John: What a great story! Thanks for sharing it.
Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Pisano" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 8:21 PM Subject: [Phono-L] Which one? And why? and the one that got away great findstory all in one!!! >I can give you a little interesting background on the upside down label > Vernis Martin machine as I traded it to Bob. I will also say this is > probably for me it's the machine that got away, although I am very happy > with the machines I received in trade. It was a pleasure to trade with > Bob. > > > > As far as collecting goes, it is interesting how one thing leads to > another. > I still consider myself a relatively novice collector. However, a few > years > ago I lucked into a nice collection of phonographs and records. I am not > a > record collector so I put them on eBay. To my surprise several of the > records went in the $100-400 range. In my eBay description I explained > that > I wasn't good at grading records and that I mainly collected phonographs. > At this point I was contacted by a record collector who lived nearby and > wanted to look at the records. It was discussed that if he was > interested, > we might be able to work out a trade for his father's phonograph > collection. > Long story short we agreed that I would give him the records of his choice > plus a large sum of cash in exchange for the collection. > > > > Shortly after we completed the transaction I received an e-mail that he > (Chris King) had won a Grammy for best historical record. He has a > fascinating job of hunting down rare 78's, figuring out their historical > significance and remastering them onto CD. > > > > As for the Vernis Martin, it sat in his father's (Les King) collection > near > Homestead, Virginia for many years. Years ago, Les King played piano for > Bill Haley who was famous for the song, "Rock around the Clock". Some of > you may remember Les. He even recorded a few 78's of his own on a local > label. I never knew him, but apparently he had a passion for collecting > musical oddities since the 1950's. Chris and his father beat the bushes > for > old phonographs and records in the foothills of Virginia. They would go > to > old neighborhoods and ask around for old bluegrass, hillbilly 78's and > phonographs. Apparently they did well. I purchased/traded for his > collection of about forty machines and parts about five years ago. He had > some nice machines including a Wizard, Hexaphone, AB McDonald, Columbia > BS, > Amberola 1A, but the Vernis Martin was the prize. > > > > I hoped to quickly sell enough machines to get my money back and still get > to keep some of the higher end machines for my collection. A far cry from > the Edison Homes and Standards I currently owned. My wife and family > thought I was crazy. To be honest I felt a little foolish using my home > as > equity for antique phonographs. As phonograph collectors you might > understand, but anyone else on the planet - no. The first show was in > Delaware. I opened my van door full of Phonographs, it was amazing. I had > a > bidding war on several of the items. In fact, some of you probably > purchased them from me in the parking lot. The guy running the show > yelled > at me for setting up in the parking lot so I closed shop, but I had > already > about emptied my van. Although I sold them too cheap, I got my money back > within a few months and was able to keep the Hexaphone, BS, AB McDonald, > and > the Vernis Martin which I later traded for Eclipse and Victor XVIII. > > > > Interestingly enough I sold the bulk of the phonographs to a guy from > Morocco who transported them in a container by ship and claimed there was > a > market for high end antiques there. Since then, I have sold him several > more phonographs so perhaps there is a market. Who would have known? > > > > That was a long winded story and what you may ask, what is the moral??? > Well if there is one, it would be you never know where the road will take > you. If you have a passion for something such as phonograph > collecting.follow up on your leads. Stuff is out there. It takes some > work, > but it is fun and along the way you will have great experiences, meet > interesting people and if you are lucky you may even end up with a few > interesting machines. > > > > Merry Christmas! > > John Pisano > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > [email protected] > > Phono-L Archive > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org/archive/ > > Support Phono-L > http://www.cafepress.com/oldcrank
