I cannot find any information on the value of Fischer Record players. The company began making pianos and that is the only current info I can find. What is this worth? Where can I find more info about it?
I am only seeing some of the newer model Fisher record players that are not in a cabinet or even have the old arm as the one you have here. These newer units are selling for around $75-100. What I would do is go to an old stereo forum and post images of this unit there. I know the cabinet is in very bad shape and does need some work to get it looking nice again. You did not even say if this unit is working or not. All of this will determine the value of your unit. I tried to search several forums and came up with nothing at all on this unit. Please go to a few forums and register and post this image. There are so many collectors out there and they know so much about these older units. If nobody has ever posted one before online it makes it so hard to find one to help you out. A lot of these people actually own units like this and they might be interested in buying yours from you.
This little baby is called a Fischer Talking Machine. I have never seen one in person, only read about them in passing. It is VERY hard to find much as you have seen. The one piece I found just mentions them with a single reference that they exist:
If you do a find (control F on your keyboard and put the word Fischer in the search bar) you will see the reference in the document--very brief.
If this was mine, I would contact the company, which still seems to be around, and ask if they would buy it back for their museum....I have sold items back to the makers in the past and sometimes realize tidy sums doing so...plus it always feels good (like good karma and juju)! Here is what I believe to be their website:
There are not a lot of any brand of "talking machines" around of with the exception that I seem to come across the Victor/Victrola periodically. Sadly with that one--I was trying to sell it for a client and at the time (about 3 years ago) I could not give it away because there were a glut on the market at the time and the one I was selling was not in the best of shape.
This one is clearly less common so it may be of more value--it is hard to tell since I have never seen one in the wild (and I have been a reseller for 50+ years) and I can't (and I have a lot of sources) find any examples of one that has been listed or sold in ages.
I can tell you generally rare does not always mean high value...but sometimes it can if there is someone with a sentimental attachment to it OR if someone has one and wants a replacement for parts (which is very common). There are also so many variables when trying to sell/value--like condition, if it works, if it has any smells or damage, and where you are located.
If the company won't give you an offer (start high and negotiate of they are interested and be sure they include shipping by freight that they pay for and arrange), I would recommend finding a reputable local to you--auction house and see how they could help you sell it. If it was not so old and fragile, it would be fun to do an eBay 7 day auction and see what the market would bear for it, the shipping would be the issue as freight is very expensive and I am personally not familiar with how to arrange for it, which is why I suggest let the business do that for you.
Please post back what you decide and what you learn!! I am fascinated and will keep this bookmarked for my reference guide and tools!! Thanks bunches for sharing!
Very little information is available about the Fischer company that made phonographs and most of the information available is about other members/relatives of the Fischer family.
One such is the J & C Piano Company which was located in New York.
I found information in a small print article that stated the J & C piano company was never affiliated with the J.A. Fischer Company (located in Philadelphia, Pa) that dealt with the phonograph business.
I do not believe you will find any way to value your phonograph without asking very knowledgeable people who deal with antiques all the time. Personal, hands-on appraisals can be very expensive so I would suggest you post your pictures and questions to several online sites to see how much information you can gather for free before you take it to a shop for information.
There are several forums that may be able to help even if they suggest going somewhere else for assistance.
You will have to join a group before posting.
Post pictures and also provide your location as well as any history you have available about where this machine has been.
Reddit always has excellent responses but can be a little confusing to new members but if you can't figure something out just ask the administrators for help.
www.reddit.com/
forums.stevehoffman.tv/
forum.talkingmachine.info/
You can also ask for a free appraisal from big name companies.
www.whatsellsbest.com/
You can find a lot of information about J.A. Fischer but some of these links will be duplications.
worldradiohistory.com/
I did find a 1939 parts catalog on eBay.
www.ebay.com/
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Does anyone know how much this cabinet record player is worth? It has been in the family for a while now.
If this is still in good working condition and both the radio and record player are working you unit is worth $180 to $250. However, if the record player or even the radio aren't working, then the until will only sell for $50 to $75.
Does anyone know how much this solid state radio phonograph would be worth? It's a Montgomery Ward Airline with BSR turntable.
Let me know if you need any more pictures. Thanks in advance
This is a super cool piece of nostalgia! Unfortunately for value, they did not held it and I have seen these sell from $5 to $100 depending on where you are and if everything is working or not.
Not working is the low end, working and pristine is the high end.
This is most parts of the US. I don't know I have ever seen one sold overseas.
I find with things like this, if you are handy and can deconstruct it and test the pieces that are moving (so to speak), people will pay more for the pieces and parts.
If you go to eBay and put BSR turntable in the search engine and go to solds you will see you can get something like $15.99 for just some of the original hardware and screws.
People want original arms, belts, screws, and such to keep their OWN going and to me that is where the money is in these!
People like the cabinets to get rid of the electronics and turn them into bars or other storage pieces. Those usually only sell for a few bucks when empty so someone can do the flip job on them and turn them into something else.
Even the manual may sell on its own!
Post back what you decide!! Thanks for asking!
These were great stereo and my parents had one when I was growing up. My father regretted getting rid of this and moving on to 8 track and cassette tapes. Later on, he upgraded to CDs. After so many years he still kept all his old records and ended up buying some sort of a new style record player where he could record his records on CDs. Anyhow the value of this item is very low I guess because of the quality and not so many people even owned this or got rid of them so very long ago. I can't find one that has sold at all and this is what really determines the value of the item and how much it is worth. There is a person on eBay who is doing an auction for theirs and it seems the opening bid if rather high. Most people are not willing to pay that much for one of these. You can try listing it in your local area because it is so hard to ship, for around $100-150 and see if anyone is interested in buying this. There are also some old stereo forums online that people look for different types of stereo equipment such as this. Maybe check there and see if anyone would be interested in buying this from you.
I am looking for the value of a Victoria Talking Machine, missing the hand crank. Model is a Granada 46101. Any information will be appreciated. I have some of the original records that play on it as well.
Thanks.
Asking prices are high and low because these machines come in several styles and value can be based on age, condition (all working?), location and rarity.
Pictures help greatly when trying to help with current value as asking prices can be very deceptive.
With the information you provided this is information on the machine you described. You can find a lot of information on this site but it takes a lot of reading.
www.victor-victrola.com/
www.victor-victrola.com/
This site offers appraisals for $19.95 which is a very good deal.
They show a sample of their appraisals and if trying to sell, this is the best information you can have.
www.victor-victrola.com/
Your price will depend on the condition of the machine. It appears your machine is mising the hand crank which will lower the value of the machine. Is this in a cabinet or not? I see on eBay people are asking around $1500 for the machine. Considering yours is missing a piece I would say you should be able to ask around $1350 to $1400 for the machine. If you include the records you could ask a bit more for the machine.
I'm having difficulty in identifying this crank record player. I can't find any tags on it.
Here are a few questions if you can answer them it will make it a lot easier to help identify the record player.
Take a look at the needle area and check the head of the needle to see if there are any marking on the needle.
Check the player and see if you see a metal plate that would indicate the name of the player.
Normally there is something on the needle area, behind the player, or on the base of the player that should indicate who made this.
If you can't find anything at all it would be helpful if you took photos of the inside of the player and posted there here or on this forum - forum.talkingmachine.info/
I'm not familiar with these machines but research shows there are quite a lot of this type of player showing up for sale.
Most of the machines listed for sale have brand names which leads me to believe yours has a name somewhere - just difficult to find maybe?
Yours resembles the machines on this advertisement:
You might try contacting this forum to see if they can help you.
You can also contact someone here to see if they can help you ID your machine.
forum.talkingmachine.info/
There are a lot of these listed at sites all over but I did not see any listing showing a sold machine so value would be difficult (although you did not ask about value) because all machines will be different in brand as well as condition.
Also, value will depend a lot on your location as almost all of these are listed as 'local pick up only'.
You can take a look at the machines listed for sale on eBay - asking prices are all over the place (as would be expected):
www.ebay.com/
www.ebay.com/
www.ebay.com/
You can also try some of the free appraisal sites to see if they will offer information. They require several detailed pictures.
www.whatsellsbest.com/
Curious if anyone knows much about this? I was cleaning out a building that had not been inhabited for over 40 years. This was in it and it still works
This will need a lot of work and cleaning up if you want to try and sell it for a decent amount of money. You are saying it still works and if this is the case it might be worth your time to try and clean this up some if you want to sell it. These types of record players if they are in great condition normally sell for around $75-150. Right now you'd be lucky to get $10 for this one.
I am looking for any information about this crank phonograph and its value. There is no name on it. The cone has a marking of "Pat Appd for".
A friend commissioned me to research a similar piece last year when his uncle fell ill and they needed the money for his care.
What I learned is the following:
This may be a Victor Talking Machine, but which one is not clear. It has the lines of a Type E, but the type E that I have seen does not have the fancy metal cut outs on the arm. Victor started in the early 1900s, and I am not clear on what year the E model came out. I never was able go find the old ads to verify a year.
Many of these pieces have been "doctored" over the years to keep them going, so unless you know the entire history of a piece from family history, you may never learn the entire history of the piece.
What I mean by doctored is that if a piece broke, usually the man, of the house would fashion something to keep it going. This could be any of the pieces.
The horns seen today were often not original either, as music purists say that the original horns had terrible sound quality so when they wanted to listen to their music, they often bought what we now call after market horns so they had better musical quality.
Some folks had different horns (the thing that looks like a witches hat--which they are often called by dealers) for different music.
The value on the market of these pieces is all over the place--literally from $10 to in the thousands because there are so many variables with them.
That yours is not marked is concerning, as most Victor pieces were distinctly marked. Do you see a place where a 'badge' may have fell off.
Here is a link with badge types: www.victor-victrola.com/
If you are looking to sell yours, I strongly suggest not trying it on your own, find someone in your city who specializes in these and can tell you what it is worth in today's market for your exact item.
Get several opinions--as I found people's "values" varied significantly depending on what part of town I shopped it to.
Yours appears to be in rough shape, which causes a huge devaluing, as people want those that are pristine, so do not be discouraged if they give you a low value.
I also learned there is a very big market for the pieces--so if you took it a part, the cranks can fetch $20-40, the horns $10 to $100, some of the innards (original to the piece can also fetch good money if they are intact--like nuts and bolt type pieces). This is because people have "project players" that they want to repair and they want the original pieces to do so.
After all was said and done, my friend kept the piece because it was sentimental and found other funding for his loved one. I learned a lot!! It was a fun project!
Post back what you learn about yours!!! Thanks for sharing.
I am selling an original fully working Dynatron Stereophonic record player as per image. Does anyone know approx value of this item? It is in vgc.
I have a Harmograph type H5135 working talking machine. I cannot find out how much it is worth. My intention is to sell it.
Regards.
I only found out from this website that it was $113 in the first year of its sale www.radiomuseum.org/
I would contact a dealer or www.radiomuseum.org for their help.
Just curious about any information on this model. I have found similar models but yet to locate the exact one.
Your pictures do not show enough of your player to even guess at the model so it will be difficult for anyone to help you.
Take a look at images on google so you can see what type of pictures we need to identify your player.
www.google.com/
Pictures:
Full player - front closed and open.
What brand of record player?
Record players are not always the same brand as the 'box'.
Need information about model/serial number - usually on the back of players.
This is best if shown in pictures that are readable.
You can ask your questions on forums:
vintage-radio.net/
audiokarma.org/
I found these and some other items in the attic. Is there any value to them? The Trans-Oceanic plastic dial cover is cracked. It has the owners manual in perfect condition along with a diagram of the units layout.
The record player looks clean but I don't think it works. I plugged it in and nothing happened.
I have a 1900s Carsonola crank phonograph and am curious to see what it's worth. What is the value of it and any background info you can share.
