The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

n your experiences, how often do these tend to come up? I would say 'not that often', but yet, within driving distance of where I live, there was one in Fogelsville in October and this one in Philipsburg yesterday.

My observations were that both these auctions contained 75 machines or so, and the condition was fair to poor for most machines offered at both of them. Is this generally true? Is condition usually this bad? If I were a major collector of that number of machines, I would strive for quality or, at least, keep them in decent condition, indoors, dry and warm.... At the very least, in a DRY basement.

Just my thoughts and observations, and questions for you.

Hello,
There has been a fair number of these auctions over the last two years and I think that you are going to see a lot more of them. Many of the old timers that were collecting in the 1950s and 60s are passing away and their relatives are sending the stuff to auction. Many of these auctions are the estates of life long accumulators not Phonograph collectors. Most Phonograph collectors acquire machines selectively and like to restore them to working order and display them around their home or in a special Phonograph room. Accumulators gather everything that has to do with their field of interest and don't seem to be interested in restoring them or just simply never get around to it. You only have to watch a few episodes of " The American Picker" show to see what I am talking about. Most of the machines in these auctions look like they just came out of a barn because they probably did. That said, if it wasn't for these accumulators saving Phonographs ( clocks, Telephones, Bicycles, etc, etc) all this stuff would have ended up at the dump. Though many of the machines in the auction you were talking about were in poor condition or missing parts it does give the new collector or the collector on a limited budget a chance to pick up a good project.
Pete

I was at an auction like this in North East Ohio about two months ago. The machines were all average condition, some missing parts, although the missing parts were easily replaceable. There were a number of young people at this auction, along with veteran collectors. Unfortunately a guy from New York State, Buffalo area, outbid everyone, paying well above market value. He now has disassembled these perfectly good machines and is selling their every last part on eBay.

Well said, Pete.

The number of phonograph collectors is collapsing over several years. I expect a downsizing of 60-70% to the peak from before the year 2000. This downturn, accompanied by the meteoric rise of the internet and some pathbreaking coffee table books, lead to the establishment of an, beforehand, underrepresented type of collector: the profound connoisseur of the matter.

He, and I confess myself guilty, who enjoys inflated offers at deflated prices, cherry-picks only first choice material, creating museum-like collections in just a few years. But at the same time, many thousands of phonograph objects (both machines and records) are, belatedly, condemned to the dustbin. Time will show if the richness of our hobby can survive on much less collections and on much fewer shoulders than before.