The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Suppose I had an early Victor external horn machine that is totally original down to the same serial number on the paper label on the underside of the case as on the metal name tag. Everything else also original: the bracket, horn, horn elbow, etc. Everything. Then suppose I part it out. That is, I take a completely original, working machine, disassemble it, and sell it off part by part, piece by piece. After all, it's easier to find several buyers willing to put out a relatively smaller amount than one buyer who puts out a larger amount. And I stand to make even more on the several transactions. Anything wrong with this?

Nothing wrong with it at all. Except for the fact that you're finding something that has survived intact for a hundred years and promptly destroying it because it'll make you a buck and make your life easier. Think building homes for Rome's homeless from the stones of the Colosseum. There's probably a better if slightly less convenient way.

....then again, those parts may give new life to five machines previously destroyed by someone else.

That's the two viewpoints, so like everything else in life, do what you think is right.

</sermon>

Anything wrong with this?

Of course not. Anything's justifiable if it makes a person a few extra bucks.

I could get wordy, but I'll just stick to saying it would be thoughtless to do that. It grieves me a little when people look at any antique item and see only dollar signs. In fact, I wish antiques were completely worthless; then I could get all I want!

This was a hypothetical question as far as I am concerned. I have no intentions to part a machine out. Still, not a hypothetical question for some. Look at a certain website where many, many things are bought and sold . . .

jboger wrote:This was a hypothetical question as far as I am concerned. I have no intentions to part a machine out. Still, not a hypothetical question for some. Look at a certain website where many, many things are bought and sold . . .

I have a good idea who that comment is aimed at.
I, personally, have grave reservations about stripping a good machine for it's component parts just for profit.
Note I said "Good" machine.
I can see nothing wrong in stripping a machine, which in it's dilapidated condition would not be worthy of preservation, but will yield many parts to complete an otherwise good, but incomplete example.
I am someone who will not, for example, fit an original Cygnet bracket to my Triumph (I would love it to have a Cygnet horn) because it has survived 100 years without it, and I would hate to be the one to change it's appearance after all this time.
I have used many original parts to keep my phonographs running over the last forty years, but I like to know the provenace of them.
Regards,
Alistair.

Although just my opinion.....why is this thread even on here... .

gramophone78 wrote:Although just my opinion.....why is this thread even on here... .

Trolling?

But to add my two cents, why not, it would be the same as taking a matching numbers '66 Cobra and parting it out. An extreme example perhaps but the same thought process involved.

gramophone78 wrote:Although just my opinion.....why is this thread even on here... .

....the most pointless post on an otherwise wonderfully pointless thread.

Well done Champ.

Well, not pointless. There's a number of issues here. There are pros and cons. Anyway, if so pointless, then don't bother to respond. Besides, grammophone78, are you the self-appointed monitor of what is allowed on the Forum?

As for "trolling," I don't really know where that comes from. Seems a bit mean-spirited though. People post things on this Forum for a variety of reasons, for information, for help, and sometimes just to communicate with other people who have a similar interest and talk about what's going on.

When one starts a thread you don't know in advance where the conversation may lead. A related question to my original post is, what about taking parts off a fully functional more common machine and using them on a different but rarer machine? But any chance of that dialogue has been killed.

I haven't put a post on this Forum for a couple of months. I think it's sayonara. For those people whose IQs don't reach to 79, that's Japanese for goodbye.