The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This Edisio Amberola 1B sold for $575.00 last night at the Richard D Hatch Auction in Flat Rock, NC. Hey Ronnie did you get it? I was bidding on several lots and missed them all. Not sure if by bids were going through on Live Auction. Oh well more auctions today.

Rich Gordon

Gosh the reproducer is worth more than that!

Nice. I have a 1B cabinet missing the motor and reproducer (stolen before I got it). Everything else is there I am salivating just looking at the photos, and the price - wow

Talk about a steal!

They sure did get a STEAL. I thought I was the last bidder when it closed. My screen said I was the high bidder. I sent them an email asking why I didn't win the machine.

Rich Gordon

Same thing happened to me. It's not fun when they come back and tell you " oh we're sorry, there must have been a glitch in the online bidding, but it went to a floor bidder and there's nothing we can do" SIGH!

Wes

If online bidders with high bids are indeed being ignored, I think the collector community should share information about who is running this auction, and inform our loved ones through our will NOT to do business with them. I would certainly not like my collection to be sold in such a slipshod way. Not only are the high bidders cheated (or punished for simply not being physically there, this in the 21st Century for heaven's sake), but the family who is hoping for a fair return on their loved one's collection is cheated as well.

How many Amberola 1Bs were made? 1500? This one seems complete (and even has the auto stop rod). Let's hope and pray the low-ball bidder & winner does not turn around and part this machine out.

Best wishes, Mark

If they can't run online auctions properly they have no business doing them doing them period. It is not fair to the bidders or consignors for them to ignore bids. Is it possible that what really happened is that the auctioneer or one of his friends bought it? BTW: what price could one expect that 1B to bring?

I once was at an auction where there were many nice clocks including an Ithaca(sp?) double-dial calendar clock, complete and running. I bid it up to $500.00 where the bidding stalled and the auctioneer just kept calling for bids and wouldn't hammer it. At one point he paused and asked where a certain person was and then resumed his banter and still wouldn't hammer it. All of a sudden a guy walked in with his hand in the air, the auctioneer took his bid and said "Hi, glad to see you" then looked at me for another bid. I walked out. I still don't have one of those clocks but I wasn't about to bid another penny for that one.

Jim

I sold both a 1-A and 1-B to Forum members last year for around $3500 each. Jerry Blais

I have shared my thoughts on this Forum a couple of times regarding crooked auction houses and auctioneers, just to get heckeled by other members of the Forum. It seems to me that we as a collecting community would rather just shy away from the fact that these dishonest practitioners control the destiny and the outcome of many treasured artifacts. I could fill these pages with stories regarding experiences that I have had over the past 40 plus years with auctioneers and auction houses whom have professed to offer a particular service and then have fell way short of producing. Many auction houses simply do not have the knowledge, nor the man-power to accomodate the technology that is required to do real-time bidding. It is, however, a breath of freash air when you do identify a house that does have their act together. I could name a few of these as well. I suppose the bottom line is...you just can't replace physically being there with the bidding number in your hand! But then...oh I have many a story about attending live auctions as well! As a good friend of mine once said...man, it's only stuff!!