I had to go and look at the "coin operated 5 piece player band":
  http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=448596191

Uh-Huh, "beautifully restored [great finish] and converted to a ...

Love that word "converted."  The piano is "old", (late 1800's) --
wow, a 1920's style case made in the late 1800's.  That is a find.
Obviously an O-roll format mechanism (from the reverse winding of the
spool), but even rarer, one that doesn't seem to show the drive belt
from the pump, and even better, the pump isn't visible at all!  (Did
they make turbine pumps in the 1920's?)

Here's the kicker: "currently appraised at $11,500."  This is one to
watch.  I'll be real interested to see just how much this gets.

The much more impressive looking oak-veneer'd tall case buildup in my
living room must be worth at least twice as much (because it's almost
twice the height?)  In addition, it's a Jacob Doll piano (with a plate
that says "Winteroth") converted into an 8-piece band!  Wow, 8 pieces,
that has to be worth more than 5 pieces.  Would it bring perhaps
$25,000?  or even $30,000?

Kidding aside, I do want to make the point that the greater portion
of the copies of "New Chicago" -- the 10-tune O-roll I did a while
ago -- are played on build-ups.  In fact, the only reason that the
rather large library of O roll recuts exists is because of buildups.

I believe that the O-roll format was chosen over the M format by the
first recutters (Durrell?) because they were made by both Capitol and
Clark, as opposed M which was made only by Clark.  Most Clark rolls
are plodding QRS re-treads.  Capitol rolls kick butt.  Imagine a world
where the only way to hear Capitol arrangements was in the A and G
formats. It would be very different.

Native M format offers more colors than native O format (I've played
with both), but I'll never do another M format roll because the thought
of putting in all that time and effort for an audience of less than 10
machines sitting in gilded cages ("please, don't touch, you can hear it
by appointment") doesn't really get my juices going.  But O format is a
really jolly platform, not because of the 3 or 4 SO's and CO's out
there that can fully realize all the registration, but because of all
those really neat buildups that can play it.

Perhaps if I could make a comparable living doing arrangements for
other formats it would be worth the effort.  However, like most of the
people in this business, I have to work at something else for a living.
Computer programming pays the bills.  Perhaps if I was an early
retired stock gambler or tobacco lawyer I could go in for the esoteric
formats.  But for now, I can only do them for the love of it.

George Bogatko
http://www.inluxeditions.com/