Two MMD contributors have briefly mentioned the Internet regarding the
current prices for mechanical music machines.  The Internet is only
a part of the whole story; however, I believe that the Internet has
corrected the price of many collectibles (both upward and downward).
To illustrate, here are two fictional hypothetical stories:

1. Before the Internet, a used book store in small city had a book
named "Treasures of Mechanical Music" by Reblitz and Bowers.  The
store owner priced the book at $30, but there were no mechanical music
hobbyists in that city.  It was too big and too technical to be a
coffee table book.  The book sat unsold month after month until the
storekeeper gave it away to a church garage sale along with other dead
inventory.  Today, the store owner would check the Internet for the
book's value before he priced it initially.  He would quickly find out
that it is a scarce and valuable book.  He could sell that same book
for $200 through the Internet, using Amazon or eBay, which gives him a
very different market compared to the walk-in customers in his small
city.

2. Before the Internet an antique dealer (not a mechanical music
dealer) had an unrestored Seeburg E.  It still worked but poorly.
He priced it at $20,000.00.  A potential customer tried to haggle
down the price.  The dealer said, "No way.  The last coin piano I had,
I sold it for $20,000 and this one is in better condition".  (The other
one was a model far more valuable than a Seeburg E, but the dealer
didn't know that.)  Today, the buyer and seller both can go to the
Internet, and can quickly find a few Seeburg E pianos for sale, and
can see that excellent ones are available at about half that price.

Overpriced machines are for sale on the Internet always, but overall
the Internet has corrected market prices.

David Schroeder