Cost of 7" Victor, Improved Berliner, Etc. Records

[Victor A]

Hey everyone,

I'm not currently in the market per se, but for reference, how many 7" Victor (or even more preferably) Canadian Improved Berliner records could I buy for $50-$60?

I'm well aware that condition is a factor, and I just assumed they're generally worn. I'm also fairly certain that Canadian Berliners are more rare here in the States (and in general), which I'm sure would drive up their price.\

Thanks for the input!

[OrthoFan]

First of all, if you haven't seen it, this page provides some good information about the Canadian Berliners -- http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gram ... 006-e.html

I've never come across a 7-inch Victor or Berliner disc priced less than about $50. Here's some current "asking" prices on ebay --

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... rd&_sop=16

http://www.ebay.com/itm/78-rpm-x-4-Lot- ... SwsW9YxGH8

-- but I don't know how typical or realistic they are.

OrthoFan

[bfinan11]

On average, about one, from what I've seen. Both of these are slightly newer than original Berliners, but not much less rare, and getting any substantial collection of them will cost you!

[gramophone-georg]

Prices on these have just gone nuts. I don't know if any are selling at these prices or not. Brown wax cylinders seem to be right behind.

[Rastus10]

The lowest that I've ever paid for a Pre-Dog 7" Victor from an online auction was $10 about a year ago for a copy of "Always" (1901--Herbert Goddard. Fine playing condition. That was an aberration, I'm sure, although I also secured a Roger Harding record for less than $40 and two Berliners for $40 each. Some collectors are less willing to pay much if the label (on a 115+ year-old label, mind you) is faded, has needle runs, or has water damage.

The lowest I've seen of late for something in decent condition (subjective, of course) is low to mid-$30's, and yes, Berliners are always at least $40, if not much more. There was, within the past six months, a cache of 7" 1900-01 Victors(and Consolidated/Improved Records), most which ended in the triple digits. The two that I won did, anyway. Which brings me to the following:

In regard to snipe bidding, 78rpm record collectors are amongst the most annoying at thus raising prices much higher than what they should be. They lack the decency of fairly declaring their interest beforehand and other than within the last few seconds of the end of an auction. I really wish that there was some policy of a first-time bid occurring no less than five hours beforehand. End prices might be lower, too. No joke, for that aforementioned cache of early Victors, some bloke snipe bid on almost every single record. He/she/it didn't win all that many, and I just have to wonder why even bother to have done so?? This is why I prefer buy-it-now records, as infrequent as they occur.

Now I will wait for someone to defend the VERY honorable practice of snipe bidding.

[gramophone-georg]

The lowest that I've ever paid for a Pre-Dog 7" Victor from an online auction was $10 about a year ago for a copy of "Always" (1901--Herbert Goddard. Fine playing condition. That was an aberration, I'm sure, although I also secured a Roger Harding record for less than $40 and two Berliners for $40 each. Some collectors are less willing to pay much if the label (on a 115+ year-old label, mind you) is faded, has needle runs, or has water damage.

The lowest I've seen of late for something in decent condition (subjective, of course) is low to mid-$30's, and yes, Berliners are always at least $40, if not much more. There was, within the past six months, a cache of 7" 1900-01 Victors(and Consolidated/Improved Records), most which ended in the triple digits. The two that I won did, anyway. Which brings me to the following:

In regard to snipe bidding, 78rpm record collectors are amongst the most annoying at thus raising prices much higher than what they should be. They lack the decency of fairly declaring their interest beforehand and other than within the last few seconds of the end of an auction. I really wish that there was some policy of a first-time bid occurring no less than five hours beforehand. End prices might be lower, too. No joke, for that aforementioned cache of early Victors, some bloke snipe bid on almost every single record. He/she/it didn't win all that many, and I just have to wonder why even bother to have done so?? This is why I prefer buy-it-now records, as infrequent as they occur.

Now I will wait for someone to defend the VERY honorable practice of snipe bidding.

At your service.

When you bid, whenever you bid, place a bid for the max you are willing to pay. If someone's bid exceeds that max... it doesn't matter WHEN it happens in the process, really.

I'll tell you why I snipe bid. Three reasons.

First is convenience. If an auction ends in the middle of the night, or when I'm going to be tied up, I'm covered. Sometimes I don't even remember I wanted something till after it's over. Setting a snipe alleviates that, too.

Second is that I've been around eBay a long time... 17 years under my current ID, and since late '96 on the ID that I lost in a move when I somehow got disconnected from all my info.

I am a notorious record collector. People would search what I was bidding on, figure it was good stuff, then start bidding against me. It was crazy. The bids would start within minutes of me placing a bid, even if it was the last day of an auction on a record that had had no previous activity. This was in the days when all user IDs and bidding histories were visible to everyone. Since eBay has "scrambled" IDs, it's become more difficult, but if you know what you are doing there are ways to deduce whose "scrambled" ID is whose.

Third- A lot of sellers know me, too, and they CAN see who I am when I bid on one of their offerings... especially if I am a frequent flyer buyer with them. They know or can reasonably figure out what I'm willing to pay for a record. Before the advent of sniping, I know damn well I got shilled up to my max... (trust me- there's WAY more of this going on out there than anyone imagines ) quite a few times, so being able to "snipe" stealthily in the last couple seconds eliminates any chance of this, too.

There's a legend out there that the sniper is using this "underhanded tactic" to "swoop in and win", but the fact of the matter is an outbid is an outbid is an outbid. Period. If you are willing to pay more than me then you are going to own the record, and sniping has zippo to do with that fact.

I can tell you, with confidence, that sniping does NOT help me 'win'... I've lost just as many with sniper software as I did without. The difference is that I don't have to babysit auctions to bid, nobody can see what I'm doing and piggyback, and I can't get shilled.

So there.

[gramophone-georg]

Oh, and one other thing. Sniping is also a discipline thing for me. I see something I want... I'll set a snipe bid. Then, I won't look at it again. No more of these "outbid" notices during the auction that I then follow to see I've been outbid by a buck, so I bid more, only to have it happen again, and it's the same farkenfarkel nibbling at my bid, and now I'm mad, so I nuke bid it and wind up WAY overspending because of my giant orange ego.

[gramophone-georg]

By the way- shameless plug- if you want 7" set sale Berliner records I have some offered in my "Lousy, Overpriced Records" ad in the Yankee Trader... and I promise I won't even snipe you.

[bart1927]

Well put, gramophone-georg. The main reason for me to start using sniping software is that I'm based in the Netherlands, and that most records I'm interested in are sold by Americans. So there's an 8 hour time difference, and all these auctions end in the middle of the night. For years I've set my alarm clock, sometimes 3 or more times, during one night, so I could make sure I wasn't outbid in the end. And those were the days of dial-up connections, so there was always the option of losing an auction because sometimes my connection would crap out. Until one day a fellow collector told me about the existence of sniping software.

In my experience it's usually those auctions where people are bidding up against each other like crazy, days before the auction ends, that end up with the highest selling prices. Actually, it's those people that annoy me the most. Why start a bidding war when you know the auction isn't going to end for another 3 days? It seems to me that a 3 day bidding war could drive up the price much more than a 3 second war, even if the bidding is done manually.

[edisonplayer]

I wonder what my Berliner of "Whistling Rufus" as a violin solo would go for? edisonplayer