The Music to my Piano

What is up, internet?

Ever wanted to listen to someone play the piano, but without having to find someone to play the piano? Well, if you have a player piano (one that plays by itself based on a roll of paper music), then you might have a use for what I’m about to show you. These music “scrolls” went in certain mechanical instruments back in the early days of automation in music. The paper alone won’t do much, but if you were to put them in the kind of piano I mentioned before (I’ll attach a picture), it would play the notes as they came along. Each roll is has a specific temp which you would set the piano to read the paper at; the holes are all the same size in terms of width, but the longer each hole stretches the longer the note that is played.

The rolls of music aren’t worth very much on their own (about $20 a roll), but just finding some that are as old as these was pretty cool. And not to sound melodramatic, but working at a place like Goodwill has definitely brought a new meaning to the phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Until next time, dudes.

A Quasar, but Shoulder Mounted

What is up internet

Remember all those days as a kid you spent watching your favorite movies (Disney or not) on VHS tapes? I don’t know if your life was like a Disney movie on VHS, but if you wanted it to be then BOY DO I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU! Nowadays if there’s anything that you could possibly want to have video of, all you have to do is get out your phone. But what if—and bear with me on this—what if, you didn’t have to lug around a phone with you to record anything?

This bad boy is a Quasar VHS recorder from 1994. While it’s not an antique by any means, it’s definitely worth picking up if you want to be able to record VHS from your back pocket, and with added features such as right-handed AND left-handed recording capabilities, as well as 12x 2speed zoom, this is absolutely a no-brainer. For all your wedding/bar-fight/disney movie recording needs, just whip this baby out. Only make sure your giant Energizer® battery is charged and ready go beforehand, otherwise it’ll be a solid 2-3 hours before that 2000 mAh Lead-Acid battery is charged up.  Thankfully, this model comes with a portable battery charger that slots right into the easy-carry case. Just imagine all the fun times you could record with a shoulder-mounted, lightweight VHS camcorder such as this.

Since it’s from the 90s, this isn’t really worth that much, but the nostalgia is definitely there. And for the sake of corroboration, I’ll add an eBay link

ebay 

Until next time.

Grandfather Walkman

What is up my dudes.

This week’s episode of MILDLY INTERESTING THINGS I FIND AT WORK is for all you lovers of classic vinyl out there. Every so often someone will bring into Goodwill an old record player, usually attached to some outdated stereo system that hasn't been used in 10 plus years, yet somehow still works. That's not to mention all of the records alone that come through the doors (think hundreds at a time).

This time is a little bit different though. We got a record player that definitely hasn't been used in more than 10 years, and it's definitely attached to an old, outdated stereo system, this is an all-in-one package though. This is like the 15lb grandfather of a Walkman from the 90s. Definitely not as portable, but still a party animal in its day. It’s called the MODEL 270-S and it was made by a company called THE SOUND OF MUSIC (riveting, I know). It’s a 117 Volt, 60 Hz record player and speaker, made to play those smaller-sized vinyl records you’ve probably seen in a pile somewhere (45 rpm records). While I don’t have an exact date on when it was made, the company that made these was around during the 40’s-70’s, and originally started out by manufacturing classified wartime inventions for WWII. It was only after the war that they switched to record-player production.

The record player here aged pretty well I think; in good shape they go for upwards of $150 sold by some person on ebay. Find one for yourself, and then you could be that person on ebay. Tune in next week for another episode of MILDLY INTERESTING THINGS I FIND AT WORK.

Until next time my dudes.

Here’s a link to that person on Ebay

Sew it up

Hey hi hello.

So this week there was really only one item of interest that someone dropped off to my Goodwill. Ready for this? It’s riveting I promise. It’s a foot-crank sewing machine dated from the 1920’s, still in pretty good shape too; it’s exact name is the White Rotary if that means anything to anyone. It’s made to look pretty fancy for the time, covered in art deco patterning, and it even had a warranty with it (which is how I know it’s from the 20’s). I’m pretty sure it even has the original housing and desk setup. It was so covered in dust and gross stuff that it took us a while to clean. As a bonus though, we priced it online and if they’re in good shape they can go for upwards of $200 (if only we made commission). I’ll leave a link for that with the pictures.

Considering it’s age and the effort that it took to move (it’s heavy, for one), I can’t believe the person that donated this was willing to part with it without at least checking out it’s true worth. Or they did and gave it away anyway, but either way this is something I can only see increasing in value over time, both because of its age and because of it’s increasing scarcity (or demand) on the market (not that I really know much about antiques, other than what my boss tells me).

Is this starting to sound like a watered-down Antiques Roadshow yet?

Until next time my dudes.


Link to eBay auction: eBay auction