The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

My wife and I drove to Georgia today to look at the 30 brown wax cylinders the woman had available, as well as the Amberola 30. Unfortunately the brown wax were almost totally shot! Five were shattered, another 20 were almost completely white with mold. There were handwritten slips of paper with a few, possibly titles, but the ends of many cylinders had been painted white. The carrying box was in good condition. We passed on the whole lot. She offered it all to us for $500 but no value was there! Someone told her“ they’re worth $10 each and can be cleaned” so she was disappointed. A great road trip though!

If the seller had tried to play the brown wax cylinders on the Amberola 30, they would indeed have been totally shot .

It’s funny how these “experts” can loosely throw out a figure on the value of items that they know absolutely nothing about, yet they never offer up the money themselves.