Just a note on the folks at Personal FX:

About a year ago, an interesting violin was displayed by a listener for an
appraisal.  It had no tuning pegs and had pictures of an inventor, a guy
named Sandell, pasted on it.  It was signed by factory workers, wishing this
Sandell "best wishes".

It also had a tag inside it reading "Mills Novelty Company".  Personal FX's
assessment: "Simply a novelty, worth maybe $15.

Viewers jumped to the phones trying to get in touch with the owner of this
Violano relic, before its got painted gold turned into a flower pot.

Alas, the producers of Personal FX were of no help -- wouldn't even answer
phone calls.  A visit to their offices was equally offensive. Watch out for
these "experts".

Ed Gloeggler

 [ Editor's Note:
 [
 [ This faux pas on the part of Personal FX's "experts" has been mentioned
 [ here before, although a long time after the TV event.  Now that we have
 [ a "contact" at Personal FX, I wonder if it might be possible to again
 [ try to contact the owner of that "novelty"...
 [
 [ Jody