The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

ok, I'm sure some of you have noticed this one on ebay... am I crazy or is this (a) not circassian walnut and (b) grossly overpriced even if it was???

does anyone know the deal with this machine? I was actually wondering whether it might be one of those mythical craigslist finds we always hear about, that someone picked up for a few hundred bucks and is now flipping for more than 50 times that much... or at least trying to.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Victor-VE-130-Circa ... 286.c0.m14

Brian-I think you are correct on both counts. I made a quick check of the usual references and American Walnut is mentioned, but not Circassian... Also, the price is pretty steep even though it does look good in the pics...Steve

Yea, I'm still very new to collecting phonographs and I think it's severely over priced. It does look nice though.

Here's another for $12K less.

http://www.intertique.com/Circassian.html

It's one of those mythical craigslist finds we always hear about, that someone picked up for a few hundred bucks and is now flipping for more than 50 times that much, or at least trying to after a few weeks to clean it up.

Hi Brian I hope all is well your way ,

On the VE130 it is the real deal , and the seller is just trying out the market , no harm in that.

I was told that this Machine was verified By MR. Bob Baumbach To Be A Circassian .

Price To Be determined (

Is the Starting Price high ? YES

What the man Paid is irrelevant , Right Brian ?

I Think This guy will Get A fair Price for this , for sure over The $400 Mark .

Will I pay a fair price for this , knowing what seller paid ? Sure why not , but it must be a more realistic price .

aloha

Nipper

That's Circassian, the interior pics show the streaks better. I think either the outside veneer was selected to be rather muted or the finish has gone cloudy.

I really like that big colorful dealer's transfer in the lid.

I'm not too sure about that machine that is posted. I have an American walnut Victrola 17 that has some of the same attributes in the wood. If you lighten the pictures to make it look more golden colored you may get away with calling it Circassian walnut, but I kind of doubt it. On the higher end American walnut Victrolas they used more "flaming" type veneers than otherwise offered on the lower end priced machines. I believe the machine in question is an American walnut machine. Here are a couple of pictures of mine.



It's interesting for sure, I hope the buyer gets what he is wanting.

ColoradoPhonograf

nipper wrote:Hi Brain I hope all is well your way ,

On the VE130 it is the real deal , and the seller is just trying out the market , no harm in that.

I was told that this Machine was verified By MR. Bob Baumbach To Be A Circassian .

Price To Be determent (

Is the Starting Price high ? YES

What the man Paid is irrelevant , Right Brain ?

I Think This guy will Get A fair Price for this , for sure over The $400 Mark .

Will I pay a fair price for this , knowing what seller paid ? Sure why not , but it must be a more realistic price .

aloha

Nipper

true, what a person paid for something may be irrelevant in some respects when considering what someone else might be willing to pay for it later... beyond any discussions that have been been repeated again and again concerning candor and disclosure ethics in selling and buying (when you know something is GROSSLY underpriced and all you intend to do is buy it and flip it solely for an ENORMOUS profit)... which is not what I was getting at... I think I was mainly just struck by the irony of it I guess... how such a "rare" and "valuable" machine of the sort that many have never before seen might come along on a place like ebay only every so often may be priced at more than a small fortune (and may possibly even sell for half that and still amount to the small fortune)... even though some consistent looking and "shopping around" so to speak can easily result in finding the same thing somewhere else for far less... in this case, rather than spending $17k for a "circassian" walnut XVII, you could google it a bit and find another for $5k, as shown elsewhere in this thread, or just be more diligent in watching craigslist and pick one up for less than one-tenth of that... just had me thinking about rarity, value and price, and how they're all such relative terms.

or, if you've got no interest in the search but have tons of cash, like some others out there who have virtually overnight amassed truly remarkable collections (if not just hoards), then obviously none of that matters because money is irrelevant.

in any event, it's certainly out of my price range and I doubt it will sell for anything more than a third, if that, of the initial buy it now price, but even then that seller's done pretty well by investment standards I imagine.