The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

eBay Item #250796959668
The crapophones are getting more sophisticated. This Mikiphone looks pretty good and is a long way from the average brass horned round HMV crapaphone. This type of reproduction has the potential to lower the value of the real ones, this often happens with antique toys when a tin toy is reproduced in volume. It also appears that someone in india is mass producing boxes of needle tins pretending that they were made in the 1960s since they look a little off.... Beware of these too.

eBay Item #260720027704
Here are the needles. I have seen them in person and they are a bad fake. laser copy bands and each tin is "aged"/printed to look old.

The sellers description of the Mikiphone has left me more than a little confused.

Very rare and old vintage reproduction mikiphone gramophone from Swiss1930 in very good and working condition. its complete reproduction. its called Tiffin Gramophone. Its in folding forms. the horns are made of plastic. Its easy to carry. Its called pocket phonograph. its rare and unique and must for gramophones collectors. NOTE: It’s not original its reproduction that why it is in reduced price. Its size is 4 ½ inch in diameter. In case of any inquiry, please contact me before purchasing my products.



PRODUCTS ARE EXACTLY THE WAY THEY

APPEAR IN THE PICTURES

SO... is he saying this is a Swiss made reproduction from the 1930s because it has a plastic resonator, or is the resonator the reproduction, or is the whole machine a modern repro?
And where does the name "Tiffin" come into it? I dont see Tiffin written anywhere.

To me, the machine "pictured" appears to be a genuine Mikiphone, although the resonator looks somewhat crude & could be a replacement. The sctatches on the outer case look a little odd too, but I have seen original items that look the same from being cleaned with poor quality polishes & steel wool.
If this is indeed a complete repro, what are the tell-tale signs that distinguish it from the genuine item?

There's certainly no mistaking those Cheap & nasty needle tins. I bought mine on purpose just to have an example (& for a laugh), but it's easy to see why this seller has posted blurry distant pictures of his tins. They're as bas as some of the repro enamel signs they try & con people with.
They even managed to print the image upside down on my tin

I own a real Mikiphone. This doesn't look like a fake to me, but it looks to be buffed and "restored." What makes you think it is fake?

Perhaps something was lost in translation?

Apparently, he sold one of these back in January and received a negative for it so perhaps the one he uses in the photos is genuine.

Bill

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Amberola 1-A wrote:Apparently, he sold one of these back in January and received a negative for it so perhaps the one he uses in the photos is genuine.

Bill

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &viewitem=

I see the seller sold these on at least 5 occasions in the past few months, and has a 6th one listed. All with the same images.

LOL, well so much for his claim-

PRODUCTS ARE EXACTLY THE WAY THEY

APPEAR IN THE PICTURES

I wonder what you'd receive in the mail after handing over your $330?
A ghost named Tiffin in a jam jar maybe?