Answering a few of Nancy's comments about Price Guides:

There are no pictures in coin books showing the grade of each coin, the
grading system is all in text. Sure there is a picture of the coin in
each section, but that's just to show you what type of coin they are
taking about in case you didn't have a clue what say a Half Dime -
Seated Liberty looks like.

It is true that coins collecting differ greatly in music box collecting
however. There are exact records of how many of each type of coin was
produced in any given year, even as far back as late 1700's. There a few
if any records on the numbers of music boxes produced. Millions of each
type of coin were produced for 1800 to 1910 each year, giving collectors
many examples of different condition grades of each coin collectors can
study and define an exact grading system for it. I'd be surprised if
there was even 1 million boxes produced from 1800 to 1910. To farther
complicated matters, Music Boxes (and other music collectibles) can be
restored, there by increasing there value. There is little you can do
for a coin on the other hand except remove some dirt and polish it up a
little. This doesn't increase the coin's value it just makes it look
pretty. Ok, so grading a Music box's condition isn't an exact science
that grading coins are, that not to say general guide lines cant be
established for each grading class.

I do however regard Nancy's example against price guides as a poor one.
Few people are going to admit to themselves that there family heirloom
passed down thru the family for generations is a piece of junk. Some
people just can't objectively appraise an item that they are emotionally
attached to. Others are out of touch with reality with the going market
of some items. One brief example:

There was this recent widow whose husband formerly handled all of the
financial affairs for them both. Now having to make financial decisions
the first time in her life since she was married proceeded to sell off
some of the junk her husband had collected over the years. One of those
items was a jukebox in museum condition. Having no idea of it's true
value, she placed in the paper for $100 and it was brought by a friend
of my moms the next day. In this case the buyer got the deal of a
lifetime and the seller was thrilled with her new $100.

And others commit fraud to make a sale. I wasn't in any way involved in
the transaction with Ms. Fratti or the un-named lady in question but if
I was the buyer I may have done things differently. Maybe with the same
end results, but here a few of my suggestions. I'll call the seller Kim
to simplify matters, and I'm the buyer Mike.

    Mike: What is the condition of the box.
    Kim:  It's in perfect condition.
    Mike: What is the condition of the case? Combs?
    Kim:  It's in perfect condition.
    Mike: Are any pins bent? how's it sound?
    Kim:  It's in perfect condition. It's sounds perfect.

Since kim isn't providing me with any details on the conditions of
specific parts of the box I'm asking for, I'd just assume she can't
objectively appraise the condition of her box. I'd move on or assume
it's a piece of junk and offer a low price.

    Mike: What is the condition of the box?
    Kim:  Perfect.
    Mike: What's the condition of the Box? Combs?
    Kim:  The box doesn't have a scratch on it, polished to a high glossy
          finish. The combs are all finely tuned.
    Mike: What's the condition of cylinder? Any pins bent?
    Kim:  No pins bent, not a mark on it.
    Mike: etc questions.
    Kim:  etc perfect answers.
    Mike: Does it have a Tower cylinder stabilizer? Boxes without it are
          worth less.

Basically here I made a little white lie. I added a part into the box
that no box has had EVER, I then tied this to the value of the box. Now
if I get:

    Kim: The tower cylinder stabilizer is in perfect condition.

I know a she's lying to make a sale or it's her family heirloom and she
can't see it in any other way then perfection. Or she might say:

    Kim: What's a tower cylinder stabilizer?

I explain my bogus part, what it looks like, where to find it. Another
yea and I have a liar, a no means things are looking up I just might
want this box. I'm sure a experienced collector could come up with a
better bogus part than I could, but the lesson is the same, let the
buyer beware. I know you wouldn't want to give out information that may
make you look bad to another knowledgeable collector that would know
right away, your bogus part is a lot of bull. But it's just a simple
ploy to use to try to see if your getting straight answers out of a
seller, I'm sure you can recover by saying I never heard of one either
on any box or something along those lines.

The point I'm trying to make is the existence of a price guide shouldn't
have any bearing on this transaction Nancy had, the seller lied plain
and simple. I fail to see why that should stop others who may be more
honest or objective from making better use of information from a price
guide.