The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi everyone,

I am just having a look through the random collection of records that I got as a job lot when I bought my 102, I have taken some photos of some of the less common ones in my collection. Most of mine consists of HMV ones and quite a few seem to be the mail order sort, you know the sort with the stamp on the label and some with stickers like 'post out early' and stuff

Here are some less common labels and records I have (please note that I will be getting covers for all these, but they came without covers but are still in good condition.

These are all my records that don't have covers - I have a box with ones with covers downstairs



Here are the more uncommon ones I have:

Regal Zonophone



Regal - I have a few of these



Oriole



This is an interesting one, its a 'london american recording' not seen this label before



Here is what I mainly seem to have, HMV with this label (although I have earlier HMV ones) with a stamp on it



I will go through the other box in a bit and post up other uncommon ones from there, but these are the main odd ones from this box!

Please can you let me know if they are worth anything to anyone, I will probably be keeping them all anyhow, but I was just wondering if there were any that were valuable that I might for example send for professional cleaning or to not play etc

Right, here is what I have from the other box of records and a real gem (that might be worth a lot lol)

Here are some uncommon labels I have found in this box (please ignore whatever cover it has lol):

Here is the rare one in question - Erroll Garner, Honeysuckle rose and My heart stood still on the columbia label...factory sample, not for sale, unplayed - is it worth much? lol




Here are some other odd labels I have:

MGM


Another london american recording



Nixa

You've got a bunch of fairly common records, with some good music on them.

The Coon Sanders would seem to be the prize of the lot. But not sure even if it has more than middling value.

Enjoy them anyway! I'm sure I would.

Would the Columbia factory sample not be worth anything then? I can't actually see it in his discography so might be unreleased etc

m1tch wrote:Would the Columbia factory sample not be worth anything then? I can't actually see it in his discography so might be unreleased etc

That's a commercial pressing, not a test or the like. I don't think it has any special value.
It being a 'factory sample' not withstanding. Factory samples, promos and such turn up with some regularity in collections of 78's.

Hmm so are there many commercial pressings like that then? What are the labels I should look out for? I guess all the HMV ones are common lol

m1tch wrote:Hmm so are there many commercial pressings like that then?

There are many that turn up, not around every corner, but you'll find plenty more as you continue to look a 78's.

m1tch wrote:I guess all the HMV ones are common lol

Very common.

Also, if it's not already apparent, you have a collection of U.K. pressings, all of them, I believe.

Ah ok I might sell on some more of the uncommon ones and collect some more common ones that I can enjoy without worrying about destroying a bit of history lol

Yeah it seems basically all of them are UK pressed, I think I found a few that weren't etc

Btw, that London american recording label, doesn't seem to be in the label archive, plus I found that regal zonophone one, its being sold for about $35 online.

m1tch wrote:Btw, that London american recording label, doesn't seem to be in the label archive,

The label archive here? Perhaps Mordeth would be interested in putting it up. In any case, the label scans on this site are only a small fraction of what's out there. I just picked up 20 78's yesterday, among them are a couple called The Thomas Record probably from the 'teens. I know nothing of them, never seen them before.

m1tch wrote:plus I found that regal zonophone one, its being sold for about $35 online.

In most cases the artist(s) is going to do most of what determines the value of a record, not the label, though there are exceptions, of course. Like Berliner records.

The HMVs & Regals are probably the only ones you should really be playing on your 102.
By the mid 1930s, British and American records were mostly being manufactured for playback on electric gramophones with a light weight pick-up. This meant less abrasives were being added to the shellac mix which resulted in less surface noise and made them cheaper to make, but also means the records wont grind down a steel needle to fit the groove quickly so instead the needle will grind the groove.
You'll find records like you Oriole, MGM & Nixa will wear very quickly on an acoustic machine. .