Approximately a year and a half ago I purchased a fantastic group of
Ampico rolls on eBay.  A long time collector in Florida had amassed
a collection of 1200+ rolls.  I live in Pennsylvania and so Florida
is a long way to go to buy a collection.  The auction listings stated
there were no duplicates and that the majority of the rolls were
classical.

I am an avid roll collector of good old fashioned 88-note rolls and
I have a very modest group of reproducing rolls.  With two or three
thousand rolls already in my home I had no intention of making room
for all of these.  After buying the rolls I contacted Spencer Chase
in hopes of having him scan the collection.  I have installed a few
of Spencer's interface systems with great success and thought he was
the logical person to archive Ampico music.

At that time he had scanned a great deal of Duo-Art and Welte rolls
but had scanned only a handful of Ampico rolls.  I proposed paying
for the shipping costs one way with the promise I wouldn't share the
files with others.  As it turns out the rolls were in extremely fine
condition and were perfect candidates for scanning.  After the rolls
were scanned I sold them off a little at a time on eBay.

As a restorer and Ampico "A" enthusiast, I was glad to make my
contribution to the hobby.  Yes, it was a great deal of effort to move
the rolls to Pennsylvania, sort them, pack them off the Spencer, sell
them on eBay in lots and pack and ship them again, but I believe it was
a greater effort for Spencer to repair and scan each roll and ship them
back to me.  Now that an archive has been started I would encourage
other collectors to send more Ampico rolls to Spencer in order for the
music to be saved for the future.

Paul Manganaro