Hi all,  Well, piano roll collections can vary all the way from
junk to some really nice collections.  Robbie Rhodes puts it best:
"If you can't pick-and-choose then you should estimate what percent
of the collection is (a) interesting and (b) playable.  The remainder
is simply junk."

I used to buy just about every collection of rolls that came
available, as I used to think rolls were scarce as hens teeth, and
over the years I acquired some really nice rolls for my collection and
my various player pianos.  Most of the collections were very nice and
had some great rolls in them, but along the way I discovered that not
all collections were good and some were just plain junk.

I remember one afternoon a lady called and said her husband had
passed away and wanted to sell his collection of about 2,000 rolls.
I told her on the phone that I would come over and buy the collection.
I arrived at her home and she had put the rolls upright in boxes in
her patio so I could look them over.

I spent a few hours looking them over and found only six rolls that
I would really want for my collection.  I thought that was quite
strange, so, since I was doing music roll auctions, I again looked
over the collection to see if there were rolls that my roll auction
collectors would want, and I could not find any.  I came to the
conclusion that the rolls just were not worth it.

As I paid her a premium price for the six rolls I had picked up and
I apologized that I really did not want the collection, I asked where
her husband had acquired his rolls.  She replied, "he picked them up in
trash bins, the dump, junk shops and people simply gave them to him."
So -- not worth it.

A few years back I got a phone call from California from a party of
another estate, which had Johnny Weissmuller's (of "Tarzan of the Apes"
movie fame) Steinway Duo-Art player grand and about 10,000 Welte,
Duo-Art, Ampico, Recordo, Artrio and 88-note rolls.  The rolls were
stored in a well-insulated attic and out in the garage.  They were
thinking of about $10.00 per roll and naturally I was thinking of
a bit less.

I asked a friend to go over with a phone and call me and we would see
what was in the collection.  Since I am primarily a fan of reproducing
rolls, I asked him to look over the Welte, Ampico, and Duo-Art rolls
and tell me what was there.  I was expecting to see some Jumbo Ampico
"B" rolls and some great medley fox trot rolls and some great
classical stuff of, like, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Stravinsky, etc.

But in all the Ampico reproducing rolls there was mostly stuff that was
fairly common, like "The Rosary", "Ave Maria", "Silver Threads Among
the Gold", "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" and tunes I have never heard of
-- all just plain junk, in my opinion.  The same was true with the
Duo-Arts, and then I asked if there were any ragtime and blues in the
88-note rolls and what was there.

So, I did not buy the collection and I think at the end they got
something like 10 cents per roll and I don't know about the player grand
pianos.  I also found out that among the rolls stored in the garage a
good percentage were ate up by termites.  I can tell you that termites
do not know how to make music!

Another time, I was planning to go to a music box meeting in Atlanta,
Georgia, and had come down with a cold and decided to stay home.  I was
dosed up with cold medicine and sleeping in bed, when about 2 p.m. the
phone rang and a lady said that her husband had Alzheimer's and it was
time to get rid of the roll collection.

She was the type who does all the talking and never gives you a chance
to get a word in edgewise.  All during the phone conversation I wanted
badly to tell her that I had plenty of "The Rosary", "Ave Maria",
"Silver Threads Among the Gold", etc., and did not want to buy any more
roll collections, but never during the entire conversation did I get
to say a word.  Fortunately she did give me her name and phone number
and said that her husband had several thousand rolls and over the years
had sold them off, gave them away and donated some and there were 800
rolls left.  I still had not been able to say a word.

She said in parting, "My husband collected blues and ragtime rolls and
at one time he had a copy of every single roll that Scott Joplin had
produced."  Then she said goodbye and hung up the phone...

I sat bolt upright in bed as my brain was still digesting the words of
"a copy of every Scott Joplin roll that he had made," and I promptly
picked up the phone and called her back and said I would buy the
collection.  I sent a friend over to confirm what was there and pay her
what she wanted and packed and shipped the rolls to me.  We were both
happy.

So, what it boils down to is, "What are the rolls in this collection?"
You say the condition varies?  If they are reproducing rolls and they
are torn, they are simply worthless.  As I said above, you really want
Ampico "B" rolls, preferably Jumbo "B" rolls, lots of great medley
foxtrots, really great classical music and not the ordinary _junk._

For 88-note rolls you really want blues and ragtime or tunes that you
know.  If you look over, say, 100 of the rolls and you have never heard
of any of the songs in your lifetime, then the collection is probably
just junk.

Reading between the lines:  Do you have a player piano and collect rolls?
If you are buying a collection of rolls for your own collection, be
cautious of what you buy and make sure they are music that you like and
best bet would be to simply buy only the ones that interest you.

Or maybe you just found these and don't know anything about rolls and
want to make a few bucks?  On that, my advice would be to pass it by,
because if you don't know what you are buying, you could get stuck with
some junk that is not saleable.

Good luck in this endeavor!

Musically,
Larry Norman - from the Blue Ridge area, and this week it is warming
up to the 60s -- maybe summer is coming back?  Or maybe more ice is
melting?  Strange weather!