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RCA Victor Red Seal 78 Records

I have a question that I am sure someone in the Audiogon community can answer. My mother-in-law passed away. She had a few RCA red label 78 records in very good to excellent condition. I am wondering what I can do with them? Are they worth anything to anyone? For example, there is a 3-record set of Chopin Les Sulphides with the London Philharmonic. There is another set of records with Enrico Caruso singing O Sole Min and Rigoletto, an early Frank Sinatra singing Stormy Weather and Old Man River (this one is red label Columbia records), Ignace Jan Paderewki playing Chopin Polonaise in A Flat Minor, a Harmonia Records Corp recording of a Tango by Juan Vicari, a Columbia recording of Oklahoma by Andre Kostelanetz, a RCA recording of Jan Pierce, more Chopin with Jose Iturbi on piano, and Addinsell Warsaw Concerto with the LSO. They are very heavy and I am moving so selling them would be ideal. 

If anyone has any advice as to what or how or how much etc., I would love to hear. Thanks!!! Rinpoche
rinpoche
9 responses Add your response
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Get yourself as good condition phonograph as you can afford and play them. Seriously.
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brayeagle
362 posts
 
Nostalgia!!  

 I grew up in the Sonoran Desert (no electricity) and cut my Classical teeth on the Victor RCA Red Seal 12' 78s.  We had a wind-up Victrola, and used cactus needles, as we thought the steel ones would sooner or later ruin the records.

 If I remember correctly, many of the performances on the Red Seals were transferred to the very early LPs; however, some were lost due to copyright and other legal issues. 

In my mind, I can still hear Caruso's voice. Unfortunately, those performances are only memories. 

Yeah, Elizabeth is correct,   (sob!)

The Old Fud



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rinpoche OP
154 posts
 
Thank you for your input. I am wanting to get rid of them because I am moving across Canada and the move is costly. So I wondered if anyone on Audiogon had any good advice. 

Admin
Audiogon Official
@rinpoche  Please contact me at support@audiogon.com, attention Tammy. Music listings are free. You could lists  them for sale. Who knows someone may be interested. What do you have to lose? 
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
The best advice you can get is to take a few of those old records to an antique store where you can play them on a phonograph. What you will discover, they do not sound anything like what we today consider hi-fi. Modern HiFi is all about making you feel like you are in the recording studio. The phonograph does something completely different. It makes you feel like the singer is there, inside the phonograph! There is nothing else like it. This is what we have lost. This is the true value of these recordings, and yet it is completely lost when played back on high end gear. The only way to fully appreciate them is to hear them played back on a phonograph.

As odd as it sounds they aren’t worth much- yet they are priceless.


rinpoche OP
154 posts
 
Thanks. I think that is a great idea. Frank on phonograph. My mother in law would be dancing. 
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Also making your mother in law happy... priceless! 
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