Needlescreech Blog

February Newsletter

Posted on by Stephen Braitman

The chilly winds and rain of February will soon give way to the conflicting mix of Spring weather drawing near. That means you can start seriously thinking about how to manage your collection or archive. Will you be expanding? Redefining? De-acquisitioning? Large or small, rare or common, the collection you love, learn from, and share deserves consideration as part of your legacy. Photographs, music, posters, instruments, scores, documents, even trading cards and tee-shirts – These things matter to the future. The future cares about the past, even the past that just passed. Really. Consequently, my one piece of advice for you now has a great resonance through time: Don’t assume anything. Don’t make assumptions about what is valuable and what is not. Don’t ignore anything that you might consider “trivial” or “unimportant.” Sometimes even the smallest, flimsiest piece of paper is the most desirable item of all.
Stephen M.H. Braitman, ASA
MusicAppraisals.com

 

Read the Newsletter HERE.

 

Attention music lovers: N.S. radio station selling its entire vinyl collection

Posted on by Stephen Braitman

Selling off their vinyl – is this short-sighted or prescient? Ever since this “vinyl is back” boom, naysayers have said the bubble will be bursting. Perhaps vinyl records will lose their hipster cache, but the realities of the marketplace dictate more than pop consciousness. Prices are high, and going higher, and won’t be going back anytime soon.

 

See the original article HERE.

When Confronted With A Wall Of Records And You Don’t Know Where To Start

Posted on by Stephen Braitman
My recent hour-long presentation for
California Lawyers for the Arts was aimed at helping estate executors, property settlement judges, and divorce lawyers identify significant value in a music collection that could easily be overlooked if one is not trained to see these “hidden assets.”
This was fun to do, and I hope it can also help others recognize that a
record collection and music memorabilia can be a major part of an overall estate valuation. This can help give you some tools to quickly assess whether a collection is worth serious examination.

The Henri Temianka Audio Preservation Lab

Posted on by Stephen Braitman

 

The Henri Temianka Audio Preservation Lab, named for the renowned violinist and leader of the Paganini Quartet and the California Chamber Symphony, was recently opened in a ceremony attended by Dr. Daniel Temianka, the composer’s son. The Lab is a state-of-the-art audio preservation facility with two studios created to preserve the unique audio materials held by the University of Santa Barbra Library and migrate them to digital formats. The preservation of physical materials – tapes, records, discs, even paper goods like letters, photographs, business documents – has become of paramount importance to historical and cultural archives. The digitization ensures such physical materials will be preserved and universally accessible for many years to come.

A Ring of Vinyl Bootleggers Have Been Busted in Wales

Posted on by Stephen Braitman

A Ring of Vinyl Bootleggers Have Been Busted in Wales

This high-profile counterfeit bust is probably just the tip of the iceberg. As records and music memorabilia become more and more valuable, with higher auction prices in particular, the compulsion to satisfy collector desires will be hard to resist for the unscrupulous. Unfortunately we’re still in a “Buyer Beware” market. The Wild West of music collecting will only be tamed by the acceptance of standards from professionals, perhaps organized into a dedicated non-profit group.

 

‘John Lennon jukebox’ is music to a collector’s ears

Posted on by Stephen Braitman

Read more about the ‘John Lennon jukebox’ here…

Old jukeboxes and other music mechanical devices can bring unexpected benefits, particularly if there’s a notable provenance. This is a “John Lennon Jukebox,” but it’s not John Lennon’s Jukebox. It still interested a whole lot of folks, and the media, when the “antique” showed up at a local auction house in England.