Tim Gautreaux says, "I weeded out the unplayable -- the disintegrating."
Over the past four years my roll scanning adventure has encountered
numerous unplayable, disintegrating rolls that, following minimal
repairs sufficient for one last pass through a scanner, would often
yield great music.  In their day, they were simply played to death,
a very good indicator that such rolls should not be used for firewood.
See  http://members.shaw.ca/terry122/damage.htm

In the past 35+ years in this delightful avocation, I have learned that
most collectors, myself included, have in their roll collection a variety
of unplayable rolls.  The temptation is to throw them out in the trash,
but for whatever reason, thankfully we don't.

Within our IAMMP organization (International Association of Mechanical
Music Preservationists), we consciously seek out what others may discard.
We know that such rolls are very often worthy of time consuming repairs
to make possible rescue of their content.  See  http://www.iammp.org/

So, the message is:  Please do not throw out unplayable rolls.  Get
them into the hands of a member of the IAMMP for repair, rescue and
archive to preserve their content.

Regards,
Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
http://members.shaw.ca/smythe/rebirth.htm