Hi gang,  By now, you have received your requested Baldwin Collection
auction brochure and/or the full catalog for the Saturday, June 20th
musical box and phonograph auction in Columbia, South Carolina.  Since
I was involved from the very beginning when it seemed like most of the
collection would be sold at auction, I had mixed emotions to learn that
many of the fine pieces originally offered were withdrawn.  Your
catalog shows that no overture, keywinds, etc. boxes will be sold.
The Regina clock was withdrawn as well as most of the large, upright
disk boxes.  The "Berliner" phonograph and several other "important"
phonographs were withdrawn but, for phonograph collectors, many other
nice pieces will be included.

For those who have not yet called to confirm, ALL of the Baldwin
items for sale will be sold on Saturday.  Erskine College is a "church
affiliated college"; items from another estate will be sold on Sunday.
For anyone who plans to attend based on any previous information I
provided, please check your brochure closely or, better still, have
them send you a catalog by express mail.  You will find that many of
the items promised to auctioneer #1 when I was directly involved, were
not given to auctioneer # 2 for sale.  The College did receive a lot of
"flak" when the news of the sale was first announced and they obviously
reconsidered their position.

The sale still contains some very nice pieces for the beginning, etc.,
collector.  However, the advanced collector who knows the Baldwin
collection may be a bit disappointed.  They are, however, strangely
selling the extra cylinders and disks from some musical boxes to be
retained in the Arts Building.  There are lots of rolls of many types
for sale, not in 50 roll lots as planned originally but in lots of
several hundred, i.e., Duo-Art, AMPICO, Welte, regular player, etc.

The auction house reports responses from "all over the world" to
their ads in the MBSI Bulletin and various other antique magazines.
Oh, by-the-way, if you are a dealer with a Federal Tax Number, you will
NOT be charged the South Carolina Sales Tax (per Mr. Hall, auctioneer).

Hope to see you there.  It should be lots of funs for all, regardless
of the items you have in a musical collection.

Best regards,

Rick and Betty Cooley

P.S.  If you have any further questions, please use the e-mail address
cotps@aol.com