Vinyl Asylum

Old vinyl - junk or treasure?

70.20.89.87

24phun

I was cleaning out my 86 year old mom's apartment, and came across a number of old classical discs.
These are in sort of a hard cover "book" form, with several records inside of sleeves. I can find no dates - the records are very thick.

For example:

Beethoven's quartet no. 9, in C. Op. 59, No.3 by the Paganini Quartet.
RCA Victor red seal record, made in the USA 4 records

Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Berlin Philharmonic
Capitol/Telefunken 2 very heavy records

So, are these valuable to vinyl buffs, or just intertesting junk?

Follow Ups:

RE: Old vinyl - junk or treasure? - Tom B. 13:03:31 05/28/07 (0)
Like all the others have mentioned these babys are 78s. There are defintely active 78 fans. Sometimes they can be valuable.........but very few. There was an article somewhere on the net that mentioned a vinyl collector was lucky enough to find mint condition set of Edwin Fischer's Bachs Well Tempered Klavier. He got $5000 for them on E-Bay!! He had to pack them like dishes....shellac breaks easily!

I sold a single album of 6 discs featuring Pierre Montuex and the SFS to a local collector here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pierre was the musical director of the SFS for 15 years and the guy's father had played violin under the maestro. He paid $35.....but he picked up the set.

$5000.....$35.....?

Tom B.
RE: Old vinyl - junk or treasure? - jc2000 23:20:28 05/27/07 (0)
These do sound like 78s to me, too. You won't see a speed listed on the record, since back before the LP there was only one speed. (Actually, speeds did vary really early on--the only way to know what speed to use is to know the label. Later it was standardized on 78 and there was no reason to list speed until the advent of the LP.)

I'm not sure what value these have. A lot hinges on how "important" a given performer is, and how important a given performance is. One possiblility--if these are 78s, you could view this as an excuse, er, opportunity to play with 78s. There are a lot of people very addicted to the 78 rpm record.
They're 78s, from the sound of it - Jascha Heifetz 14:28:59 05/27/07 (1)
As to whether they're worth anything, that all depends on condition and whether you can find a buyer. There are quite a few old-record buffs out there (I've got a few myself, including a one-sided disc from before they knew how to make two sides, along with a couple of old Columbia and RCA record catalogues from 1919). It's mostly jazz discs that you hear about; I'd imagine classical was an enormous pain in the ass before the LP came around.
- RE: They're 78s, from the sound of it - 24phun 16:55:30 05/27/07 (0)
  I thought about 78's - I couldn't find any reference to speed on these things - or date.
  The Capitol/Telefunken description suggested that the label (I believe Capitol) was nearly ten years old when the recordings were released.
  Any idea of when that might have been?

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