HOW RARE/VALUE OF VITAPHONE PHONOGRAPH?

I have a chance to buy this 1920's Vitaphone record player but can't find one that is for sale or sold to see if it is worth it!

ANY info would be appreciated - I have about 2 hours to decide before it goes to someone else.
Thanks!!

 

On worthpoint, there was a parts table unit that sold for $1082, and a floor cabinet, missing the internals, that sold for $128. Those are records for sold items on ebay, about 5 years ago.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1917-vitaphone-table-model-phonograph-439219736
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-gramophone-vitaphone-1551937787

Seems like an interesting and uncommon unit.

 

Would you pay $500+ with reselling as your plan?

 

The first one is rare - I think that was the one that played with movies making silent films talkies for the first time!

 

for 5 bills i'd want it to have all it's parts and be working..........

 

Depends on where you are I guess. As with any of the old phonograph style units, floor models with the internal horn are never as desirable as the external horn varieties.

If the unit is clean, complete, and in working order, you might be able to make some money.

 

I imagine the online searching is complicated by the fact that "vitaphone" referred to three or four different companies. A very early phonograph was called the vitaphone, marketed by the American Talking Machine Company; shortly later, an unrelated company began making vitaphones, in Plainfield NJ (this is Journeymagazine's one). The Canadian Vitaphone company was an affiliate of the NJ company.
None of these were the same as the vitaphone process that was used to accompany silent movies, which was owned by Warner Brothers. But, most online searches return to the movie-related vitaphone.

Here's a thread devoted to the Plainfield Vitaphone type 60, very similar to the type 75; don't know if the forum is helpful, or still around: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4954

Article on the first two Vitaphone makers:
https://intertique.com/VitaphoneDemo.html

another vitaphone thread, the last post mentions a book which includes Vitaphones: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11354