I will also chime in on this seller. I also know him personally, as we both are Zonophone guys. He has purchased machines from me at a discount, and within a month or two has had them on ebay. I have alsways looked carefully at the pictures. At least with the machines that I have sold to firebottles, no changes or alterations were made.
He has a great gift for his descriptions on ebay. It can not be understated how much good, honest descriptions increase the final selling point of an item. Also, as I wanted to take better pictures for my auctions, I asked firebottles how he does it. It has taken him about 5 years to perfect this. He is not a professional photographer. By trial and error, he uses a curved white back drop, which I believe is just heavy paper. He uses 500 watt high intensity lighting, from multiple directions so there is little shadow. Also, you have to be able to manually "white balance" you camera, and use a tripod for steadiness, and good focus. I am sure there are some cross over collectors out there who are professional photographers that can comment on his photographs! Lastly, many American machines sell extremely well outside the United States. Prices are realized that we would never see in this country. Why do you think that Guido buys all those common American made machines to have shipped back across the pond? Because he has a market for them. These comments are just my own personal experiences. Please feel free to correct anything that I have said, if you have more or better knowledge about the situation. I do not want to state things in error. Thanks, Jeff Wisconsin -----Original Message----- From: phono-l-boun...@oldcrank.org [mailto:phono-l-boun...@oldcrank.org] On Behalf Of George Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 7:43 AM To: Antique Phonograph List Subject: Re: [Phono-L] $6100.01 Edison Standard Phonograph I've been reading this thread and the seller is a long time customer of mine. Along with well written Ebay listings and good photos he is extremely honest and will bend over backwards for his customers. If I remeber correctly this machine went to an international buyer and first thing the fellow did was over wind it and break the main spring. I ended up repairing this at no charge to the customer including a couple of other minor things discovered when I received it. The seller took care of all costs. While I can not speak for all his machines this one was original. While I do know the origin of it, I will not make it my business to say where it came from other than it was a fairly recent acquisition for the seller and the auction did not have any "Never, never land bids". At least nothing that the seller had anything to do with. If all sellers were as honest and straight forward as this fellow I personally would still be buying on Ebay today. There is"junk" being peddled on Ebay with poor descriptions and photos. I just had another of these Ebay purchases from another unfortunate Ebay buyer last week in my shop. Thank you, George Vollema Great Lakes Antique Phonograph Newaygo MI 49337-8556 www.victroladoctor.com ----- Original Message ----- From: harvey kravitz To: Antique Phonograph List Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 9:52 PM Subject: Re: [Phono-L] $6100.01 Edison Standard Phonograph I also followed this auction. I made a couple of posts in another forum on this topic. I can't believe how high this went. I can't sell a Standard for $300.00. Go figure. That seller must be laughing all the way to the bank. For that kind of money, you can get an Edison Opera.or a Victor VI. Harvey Kravitz ________________________________ From: Jay Horenstein <jay.horenst...@gmail.com> To: Antique Phonograph List <phono-l@oldcrank.org> Sent: Tue, January 25, 2011 6:42:12 PM Subject: Re: [Phono-L] $6100.01 Edison Standard Phonograph I didn't watch this auction......why did it command such a high price? On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 5:58 PM, Tim Gray <timsanti...@northstate.net>wrote: > Wow! At least I know it was a honest auction. I have bought a couple of > nice machines from the seller. I live 30 minutes from him and picked them > up. He allowed me to see some of his other machines and big radio > collection. his items are always very nice and they bring better than > average prices. Tim > > > > > > > > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=190474 888084 > > _______________________________________________ > > Phono-L mailing list > > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org > _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
