[78-L] Price $7.00 for Single Sided 12" 1912 Victrola Record?

[Glenn Longwell]

One reason for possibly seeing more than you'd think of these catalog numbers (also the few 96000s sold for $6) is that over time their price went down.  In their patents label era they remained $7.  But as they went through the batwing label era they went down to as low as $1.60 in 1926.  There's a graph of these prices in the new Collector's Guide to Victor Records.

Glenn

--- On Sat, 6/4/11, Kristjan Saag <saag at telia.com> wrote:

From: Kristjan Saag <saag at telia.com>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Price $7.00 for Single Sided 12" 1912 Victrola Record?
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Saturday, June 4, 2011, 4:19 PM

The pre-WW 1 years were probably the most expensive ones for, at least, 
buyers of operatic records. This was the time when record companies 
could charge 30 % more than regular price for a duet and almost the 
double for a quartet. Gelatt describes this in his "The Fabulous 
Phonograph", and, indeed, mentions that Victor, by 1908, charged 7 
dollars for the "Lucia Sextet" (which was recorded in February 1908, not 
1912).
BTW: Gelatt also quotes a statement from Victor (to the dealers), which 
well explains the company's price policy:
"Do not underestimate the value of the Sextet as an advertising medium. 
This feature of the record is very much more valuable to the average 
dealer than the actual profit he may make of its sales. Not all of your 
customers can afford to purchase a 7 dollar record, but the mere 
announcement of it will bring them to your store as a magnet attracts 
steel."
Kristjan



Taylor Bowie wrote 2011-06-04 21:54:
> Someone (maybe it was Ray Bryant or his sister,  Marie)  once told me that
> those printed prices on the old Red Seals really didn't indicate what they
> were selling for when new...also that many were included as bonuses when
> someone purchased an expensive machine.
>
> Over the years I've seen so many of the damn things which have printed
> prices of   3-5 dollars that I'm inclined to believe the story.
>
> Does anyone know the true facts about how they were sold/distributed back
> then,  and if they did indeed sell many at those ambitious printed prices?
>
>
> Taylor
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Daley"<mikedaley at gmail.com>
> To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2011 12:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Price $7.00 for Single Sided 12" 1912 Victrola Record?
>
>
>> According to http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ $7.00 in 1913 would be
>> worth $159.02 today.
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 3:38 PM,<78records at cdbpdx.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> I was digging through some old classical 78s and found a 12 inch single
>>> sided red label Victrola Record (# 96200) dating c.1912 or so with a
>>> price
>>> on the label of $7.00.  That has to be equivalent to $300-$400 or more
>>> today.  There couldn't have been many of those sold.  It seems only 2 of
>>> this variety were released.  Not too surprising.
>>>
>>> You can view the label here:
>>>
>>> http://78rpmrecord.com/labelshow.cfm?whichLabel=2049
>>>
>>> I have 2 questions:
>>>
>>> Isn't that just about the most expensive recording ever sold in a retail
>>> setting, relatively speaking?
>>>
>>> What were they thinking??
>>>
>>> Thanks!  CDB
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 78-L mailing list
>>> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>>> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>>>
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