12" - 78rpm - with Greta Garbo
By CaroleB
@CaroleB (46)
Italy
October 12, 2006 3:06pm CST
I have several 12" - 78rpm 'test records' for film soundtracks. At least one of which has the voice of Greta Garbo on it!
Does this (they) have any value? If so - what/where should I go to ascertain such information? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
1 response
@JoyfulOne (6232)
• United States
12 Oct 06
Wow! Those have to be really, really old! I don't know how much they would be worth, but I'm sure it would be more than you think. Greta Garbo was famous and has been gone for many years! I would start off at your local library and look up the book "Penguin Price Guide" This URL, musicstack, has lots of old records, don't know the label on yours, but maybe you'd find it there.
http://www.musicstack.com/
Here's a place for selling vintage 78rpm records. It's an auction for old records) If you go to this page there are a whole bunch of URLs for place that can do pricing of old records. They also have places that will buy, sell, or trade them.
http://nfo.net/lnx/lfonhist.html
This place has a good section on valuing your old record collection:
http://www.gocontinental.com/pgde.htm
Good luck!
@CaroleB (46)
• Italy
13 Oct 06
Thankyou JoyfulOne for all this information which I will indeed follow up.... The records don't have printed labels in the normal way, but are handwritten - I presume - by the actual recording personnel. They were given to me back in the late 50's by a family member of the filming group - she told me she thought they were recorded before the war - and to keep them as one day they would be valuable.
As it is almost 100 years since Garbo was born - this may be the right time to look to selling them.
But getting some of the books may be difficult as I now live in Italy.....
@JoyfulOne (6232)
• United States
13 Oct 06
Hi Carole, If there you know of the filming group that did the test records, or any of your family knows who the group was, there might be a way to find out who bought out that company. Back then, when Greta was signed to a company, they all pretty much stayed with the company that they were signed to. If they signed to MGM, for instance, they would usually stay with them throughout their career. If you would like to write to me through mylot mail we can discuss further...I don't think it would be good to put it in an open forum such as this. I live in the US, and would be more than happy to do a little research (gratis) for you. (I also have old 78's I need to investigate, although nothing as precious as old Greta Garbo's...lucky you!!!) If you want, when you write, I will provide you to a link for my webpages, so you will know more about me if you have any doubts regarding character, etc...but I won't put my link into the forums here for open view. I would say right off, I think the company that Greta first signed with would probably be most interested, and would probably pay you a high price for them. Also, there's a lot of 'museums of the stars' out in Hollywood that may be interested as well. (I think you should go for the best price you can get!) Good luck!!! ps: Italy...lucky you! It just has to be so beautiful there!!!
