so I hope to post some more pictures for you all to peruse and hopefully help me to identify them

Will be back in Netherlands in 2 weeks, and will take loads of detail pics.