Hi,  A friend of mine asked me about getting a bell box so I was
looking on eBay for one.  I saw this item and thought I could at least
use it for a price comparison.  Then I looked at the pictures.  The
seller describes it as in 'superb condition'.

I usually just avoid stuff like this, especially from a company but
I thought that this was a really severe case of inaccurate description
so I wrote him [the seller] the following:

  "Hello,  I think you should reconsider your description of this
musical box.  It is definitely _not_ in superb condition.  It has
suffered the worst type of damage that can be done to a musical box,
short of dropping it or using a hammer on it.  It has had a run.
The governor broke and this caused the cylinder to spin.  That is what
broke the teeth and I'm sure a lot of the cylinder pins.  The upper
parts of the governor and the winding lever (not to mention the piece
mounted on the two rear brackets, the missing controls and all the
screws from the comb) are _not_ interchangeable -- they must be hand
made.  The flaps at each side of the inner glass are probably not
original and the case itself is _not_ the one that came with the
mechanism.  The Phillips screws that hold it to the bottom of the case
were not even invented until decades after the box was made.  If you
sell this to someone who does not know about musical boxes, and they
try to get it restored, they will be very unhappy.  The 'minor' repairs
that you suggest will cost the new owner at least $2500 -- plus the
case repairs.  I think you should consider a more accurate description."

Just in case someone on MMD might think about buying this basket case,
I thought I'd share this with you.  It's okay as long as you realize that
you are getting a basket case or a parts box or a really big project,
but to suggest that it need 'minor repairs' with interchangeable parts
is grossly inaccurate.

Regards
Craig Smith
Rochester, New York, USA