Vintage Wagner on 78s

[Bert Coules]

I know that this isn't the correct area for this, but I couldn't decide what is and I thought this might at least be seen here by any sympathetic readers. But I'd be grateful to anyone more clued-up than I for a relocation.

Having said which, is there a market (or indeed any interest at all) in old 78 rpm gramophone records? I have a collection of some two dozen or so vintage Wagner discs which I'd like to pass on to an appreciative new home if such a thing exists.

Many thanks.

Bert

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh! Get thee behind me, Santa! I'd love to take you up on this offer, Bert (I have a fascination with the history of recordings) but I have neither the storage space nor the playing equipment to do such a collection justice. Sorry.

[umslopogaas]

Several businesses advertise in the back pages of Gramophone magazine that they buy LPs and CDs. None of them mention 78s, but it would be worth contacting them for advice. Also try Fine Records in Hove 01273 723345 (Julian Pelling). Again, I dont think he will want them, but he may know people who do. There are definitely collectors out there. Not me I'm afraid, I collect LPs, but have never gone as far back as 78s.

[Bert Coules]

Thanks for the speedy replies and advice. I searched around online of course but most purchasers seem to be interested only in light music (and one in the spoken word - I didn't know that spoken-word 78s existed) and the majority of them appear to be in the US. One particular drawback with selling 78s seems to me to be their weight and their fragility which is not exactly a convenient combination of attributes.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I'm sending you a PM.

[Ferretfancy]

I think that Roger at Gramex in Lower Marsh at Waterloo still buys 78s if they are collectible. It would be worth giving him a call.

[seabright]

It would depend entirely on the actual titles on the discs, the names of the singers, conductors and orchestras, and the record labels' catalogue numbers. Once you've made a necessary and comprehensive list, or at any rate give us some ideas of them here, it will then be possible to say whether or not they've all been transferred to CD, in which case they are completely worthless. If they haven't been so transferred, it's then a question of whether they will have some value to a collector of ancient 78s. Since such persons are becoming a rapidly extinct breed, I'm afraid I don't hold out much hope!

[umslopogaas]

Even if they have been re-issued on CD, they are not necessarily worthless. Collectors are not entirely rational beings - I should know, I am one. It is not just the music, otherwise you'd be correct, but also the object itself. Certainly with LPs, collectors collect discs for the sake of owning the actual object, as well as the music it contains. And as with books, it is the first editions that are most valuable. Some LPs went through several changes of label design as the years passed, but it is always the first one which is sought by collectors, even though the later ones may have had better sound.

Good point about the decline of the breed, but I dont think they will become entirely extinct. With LPs, the market has stabilised and is even increasing. According to my local hifi dealer, who sells LPs, buyers are not just old guys like me who have nostalgia for the discs they bought in their younger days, but also younger people who were born in the CD era. Which I find odd, because to my mind the CD is clearly a superior medium: they are almost indestructible, you get more music per disc and you can play them in the car. As to the sound, I am less convinced, later LPs were digitally recorded, like CDs, and providing they are undamaged they sound much the same.

[frankwm]

Probably 'worthless': ie Beethoven/Brahms/Wagner orchestral's must've outsold all others in the 'pre-war' era - and, if they're HMV's - particularly Black Label 'D' series, then shellac noise is chronic - the amount of slate filler being increased so as to wear-down steel needles. Vocal material is commonplace - mostly 'potted ring'. London spiv dealers buying price for such 78's was a penny each 25years back...likely untouched by inflation since!

[Bert Coules]

Thanks for the new replies. Sadly, closer examination of the 78s reveals, as far as I can tell, nothing extraordinary or that's not available (or been so) in re-issues:

Tristan Act 3 - Widdop, Ljungberg / Coates - HMV D1413-17
Walküre Act 1 - Melchior, etc / Walter - HMV DB2636 - 43
Walküre Act 2 - Hotter, Fuchs / Seidler-Winkler - HMV DB 3719 - 28
Walküre Act 3 - Varnay, Björling/ Karajan (Bayreuth 1951) - Columbia
Meistersinger Act 3 - Hermann Nissen / Böhm - HMV D4563 - 76

and some individual single discs from HMV sets of Götterdämmerung (Coates) and Siegfried (Bloch & Alwin)

It seems to me to be extremely unlikely that any dealers or even the most rabid of collectors would be interested.

[umslopogaas]

There are some legendary names and recordings there: Melchior, Hotter, Varnay, Bjorling, Karajan's very early recordings and also Bohm's. Give ebay a try, you have nothing to lose.

[frankwm]

There are some legendary names and recordings there: Melchior, Hotter, Varnay, Bjorling, Karajan's very early recordings and also Bohm's. Give ebay a try, you have nothing to lose.

Good albums - but even I have the Walkure Act 1/2 sets - also Melchior's huge, collected, 'Siegfried' album...and your likely singles.

All would likely be LP/CD issued from dubs of metal positives (Karajan: tape):- with considerably greater waveform fidelity/ signal-to-noise compared to those...hence the lack of modern demand.

eBay would only be viable as 'collection only': Walkure Acts 1/2, alone, weigh 7Kg..minus any safe packaging.

[Bert Coules]

Yes, the weight and general fragility of the discs makes delivery by courier virtually impossible. I don't know how much it costs to list something on eBay these days so I'll investigate, even though the chance of someone being willing to pick them up seems a tad remote. Thanks again for the advice.

[gradus]

I also have quite a number of classical 78s inc some of the Wagner listed in the OP though I broke the wonderful Barbirolli recording of the Meistersinger quintet. Looking at the records again there's some interesting stuff inc the fabulous Maria Nemeth in excerpts from Goldmark's Queen of Sheba as well as Hugo Wolf Society recordings, Heifitz in the Tchaik concerto under Barbirolli, Beecham/LPO in the Franck symphony etc etc but unfortunately I now have no means of playing them.
Doubtless all now reissued and 'cleaned up'.

[Bert Coules]

In the end I advertised the 78s on my local Freecycle/Freegle group where they generated no interest: I couldn't even give them away.