78s on Ebay

Received another 78 from Ebay. And once again it came in pieces. When I used to buy fom the pros, I never had a problem.

This time I realy care, Toscanini Haydn 98

How has your experiences been?

I've never bought 78s on eBay, but the only 78 I ever had shipped to me which broke in transit was, ironically, another Toscanini

I have bought many 78s from Ars Antiqua. All arrived safely.

Abbedd

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That's no surprise. ;

A funny coincidence, as a kid, I also owned this very same 78 rpm four (or five?) disc RCA issue -Toscanini conducting the NBC in Haydn's 98th coupled with the scherzo from Mendelssohn's octet as a single side filler. One day I left it laying on my bedroom floor where my mother stepped on it by accident and cracked it to pieces. I guess the Gods must have something against this set.

I've had both good and bad experiences. I've never had a seller who wouldn't make good when records are damaged, but damn it, I wanted the records! When I'm dealing with a seller who doesn't seem to have experience with 78s, I send explicit instructions on packaging. I'm also not willing to bid quite as high when I'm not confident that the seller knows how to grade records. If you don't have experience it's easy to miss flaws (greying, needle digs, even hairline cracks).

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[snip]

Those look extremely sensible; have you had good luck with persuading sellers to follow these directions?

And the one time you shipped a 78 to me ... it broke in transit ... and was an early Toscanini single side, as I recall ...

The seller had never shipped 78s before

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That was it

Wasn't this the series produced by RCA (the same series that included Reiner's first recordings, music of Debussy and Wagner). If so, I believe these discs are American in origin (they came in a single color, flimsy binder with a silver logo in the upper right or lower righrt corner). I imagine there were other music appreciation sets besides this one, but these were pretty common in the U.S.

John