[78-L] Clueless classical 78 rpm seller

Fri Mar 2 23:36:31 PST 2012

I wasn't trying to scare anybody off for the auction listing however I have more than enough classical 78 rpm sets so that I'm really not looking for a whole lot more. A few here & there yes but not a big collection like this & not at his $300 to $400 prices either however I might have bid on this if the starting price was somewhere between $50 to $75 & maybe $100 tops then I'd go get it in Colorade with my 13 year old pickup truck if I won the lot. Top bid for me would have been something like $150 at the most. At least thats what I would have bid on it. 

I'm not looking down my nose at this auction btw. It's just started way to high for my liking. Doesn't mean you can't bid on it if you want to though.

A younger 78 rpm collector wanting to get into classical might be quite happy with this collection as I was with most of the haul I got from Kurt all those years ago. From the spine labels I saw there is some really great stuff in this auction that I've enjoyed listening to in my own collection of classical 78's. And when I got that collection from Kurt I really didn't know very much about classical 78 rpm sets. My classical experience back then was with LP's from the 50's to the late 70's or so. I didn't have more than about 500 hundred 78's back then & none of those were classical, just rock, pop, a little country & a good amount of big band swing. As to classical 45 rpm I only had 2 or 3 of those kind of sets from the 50's so my experience in classical 78 & 45 rpm was quite limited but then I've learned a lot more since then about classical as I have some other genres of music. But then theres other stuff like collecting opera or jazz records for
 example that I'm still a novice in. Opera? I don't really care to know a lot about that but jazz yes I'd like to learn more that the limited experience I have with that kind of music with all 3 speeds including 78 rpm. Some jazz I'm finding out is pretty darn good stuff.

But back to this classical 78 rpm auction haul we are young only once so if you are a younger collector & want to get into classical 78 rpm then spend the bucks & go for it. There really is some pretty good music on 78 rpm classical & a lot of times the discs are close to mint condition more often than not. Don't let my first comments scare you off from this auction. By all means if you want to bid then please feel free & do so. I might do it anyway just to see what he's got if I did win the auction. Sure there are dupes of what I've already have but there might be some stuff on 78 rpm that I don't already own. Lets see, 4 days left on the auction. Might be worth a drive as he will allow inspection before bidding if your close enough to drive over there. Otherwise take a plane trip & check out this haul. May be something you'd want to bid on. For me it would be about a 3 day drive as I don't fly thanks to that TSA scanner & pat down mess they do to
 those who do choose to fly. Anyway if somebody here wants to bid then good luck & I hope that you get some new stuff if you do win!!

I've driven cross country a few times to go get large collections of LP's & 45's plus once for a nice big collection of 78's so getting this (if I decide to bid & win) is nothing new. Every year I drive to New York & New Jersey (each a separate trip) for a pair of film collector shows with 16mm, 8mm & super 8 film projectors in the truck then haul whatever films I've bought home in the truck bed. The New York trip is around 3000 miles round trip from Houston. Last year right after the Fall Austin Record Show I drove all the way to New York for another 3 day record collectors show & it was worth the trip. I plan to do it again next Fall right after the Austin show just like I did before.

Maybe as much as I love to drive I should have been a long haul over the road trucker in my younger years, but at 53? Nah, I think I'll pass on that.....

>________________________________
>From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com> 
>Sent: Friday, March 2, 2012 11:28 PM
>Subject: Re: [78-L] Clueless classical 78 rpm seller
>
>I agree with David that this IS a helluva collection for someone at that 
>price no matter what Robert says.  Just because he was able to get a 
>mammoth collection from Kurt -- there might have been other advanced 
>classical collectors who might have looked down their noses at THAT 
>purchase just like you are looking down at this.  If there IS a young 
>collector here that might want to augment or break into classical 
>collecting, this is potentially a great start.  Don't let Robert's 
>negativity scare you off.
>
>  The fact that there  will always be a lot of dupes in large classical 
>78 album collections is why no archive takes them like this.  There were 
>less than 3,000 classical 78 albums ever issued.  Although it is hard to 
>tell when the spines are not visible, I only see two or three albums 
>which pre-date the 1940 price drop.  The scroll and Royal Blues are 
>probably not here, but most classical collections are like this.  But 
>for a starter, this is great for 300 bucks if you are in the "neighborhood".
>
>Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
>On 3/2/2012 10:22 PM, David Lennick wrote:
>> Jeez, who packed those? The Erna Sack Capitol set is probably already smashed,
>> and the Rossini Overtures should have been at the outside of that box. Some
>> people....wait a minute, isn't that from one of my lockers?
>>
>> Kidding aside, that could be a helluva collection for someone at that price. I
>> hauled more than that out of the basement of Hobart-William Smith College in
>> 2003. Had to make two trips with it and stow half of it in Nick Nickson's
>> garage, and the price was something like 3 discs for a dollar.
>>
>> dl
>>
>> On 3/2/2012 8:57 PM, Robert M. Bratcher Jr. wrote:
>>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-20-Boxes-12-Classical-Opera-78-rpm-Records-Over-1200-Records-/160750820353?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item256d7edc01
>>>
>>> Starting bid $300&  Buy It Now at $400? He'll never sell it. Even as much as I like classical I'm not paying $300+ for this stuff. Might be tons of dupes of what I've already got from Kurt Nauk about 16 to 20 years ago when I bought his whole wall of classical 78's for $200 when he was closing down his Houston shop before he moved to Spring. Then add the other classsical 78 rpm sets I've picked up since then&  you'll see why I don't want to buy this lot. Now if he had a Make Offer button I might offer perhaps $75 for what this seller has but thats about it. Not a penny more. And even then it would just fill up space in my home that I could use for other records. So like I said, I'm not bidding on this at all.
>>>
>>> Looking at the pictures I can spot many dupes of what I already have.....
>>> ______________________
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