----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry S Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
> Tom,
>   Do you know about LP jukeboxes?  Not the kind that plays 7-inch 33-1/3 
> discs, but the type that plays full-sized 12-inch LPs.  I've encountered 
> only a couple, one in a long-gone restaurant near the Mizzou campus called 
> the Agora House.  Not only were the enchiladas good, for, I believe, a 
> quarter, I could hear an entire side of 'The Doors" or "Surrealistic 
> Pillow."  Probably not the sort of thing you'd want to put your shaded 
> dogs on, but if you had a Dynaflex re-issue of something, who cares?  By 
> the way, I think it had a Shure cartridge.
> Larry Miller
--------
> For a long time, I had dreams of a classic 45-singles jukebox, but then 
> when I started shopping for
> a well-restored one, it turned out they mostly sound like crap due to both 
> mid-grade to low-grade
> phono pickups and also the fact that most singles sound like crap from 
> Play One. So net-net, I
> decided that they're great for noisy bars and diners but not so much for 
> focused listening at home.
> I admit still being thrilled when I come upon one that still works in a 
> bar or diner. The first
> thing I do is feed it dollars so I can sample its contents. Nowadays, if 
> you find it working, it's
> usually on its last legs and the records are circa early 1990's or 
> earlier. No interest in or use
> for CD jukeboxes; I remember when those first came out, higher prices per 
> play and less fun to use.
> Plus much less frequent switch-ins of music, at least in the upstate NY 
> market, so the whole purpose
> of a jukebox was being defeated. It went from a music-discovery machine to 
> an oldies and stale hits
> machine.
>
Whole point is that the market in used jukeboxes is driven by 
now-about-to-die-of-
"old age" baby-boomers...who have both the nostalgia and the finances to 
purchase
"a jukebox just like the one I played the first time I got laid!!"

Once something becomes a "Collectible," the theoretical value multiplies by 
a
near-infinite factor!!

Further, jukebox "operators" for logical reasons preferred to stock their
machines with the records that drew the most nickels/quarters/wotever.
That, of course, varied among beer joints, according to their "clientele!"

Steven C. Barr