Know what you're buying — before you buy it!
by Bill Tarling
Bill Tarling, 1989
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After
almost
20
years
experience
buying,
selling
and
repairing
phonographs,
I
would
like to make
a few suggestions which
may be
of interest to new collectors. First,
I
must
thank
Bas Ingrouille,
who got
me started
in
repair work.
I
learned more than Bas thought
I
did
when
he
was repairing phonographs for
me in the early 70's.
I never
knew him to be
stuck for a solution to a thorny problem.
When
buying
machines,
especially
when
it
involves
a large
amount of money, take
your
time.
Inspect the mechanical parts, and if
it
is
a
machine
with
which
you
are
not
familiar,
take
a
photo,
and try
and
have
someone
knowledgeable
look at it.
Don't
be
high-pressured or
rushed,
especially if
you
are
buying
from
an
antique
dealer.
A
favourite tactic of
some is to indicate that
another party
is
hot after it,
so
he
will
urge you to buy it
immediately.
I
am reminded of
a recent purchase
I
made of
a beautiful
mahogany cabinet.
When
I
opened
the
door
I
saw that all
the shelves
were
filled
with
cylinders - placed
with
such
mathematical
precision that they appeared to
be on pegs.
I thought the cabinet
(which
was
unlike
any cylinder cabinet
I
had seen)
was
well
worth
having.
After paying for it,
I
found to
my
dismay that it had
no pegs for
cylinders
and
was
meant for
78
rpm records.
I
later
sold
it at
a
loss at
one
of
our
auctions for
$180.
A proper cylinder cabinet
with
swing-out shelves is
worth
about
$700.
I
rather
admired
the
ingenious
way
I
had
been
fooled.
Obviously,
I
should
have
inspected it more carefully.
Another
time
I
bought
an
upright
Pathe
machine
from the
widow of
a Toronto police
officer
and
had
not
opened
up
the
back.
While taking it
down the stairs,
we heard
a
thump.
Opening
the
back
we
found
a police
revolver which the officer had hidden there.
I returned it to the widow.
Sometimes
when
you
buy
a
phonograph
from
someone
they
will
ask
for first chance to
buy
it
back
if
you
decide
to
recommend
that
you
do
not tie
a string to
any purchase or sale.
I
made
a deal
via transatlantic telephone
to sell
a
scarce
Edison
phonograph
to
my
friend
Howard
Hope,
who at that time
had
a
shop
in
London.
I
promised that
I
would
deliver
it to
him
at
Union,
Illinois
in
June.
As
I
was
flying
down with
some other
CAPS
members,
Steve Barr,
who
was
driving
down,
kindly
agreed to take it.
When
Steve arrived at Union
we went out to
the parking lot, lifted out the
machine
and
placed
it
on
the
bonnet
of
the
truck.
Seconds
later
a
fellow
came
running
up
and
offered
me a price which
was $1000 more than
Howard
Hope
was going to pay
me.
Howard
had
already arrived
from England
and was waiting
in
the
building.
I
explained
to this fellow
from Oregon that
I
had
made
a deal
and
could not go back on it.
Most
phonograph
collectors are very
honest
and would
have
done the same. It is wise to
remember that "a deal Is a deal".
Your
long
term reputation
is
worth
much
more than
an
easy
monetary gain.
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