Mira Music Box at Auction
By Beatrice Robertson
I have found that buying music boxes at auction can be a most enlighten- ing experience. If there is a large collection of music boxes, the sale becomes a large, unofficial MBSI meeting, and the prices are generally fair, sometimes even excellent form a buyers point of view.
However, if there is just one box or even two or three, the buyers go into what I call the "Oh, I don't have one of those" mode, and the prices can go from high to through-the-sky.
I once saw a very ordinary, terrible-sounding single-comb 13-inch Oak Regina sell for $7,800 at a Midwest auction because two ladies -- who hadn't a clue what it was -- both wanted it. The price certainly had nothing to do with the real world.
If you watch the weekly antique publications at all, you will notice a music box or two in sales all over the United States every week. And in most cases, they sell too high. The best place to buy a music box is from music box dealers or other collectors -- you generally get accurate information and a price that is in line with the current selling price.
And John, we've purchased some neat things in Waco over the years. There are music boxes everywhere if you have the patience to seek them out.
Beatrice Robertson
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(Message sent Mon 31 Mar 1997, 11:36:06 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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