[ Ref. Visiting the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan ]

In 1984 I visited Deerfield Village and saw the merry-go-round.  The
band organ was silent.  I asked if I could poke around and I did.  I
found a hose was disconnected, connected it, and was warmly thanked!

Similarly, in the 1950s a Wurlitzer 146B was silent at one of the
Endicott-Johnson parks near Binghamton, New York.  Harvey Roehl
was asked if he wanted it for $25, bought it, and added it to his
collection.  It too had only a disconnected hose.

When I started in 1960 it was very common to find silent coin pianos
and band organs in their original locations.  These usually cost little
or nothing from their original owners.  In the collectors "market"
a Seeburg or Wurlitzer basic coin piano was available for a few hundred
dollars.  A few years later I bought a Seeburg G orchestrion and a
Double Mills VV with Orchestra Cabinet for $1,000 each from Angelo
Valente.  Harvey Roehl said I paid too much!

About 15 years ago I bought a large three-foot screen SONY TV for our
summer cottage.  It weighed several hundred pounds with its accessories.
Two years ago I paid two men to take it to the town dump, where they had
to pay $5 fee to leave it.  Later I drove by and saw a dumpster filled
with TV sets and computers!  Sort of like coin pianos in the 1950s and
early 1960s!

Dave Bowers

 [ From the 1860s: "One man's rubbish may be another's treasure."
 [ Ref https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/60429 
 [ -- Robbie