The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

How many times have you walked into a antique store, resale shop etc. and saw a milk crate of records with maybe several common Decca records, Red seal Columbia’s and a few bat wings of no real particular interest for maybe 10.00 each?

I see very few 78 records for sale in Northwest Indiana, I think most were discarded years ago. I remember going to check out some records advertised on Craigslist, the guy had maybe 200 records, many were so-so from the teens and 20’s. Some Collins and Harlan, Paul Whiteman etc. I could not even look through them without him shoving records at me and saying this is a good one! He said I could have all for 200.00 or 5.00 each. I told him I would give him 50.00 for the stacks, take it or leave it and I ended up leaving.
He said I know you collectors know what something is worth and trying to take advantage. I explained most of us collectors buy and keep records we want, and sometimes sell just to maybe buy something else we want, more like trade.

Very few records are worth anything, I think the public needs educated on all of this. Yeah, we may not pay 5.00 for Benny Goodman’s red seal Columbia from 1945, but hey we might pay a quarter or two just to have something to play a few times. I
Very few Paramount Blues , Edison laterals etc. exist, and depending on content fetch a high price for the very reason of supply and demand. I often wonder about the guy and his 200 records, did they end up sold, trashed or is he still trying to sell them?

Ugh, this has happened to me more times than I can count! However, the worst offenders are not always antique shops - in my experience, most shop owners are happy to bargain with potential record buyers if they know s/he will buy a stack of records rather than just take one or two. The worst are jukebox collectors/dealers (sorry, but it's true) and people who try to sell them on their own through Craigslist and then get offended and uppity when they learn great-grandpa Bert's Artie Shaw RCA 78s are NOT the valuable heirlooms he said they were!

The opposite has also happened to me many times - I saw a B.A. Rolfe Edison in great shape at an antique shop once listed at $1 because the seller had no idea how valuable it was! I have also gotten many collectible and scarce records for FREE at a local record shop that deals primarily in vinyl because "no one wants those old 78s"!

Shellac abounds aplenty (and good shellac at that) even outside of this Forum and eBay - if you know where to look and how to make a deal.

That has happened. But generally I find antique stores to price 78's quite cheaply (like 50 cents or buck each) and nowdays severely overprice their vinyl. Say, find some trashed Beatles record that was pressed in the millions and they want 50 bucks for it.

Antique malls on the other hand, may feature more sellers with stalls that like to price their 78's like you describe.

Sometimes the reverse happens, with records which were best sellers but of which few good copies survive. The result is high prices, The Charleston being a classic example.

I went to a local antique mall and they had a few 2 minute cylinders, all without lids. 2 of them were broken to pieces and one was a Columbia that was so moldy. They wanted 60.00 each. I asked the lady that ran the booth, “Why in Heaven would you offer those old broken and a moldy cylinder for 60.00 each?” , she told me they are old and very hard to find, I told her maybe sell the boxes for a few bucks each. She said no they will go up in price if they don’t sell soon.

Just yesterday I ran into a big box of blue amberols. All of them seemed to be run-of-the-mill. He wanted $20 for each of them. They were ALL in bad shape too.


-Travis