I feel that exact same joy every time I get a box of 78 rpm records in the mail~

Well... another shellac collector (78s) I've been collecting them since 1980! Any Victrolas? I have currently 4 of them.

13 machines in total:

1901 'Sousa' Talk-o-Phone
1903 Edison Standard Phonograph [cylinder player]
1903 Edison Home Phonograph [cylinder player]
1905 Victor III
1906 Busy Bee Grand No.7
1907 Harmony Type-D
1910 Columbia BZ Graphophone
1915 Edison 'London Upright' #37 [diamond disc player]
1920 Pathé Discophone [vertical disc player, made in France]
1921 Victor VV-VI
1924 Victor VV-240
1935 Leningrad Portable [made in USSR]
1948 Molotov Patiphone [made in USSR]

I collect and restore the machines as well, I have a great fondness for the outside horn players, i've been collecting since 2017, but have been listening since 1993 when my grandfather first exposed me to the players and their discs. I had to mow a lot of lawns to get these, but i'm proud of all of them~ ^_^

Awesome!

I have about 4000 78's but mostly electrically recorded (1925+) except for a handful of pre-1925 ones (French-Canadian, Uncle Josh/ Cal Stewart). I got my first stack in 1982 from my great uncle and it got me hooked on The Andrews Sisters, Merry Macs, even the Three Suns!

Wow! I have from early 1900 to the last 78's in the late 50's. I have tons of those classical sets to early Victor Bluebird, Decca, Columbia. especially those in blue shellac. And the last 12 inch RCA Victor in Red Seal Deluxe red vinyl.

Entire sets of blue shellac? Cool! I have just one or two of those (records, not sets), the one I remember being Benny Goodman.

What I seek the most on 78 is late 50's R&R and R&B.

Those late 50's R&R and R&B are rare since the major labels had shut down 78 rpm records around I think 1957. The last 78s (smaller labels) were pressed in 1959.

Indeed, which makes them sought after and valuable. I want them for the music, not the value though.

In the mail?? Wow, you must pay quite the premium on proper packaging and shipping! O.O

If the records are packaged properly, the simple cost of media mail is normally good enough unless there are a lot of records in there, which then can make the box weigh a few pounds over the limit, putting it into a priority mail category. People have been shipping these records for so long now that the dealers who specialize in them, have it down to an art that's worked well for decades now~ ^_^

The proper way to package shellac records is to have each one of them sandwiched between sheets of sturdy cardboard into a single block and taped at the middle of each side to hold it together, so that way the records don't move any in transit and are protected to prevent breakage.. having a proper-sized box is important, for the common 10" 78s, a 12x12x8 box is good enough, the rest of the box would be filled with packaging peanuts or newspapers.. same rule applies to 12" and 14" records as well, though a bigger box will be needed for them. Though the latter 14" records [any anything larger], they are a great rarity nowadays as such discs are hard to find and the ones i've found, were all over in France, but got to me in the same way without any problems and a pretty reasonable cost, as well. owo

Having bought a few 78's that way, years ago (even before eBay), I was aware of the packing method but not how reasonable the costs are (under a certain weight limit). Cool!

My holy grail find would be a reasonably priced Canadian 78 of Woo-Hoo by the Rock-A-Teens on Apex!

Ebay is about the only way I know how to get 78's anymore, the local antique shops have just about completely run out of them, what's left now are cracked, fractured, or just worn-out copies, many of them with needle-torn labels.. good for testing machines, not really good for actually listening to. But yeh, you can find all kinds of 78's on Ebay, there's quite a few dealers on there that specialize in them and have a whole teams of people scouring the lands for these discs. It's gotten very efficient and with the cost being reasonable, you can get a nice box for a good cost since dealers will combine shipping and refund you the difference... ah, the running cost for a normal 78 rpm disc is between $5 and $15 +/- depending on the title, artist, and the overall rarity of the disc, i've spent a few hundred on a box before, but I made sure I got my money's worth by having it loaded down with discs.

My holy grail would be to find a reasonably priced American [or British] Decca 78 of "I don't want to set the world on fire" by The Inkspots.. ah, I almost had a copy of that song, but the dealer I bought it from, had no idea of how fragile these discs are when it comes to bending.. and instead of mailing it packaged in a box.. it came in a cardboard envelope, nnn it was broken into 5 pieces, and I had to send it back. The dealer was just as heartbroken as I was and called to apologize for this over the phone, he said that record will be put into a frame when he gets it back to serve as a reminder of why proper packaging is needed.. but, someday, i'll find it. And do check Ebay, you might be able to find your disc. ^_^

You should be able to find that Ink Spots 78 at a reasonable price. My holy grail though... it goes for crazy prices unfortunately, in the 3 digits. :P

You'd think, and I was hoping so as well, but the price of that particular discs seems to also have gone up into the 3 digit range since it was featured in.. I think Borderlands.. or maybe it's Fallout 3? I'm not much of a gamer, but sometimes you can find it and other recently re-popularized titles at a reasonable price, but often iit's either a cracked or chipped disc.. which I would still accept if it didn't get into the grooves, but it's also a bit rare as well.. looking on Ebay, there is one listed on there for a steep price.. i'm tempted to order it, it's not so much the game value that makes me love the song, as it is more, I just love the rhythm and melody of the Ink Spots, that sweet tenor voice, then the deep bass voice chimes in with comments on the story the song tells, all set to the music, to me it's just wonderful~ ^_^

Ah, now I understand. When a song gets featured in a movie or a game, boom! Price goes up!

Yep. that it does. I ended up grabbing that copy of the song off of there, figured maybe I should try for it, I get these discs to listen to, and after listening to my stack of Ink Spots records on the big gramophone in my office, that swayed my decision well enough. XD

Oh What is that? Why he really like that?