Dear Visitors to Themusicboxman,
With the end of the year nearing fast, the number of visitors to the site is increasing, as it does every year.
As usual most of the visitors are from English speaking countries, the U.S.A. in the first place, but also England, Canada , Australia.
But there is also a bump from visitors from Russia. Apparently music boxes are a matter of interest there and it is one of the countries with a small own industry of producing them.
Of course, worldwide most music boxes are now produced in China and the quality has improved markedly, but still many are copies of music boxes produced earlier in Japan, Europe and Taiwan. But they have also developed some that are entirely their own.
Apart from China only Europe still has a small industry left of producing music boxes, mostly more of an upmarket quality.
Musical Toys using the same music mechanism as music boxes are not really produced anymore, safe for some small pockets. That industry died in the nineties of the last century and has been entirely replaced by battery or electrical toys.
As most older toys do not survive in any good condition as they are obviously played with by kids, the markets for these musical toys are drying up.
I am therefore happy to have been able in time to build the Musical Toys Collection as it is today, almost 600 items spanning the decades from the fifties till the nineties.
I am only able to add to it very sparingly, may be 10 items this year, that illustrates the difficulty of obtaining a quality musical toy now.
To build such a collection today would be next to impossible and only at a higher outlay of money, as prices have been going up.
These higher prices will bring more toys out of the ‘ closet ‘, but also that will end in the near future. Enjoy the Collection!!!
The market for music boxes is really on eBay and Etsy. My guess is that for all the items offered for sale there (increasingly produced in China), only 5-10% actually sell in the first offering, often only those with no minimum to start with. Some price ideas mentioned are wildly optimistic and unrealistic.
But some professional vendors in markets are defending their own unrealistic high prices by saying, I could sell it at that price, or even higher, on eBay, look at what prices are mentioned there. My reply is if you could, why not do it and secondly do you realize that only a small percentage sells at moderate prices, not the high prices? Music boxes are a fun object to have and hopefully remain attainable for most people interested.
If you look at the sections in my web site Music Boxes For Sale and Musical Toys For Sale, you will note that I keep prices down, cheaper than most.
Have a Good Holiday Season and a Happy New Year 2017.