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Can someone school me on why this nickel tone arm with exhibition reproducer
went for so much? Is it from a rare model? Sure the plating is good but there
must be something I am missing here.


eBay Item #140461603938

I'm curious myself... especially since there is so much I do NOT know yet.

Looking at the bids, it would appear that the winning bidder E***R placed 5 bids. Either this person really, really needed/wanted to win this auction, or perhaps a bit of shill bidding was going on.

If there is something unique about this particular tone arm, I'd like to be educated.

This looks like it fits a Victor V which makes it a much different piece than the average nickel plated tone arm. I would not have expected it to go for so much, although I'm not surprised. Original parts in VG or better condition have become very pricey lately.

Jim

It does not appear to be shill bidding to me. The winner upped his bids long after he/she was outbid which implies that he/she was not using a autobid system.

phonojim wrote:This looks like it fits a Victor V which makes it a much different piece than the average nickel plated tone arm. I would not have expected it to go for so much, although I'm not surprised. Original parts in VG or better condition have become very pricey lately.

Jim

Thanks for clarifying this Jim. I was considering buying it as a spare originally but then the price went crazy high.

A number like this indicates a lot of dealing with a particular seller - I have rarely seen such a lot of activity between 2 people on ebay ?

noedison wrote:A number like this indicates a lot of dealing with a particular seller - I have rarely seen such a lot of activity between 2 people on ebay ?

I think the way ebay works his 5 bids would of gave him the 52% I dont like the way ebay does that.

I doubt this was shill bidding; if it was, they didn't quit soon enough. I think someone needed this very badly in order to complete a Vic V and were willing to pay whatever it cost to get it. One thing about Ebay's proxy bidding is that you don't know what the winner's highest bid was, so you can't really know what you were dealing with.

I've gotten into a couple of bidding wars at live auctions. In one, the back bidder was grumbling nasty things about my having outbid him. Oh well. In a couple of others, I talked to the winnning bidders and learned that they were not willing to be outbid. Period. Oh, the auction stories we could tell: the ones that we let get away, the ones where we were praying to be outbid and weren't, the one where another attendee got angry at you because he wanted the item but was out in the parking lot taking a smoke break when it came up..."How much did you pay for it??? I'da paid way more than that!!" and finally: "You paid 'way more than that thing's worth. Besides, I got five a them things at home and all of 'em are in better condition".

Jim

Jim,

I can think of many of those stories myself! When I bought my Triumph at an auction a couple of years ago, there were loads of other machines there and a few bidders were hot on the trail for the nicer Homes and Standards (which I wasn't the leats bit interetsed in). My sights were on the Triumph and I wasn't leaving without it. After the dust settled and it was me and ONE other bidder (who turned out to know nothing about machines and wasn't even a collector), I got it for $900. One guy noticed as I was leaving with it said, "Boy, you sure as hell paid RETAIL for THAT thing!". I told him I didn't care, it was a decent D-2 with 2-4 minute, a diamond B reproducer which luckily had a good stylus in it and a really nice green morning glory horn which really sweetened the deal for me. I was thrilled and still am, I've since upgraded to an oak cygnet horn and it's by far my favorite cylinder machine. The same night I got a super mint original Victor II for $800 and a pretty nice Victor I for $600 that needed work but was all there. I thought those prices were very reasonable, so it all evened out, even if I did pay "retail" for the Triumph. I still thought all three were nice buys. Besides, I was happy and that's the most important thing. All three machines will remain in my collection for a long time to come!

Sean

Some of the early Victrolas had the same tone arm as the horn machines. It appears that this tone arm would be correct for a Vic M, MS, D, III, IV, or V. The "U" tube is short as it should be on a horn machine. Tone arms with the wider "U" tube always have a rest for the reproducer. If the rest is removed, you have to deal with covering the small holes if you use it on a horn machine.

Tip for the day... When you consider buying a Victor horn machine, always check the spot where the reproducer touches the tone arm. There should be a tiny wear mark where the reproducer touches the arm. If there is no mark, you are probably looking at a Victrola arm and the mark will be on the other side or the arm was replated.

Tip #2... Always rotate the reproducer into a playing position and check to see that the needle is very close to the spindle. If the needle is very far from the spindle, the machine probably has the incorrect back bracket. There is a difference in depth between M, MS, III, and IV brackets and D, V and VI brackets. To compensate for the difference is cabinet size, Victor changed the depth of the back bracket. The same size tone arm was used on all the mentioned models.

Jerry Blais