The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have not had much interest in the Beethoven Phonograph I have placed for sale on Yankee Trader & was trying to get some feed back from forum members why that may be? Is it priced to high? or is it something else I am missing?
Thanks For Your Input

Well, opinions will vary I'm sure, but $1650 seems way high to me in this market. While the Beethoven is a scarce machine, it's also a BIG machine. The market for larger machines like this has always been a very narrowly focused one. If you're truly interested in finding this machine an appreciative home, I'd suggest doing what the rest of us do here, lower the price a little each week and hope you can generate some interest. It is certainly a nice machine.

Hope this is useful.

Sean

For reference

This one (in very good condition) sold recently for $900 https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/42 ... phonograph


This one (in fair condition) is still sitting on ebay for $300. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-1920S-Edis ... Swd0BVv67x

[/Cancel that last link. In haste I made a mistake. b]

travisgreyfox wrote:For reference

This one (in very good condition) sold recently for $900 https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/42 ... phonograph


This one (in fair condition) is still sitting on ebay for $300. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-1920S-Edis ... Swd0BVv67x

FYI, the second link above is for a Schubert, not a Beethoven. The Schubert is more common and smaller. The Schubert shown has numerous problems. The seller has listed it on eBay and/or Craigslist for the last 2 years, possibly more, with no takers.

Okay. I only priced it like that because I saw one had sold on Yankee Trader for $1800 last year.
Thanks Again For All The Info And Help.

Interesting. The one that sold for $1800 here last year was Charles Gregory's machine where it originally sold at auction for the $900 (the serial numbers are the same). When it was posted here for resale, it lost a door pull and all the extras it had with it and doubled in price. $1800 seems outrageous to me, but timing can be everything if someone "just had to have one". Stranger things have happened and some people have lots of disposable income, I just don't happen to be one of either!

Sean

I also thought the listing price was too high. I would have started around $1,000 and worked my way from there.

Garret

If the price was much lower I’d buy it since were in the same area. Would even consider a trade. Problem is finding a spot for that big thing!! I have a mint Victor radio/phono that’s like that and I’m struggling to find a place for it!

It seems the consistent feed back I am receiving is that the Beethoven is priced too high...I respect that and will consider reasonable offers for this Rare Machine...

Thank You

I've owned a couple of Beethoven's over the years because I really like them. I'm one of those who just had to have one. I looked for years for one, but every one I saw for sale had something wrong with with it from Lion's Head door pulls to bad veneer and just terrible condition. I finally found one in Georgia on Craigslist, but it had a Victrola No. 2 reproducer and tonearm on it and few other problems like mold. I bought it for a reasonable price, and had a friend bring it out here to Calif. for me. Then, when I found another Beethoven for sale locally that had been in an Edison dealer's family since new, I bought that for $1200 even though it was missing the Edisonic reproducer, had a shot finish, and had a broken spring, but came with a long play mechanism and an NOS Long Play reproducer still in the box. At the time, I thought they really were worth $1500 to $2000. Then I put my first Beethoven on the Yankee Trader, after correcting its issues, for about $1600, and I also got nowhere. I learned quickly that a Beethoven is a great machine to only a very small group of collectors even though it's rare. There are always machines that will sell to someone who has to have it at a higher, or much higher, than average price because these machines are not common, and years might go by before another becomes available. For example, last month an Edison B-60 table model sold for over $1900 on Ebay. Another one might only sell for a few hundred the next month. That's the phonograph market!