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Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 8:33 pm
by gunnarthefeisty
I've been looking around in my state (Minnesota) lately, and it seems like there's rarely any orthophonic or similar machines. Anyone else experiencing the same things?
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 9:34 pm
by 52089
They don't show up very often anywhere. I see an occasional 4 series (usually 4-3, 4-4, 4-40), maybe 3 or 4 a year on Craigslist. It took me a good 3+ years of active searching to find my 8-9, which was over 100 miles away down rural back roads.
Keep looking on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, LetGo, etc. and you will find one eventually.
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 12:33 am
by gunnarthefeisty
52089 wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 9:34 pm
They don't show up very often anywhere. I see an occasional 4 series (usually 4-3, 4-4, 4-40), maybe 3 or 4 a year on Craigslist. It took me a good 3+ years of active searching to find my 8-9, which was over 100 miles away down rural back roads.
Keep looking on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, LetGo, etc. and you will find one eventually.
Not like I have a whole lot of choice. Hoping something turns up soon- I'm surprised at the lack, given that I live in a large city.
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 1:07 am
by thatonejohn
There was an electric credenza at an auction a couple weeks ago in Little Falls (not really in the cities, but close enough for some people), but it was poorly refinished.
But yeah, they don't show up all that often.
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:09 am
by Jerry B.
People started spending their disposable money on radios. But Edison said radio was only a passing fad.
RCA purchased Victor for the manufacturing capability not to make Victrolas but radios.
Jerry B.
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:00 am
by OrthoFan
This is the only one on Craigslist I've spotted in your part of the country --
https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/clt/ ... 48278.html
Keep in mind, most people did not upgrade to the latest models after the transition to electrical recording, but simply played the new process records on their existing equipment. After all, good money was spent on what they had. In addition, as noted, many--if not most--opted for radio sets during the latter 1920s, and this cut into sales of new phonographs and records. When the depression hit, it nearly killed the phonograph industry in the US, which did not recover until the latter 1930s:
"During the Great Depression, as the 1920s became the 1930s, the record industry almost disappeared entirely. In America, record sales were decimated from 104 million units in 1927 to 6 million in 1932. " FROM --
https://www.hotpress.com/music/great-de ... s-22809799
That said, I do see a few post-1925 phonographs come up for sale from time to time in your area on sites such as Craigslist, even some Sears Tru-Phonic and Montgomery Wards Melophonic models. (I'm originally from South St. Paul, and I like to check the old home turf periodically.) In San Francisco, where I have lived now for the past 33 years, there are almost no post-1925 phonographs on Craigslist, and never have been. Of the pre-1925 models that come up for sale, most are laughably overpriced junk.
OrthoFan
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:11 am
by 52089
...and someone swapped out the Orthophonic tonearm and reproducer for the earlier style!
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 12:37 pm
by MATTROSE94
OrthoFan wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:00 am
This is the only one on Craigslist I've spotted in your part of the country --
https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/clt/ ... 48278.html
Keep in mind, most people did not upgrade to the latest models after the transition to electrical recording, but simply played the new process records on their existing equipment. After all, good money was spent on what they had. In addition, as noted, many--if not most--opted for radio sets during the latter 1920s, and this cut into sales of new phonographs and records. When the depression hit, it nearly killed the phonograph industry in the US, which did not recover until the latter 1930s:
"During the Great Depression, as the 1920s became the 1930s, the record industry almost disappeared entirely. In America, record sales were decimated from 104 million units in 1927 to 6 million in 1932. " FROM --
https://www.hotpress.com/music/great-de ... s-22809799
That said, I do see a few post-1925 phonographs come up for sale from time to time in your area on sites such as Craigslist, even some Sears Tru-Phonic and Montgomery Wards Melophonic models. (I'm originally from South St. Paul, and I like to check the old home turf periodically.) In San Francisco, where I have lived now for the past 33 years, there are almost no post-1925 phonographs on Craigslist, and never have been. Of the pre-1925 models that come up for sale, most are laughably overpriced junk.
OrthoFan
I noticed the same thing where I live. Most people in the area where I lived were early adopters of radio back in the early to mid 1920s (due to the fact that the area was high income) and neglected upgrading their phonographs until the introduction of the LP and 45 formats in 1948/49. The only machines made between 1920 and 1950 that I typically find are cheap portables from the 1930s and 1940s in terrible shape and overpriced beyond belief.
I did see a Victor Credenza X for sale on Facebook marketplace three towns over from me, but the seller wanted $10,000 for it despite the fact that it was amateurishly restored back in the 1980s and had an incorrect reproducer on it.
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 1:00 pm
by Garret
gunnarthefeisty wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 8:33 pm
I've been looking around in my state (Minnesota) lately, and it seems like there's rarely any orthophonic or similar machines. Anyone else experiencing the same things?
Things come in waves. Now might not be the time. I've seen a few 12-15s for sale, though.
Garret
Re: Lack of post 1925 machines?
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 2:53 pm
by gunnarthefeisty
Garret wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 1:00 pm
gunnarthefeisty wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 8:33 pm
I've been looking around in my state (Minnesota) lately, and it seems like there's rarely any orthophonic or similar machines. Anyone else experiencing the same things?
Things come in waves. Now might not be the time. I've seen a few 12-15s for sale, though.
Garret
boy, I would buy one of those in an instant!