The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The heirs of the late William Zenga ("Dr. Z")have engaged me to dispose of his entire collection. For the past two months I have been selling but a small portion; now the rest is coming available. There is something for everybody, because Bill seemingly collected anything and everything mechanical.

Phonographs, (especially Columbias), music boxes, radios, slot machines, jukeboxes, coin-op machines of all types and varieties, automatons, scientific instruments, you name it, it's probably there somewhere. He filled up not one, but two large houses with his collections. The second house, that he used simply for storage, is so packed with stuff I have not been able to penetrate into most of it, there is so much stuff blocking the way. It's sort of what you might see on American Pickers, but in this case not junk.

I'm working on devoting a special section of my website dedicated to his stuff. New pieces will be added as they come in. At the moment, only about 75 pieces are photographed, out of about 800 or 900 overall.

We are transferring everything to my warehouses in a few days. If you are looking for anything in particular, let me know by direct email and I will try to respond as soon as we get done with taking the inventory.

I have been given 100% authority to sell anything and everything at my discretion, so the deals will be quick and easy.

Raphael

Raphael,

Will you be putting a list out, or will that be on your website?

Paul

He's already been piecing it out. Some of it is on the website, other bits are on eBay.

I have dedicated a page on my website to showcase some of the 75 items that I have been able to photograph so far:

http://www.musicaltreasuresofmiami.com/ ... ction.html

The items shown represent about 10% of the overall collection. The web page is a work in progress.

This weekend we will be taking possession of the remaining items, a rather involved project requiring a large truck and four workers over several days. As the items are properly photographed, tested and assessed, they will be added to the web page.

I am expecting this project to consume about 18 months of my time and is a considerable financial investment on my part. There should be a lot of interesting items that I have never seen, as Bill was very secretive and never showed off his collection, except for a very few pieces. My knowledge of what he had was limited to seeing his purchases at various shows, auctions, and of course, from me.

Raphael

Hi Raphael

How is the pricing going to be handled. Do we contact you about individual machines or will there be a price list as you get the Dr. Z collection page set up.

Looks like some nice stuff so far. I recognized a few machines from auctions over the years.

Larry Crandell

For now, as I do with all of my items for sale, I will quote on an individual basis and provide additional information and pictures. When inquiring, please always refer to both the item and inventory #.

Raphael

Raphael wrote:For now, as I do with all of my items for sale, I will quote on an individual basis and provide additional information and pictures. When inquiring, please always refer to both the item and inventory #.

Raphael

It sounds then, that you will be selling from your website and not from eBay? Or, will it be a combination of both?

Historically, only about 5% of my sales are through eBay. Many of the items that I have already sold from this collection never even made it to my website or eBay, they went to folks who I knew were looking for particular pieces. It remains to be seen how this collection will be handled down the road, but for sure each piece will be shown on the website before an eBay listing is created.

Raphael

From what is on your website thus far Raphael, this looks like an incredible archive !

I just got my rear-end reamed by a member who says I am not responding to his email, which is not true. In fact, I responded twice. Sometimes, even in cyber-space, there are reasons why emails are delayed or sent to spam files.

Anybody that knows me (and this fellow does) knows that I respond to every single email inquiry that I receive. So, if you don't get a timely answer, please be patient (and check your spam file). I just got through two consecutive bouts of food poisoning and that end of my anatomy is sore enough!

Raphael