Imagining what those things may be might be a stretch though ...

It might even be scary...or the hoped-for indecent?!

Bet it'll involve fleamarkets, more records and Super-8-films... all of which will have to keep waiting for me a few weeks longer than planned. # 14 is postponed for two weeks.

We're prolonging the agony, are we? Sounds like birthing anything. False labot and all. Reward yourself when it is all put to bed properly...anything taking this much of Alexander deserves that.

That should read 'labor'... and I am sure there is nothing false about it!

Hi! Anybody have an idea were to get record collector prices on the web? Got some old records and wonder what it might be worth. I don't want to sell it, just want to know if I have to talk with my insurance company...(haha) I sometimes wonder if that old stuff could really be worth loads of money?

check ebay and see how much they're going for there. alex? you're the record man, what do you think?

But if I go to an auction place, I have to tell them my name, no? And I really don't want to sell my things, but I'm nosy if I got some treasures between my rubbish...

Perhaps some of your items are already listed there... Maybe even in like condition, so you could see what other folks ask for them. Besides Ebay, there is ricardo.de in Germany and www.andsold.de , I think. But there should be more specific record collector's resources, like record traders specialized in second hand and special recordings who offer their wares on the web.

we can do some searching for you, isabel, i'm already registered at ebay, so i can go there for you. let me know what you have and i'll get to work on it!

A german record collector's site: http://www.sammler.com lists dates for collectors conventions, shows the grading system and offers the chance to post questions (hey, some folks even offer 78s!). It's regularly updated - doesn't look too fancy, but well maintained. Their page http://www.sammler.com/sp/sp_links.htm shows links to online-record trading markets, a bootleg shop, etc. Enjoy!

Find records on offer at http://www.music-market.de/ , where you could also advertise (if you wanted to sell something). And if you'd want a printed catalog to browse, check http://www.motor-presse-stuttgart.de/mps/mgz/mgz.asp - there's one for Rock&Pop LPs and one for Rock&Pop singles. Something for classic and jazz, too (wonder if my jazz 78s are in there - e.g. my two Mezz Mezzrows...).

�sigh� Ehem, thank you! Those web-sites look interesting and maybe I would find what I'm searching if they weren't so difficult to survey... I bought the first Bob Dylan LP in mint condition and the dealer said that it's worth a lot and now I wanted to know if this might be true or not...

Check out http://www.jerryosborne.com/ - they have a price guide for American records for $26, perhaps available via Amazon, too. And! You can sell and buy collectibles there, And! they appraise your records for ONLY US$ 3,- per item! All chargeable via plastic money.

Looked up some book on vinyl collector prices lately, it said that's its not much worth - about 25 english pounds....Hoped it was more...

Old LPs?? Alexander, which ones are you looking for? Old Motown? Old rock? Classical? My other half used to do flea markets, and, Holy Moly, Batman! There's a million of them out in the garage!! He's debating on selling some on eBay, having a garage sell, doing another flea market, etc. I have found so many LPs that I had forgotten about, well, I started having flashbacks! LOL!

Next step: Play 'em! Go and check which you still can bear, and which are just to far behind. Right now, there's lots of soul in this household. Some Barry White, much Curtis Mayfield. Besides that, I listen to the monks a lot right now (see the monks-topic, and check out their website; they are the REAL thing!). I like many things in music, on LPs, 10'', 7'' and 78s.

I have definitely been listening to many of them. I haven't even broken the "iceberg", yet! I have given strict instructions on which ones are keepers, though...there's quite a huge pile of those tucked away in the corner!

Hmh, I wonder if we could use a topic on Hi-Fi gear, or maybe a whole AudioPhiles Conference, like e.g. the Radio one. That's different from the Music Conf - as this guy once said to me "Now you got the software, lemme get you fixed onto the hardware, too!" There's not a lot serious audio geeks want to talk about more than their high end amps 'n' stuff. Comments, please.

Just did...Aloha, Alexander!

I did some work for a guy once and he paid me in antique records - caruso and stuff. I really regret now that I gave them away when we sold everything up.

Caruso - he was the first highbrow artist to record. See, until that moment (and for quite some time after that) "serious" artists and ensembles would not record, or if, then only pseudonymous, because they were very much aware of the low quality in reproduction if compared to life performance. They thought they would tarnish their reputations if they allowed less than satifying reproduction of their work. Also, they were worried that their market value as performers would drop if their work were readily available on media. Caruso did away with that. If the result was only half as good as live, but if he reached much more listeners and made them happy - molto bene! And so he became the first international recording superstar, creating access for record labels to top-notch artists, and helping artists to become more widely known - even in places where they'd never perform live. When I started collecting 78s, I bought three boxes with about 30 records each, plus an approx. 20 records Linguaphon English language course ("The Englishman is very found of smoking tobacco." "The doctor is a great friend of humanity."). One record in the boxes was Caruso. Nice thang. And then there were wax cylinders, too (well, I don't have any yet) - did I ever post this link: http://www.tinfoil.com/ ? Y'all check it out, that's really neat - and you can listen to some wax cylinder recordings.

And there is also Tim Gracyk's place: http://www.garlic.com/~tgracyk/ This is more for early 78 (or shellacs) fans. Very good articles on media history, technology, restauration of gramophones, etc.

Thanks for Tim's link. My ersatz son-in-law collects old gramophones. I will forward it to him. Oh, and I have no idea what happened to my dad's collection of wax cylinders, but there were a lot of them and I recall the peculiar sound of them...far better than nothing, but nothing compared with what is available today. He later bought a Scully Lathe and recorded us all for posterity on shellac. Wonder where those are, as well...*sigh*

We always had loads of 78s when I was growing up. We had our own wind up gramaphone with a big horn. don't know what happened to it. My favourite was 'in a monastery garden'. It was a tiny little record. I have a box of records in the loft, I wonder if I kept that? I had a Gallicurchi record too (well, that's how its said, but the spelling doesn't look right). She was a fantastic soprano around the same time as Caruso I think. I always wanted a Kathleen Ferrier recording (later I know). Her 'blow the wind southerly' still gets me every time. I hate giving things away - but we're into that again now and it hurts.