This has turned into a most interesting thread, with many valid and
thought-provoking comments having been made.

My own interest in mechanical music really started in 1988 at the age
of 10, when a small 20-keyless book operated fair organ played at our
local heritage steam railway's station for the Santa Specials.  I have
no childhood memories, as it were, of musical boxes or carousels or
fairgrounds, but I found myself fascinated with the mechanical principle
of the book creating music, and the resulting quite musical effect.

From that day forward my ambition was to have my own fair organ --
but, things change and in the end my first purchased mechanical musical
machine was actually a small Polyphon disc box with bells.  To this day
I still have no book or roll operated organ, something which I must
address one day!

Jeff Adkins made a comment that "by and large, this is a wealthy man's
game.  Finding an affordable mechanical treasure is nearly impossible.
This will continue to keep a lot of people out of this area of interest."

There is an awful lot of truth in that comment.  Following my first
musical box purchase in about 2002, I decided that the hobby of
collecting mechanical musical instruments was not for me, owing to the
high price of items at that time, and what seemed certain to be the
inexorable rise of those prices.  It was only in 2010, yes, last year,
that I re-investigated and discovered prices had either dropped or
remained static for a while, and this encouraged me back into the
hobby, helped by an ongoing friendship with a dealer who didn't put
outrageous prices on items.  Of course, the instruments which grab the
headlines are those that sell for many tens or hundreds of thousands of
dollars, which doesn't help encourage those hovering on the sidelines
wondering whether to enter this fascinating hobby.

There are some amazing instruments out there, mainly the larger
orchestrions and barrel organs, which on the face of it I can almost
certainly never own because of the high price.  That said, all is
not lost if you have a degree of mechanical and engineering skill
(I don't!); many bargains can be had on fine, large instruments which
simply need 'a lot of work'.

Generally it seems to be the fully restored instruments that cause
the bidding wars, probably because of many more people like myself
who wouldn't really have the first clue how to get something playing
that wasn't.  Let us not forget too, that the concept of the large
orchestrions being unaffordable to all but the richest few is not new,
it was just the same when they were built.  However there are also
some amazing cheaper instruments out there too, for example the
oft-overlooked but very musical roll-playing organettes, the great
value player pianos, or single comb 15" Regina/Polyphon disc boxes.

It is perfectly feasible to build an impressive collection of
underrated instruments at a good price.  When buying something I try
to put in my mind, first and foremost, "Am I happy listening to it?"
The principle idea of collecting as a hobby is surely the enjoyment
one gets from playing these instruments for oneself, rather than the
ability to make visitors go 'ooh' and 'aah'.

An easy trap to fall into is thinking that a collection cannot be
worthwhile unless it features a selection of huge 'clatter bang wallop'
machines.  That's not to detract in any way from those lucky enough
to own these marvels, but I'm trying to justify the effort and fun of
collecting (and the hunt) even for those with a very limited budget.

As an interesting aside, here in the UK it is noticeable that on the
steam heritage railways across the country, those that hold 'diesel'
days are finding increasing demand coming from a new generation of
visitors who can remember the old diesel locomotives and multiple units
from their childhood, but have no recollection of steam, therefore
little interest in it.  It gives strength to the theory that the
dwindling numbers of those interested in mechanical musical instruments
is a result of those with actual childhood memories of such machines
gradually passing on.  What is left are people who have simply become
interested for the love of the mechanical aspects, or the music
produced, or the technology, or perhaps even the social network.

Let's hope that there will always be enough new converts to justify
the existence of the excellent societies we have.  It is very difficult,
even impossible, to force people into becoming interested in the
objects of our desire, but if enough visibility is given to collections
and museums then there's always the chance that one or two will develop
an interest.

Nicholas Newble