Phonoland

I've been checking out Phillips/Mercury transistorized portable phonographs on Ebay. Can anyone tell me why they're so expensive? I like the styling but am lost on why they're asking hundreds of dollars for them.

My guess--some "sucker" paid THAT price for one--and that brought out all the sellers, hoping to strike it rich--at least that's what usually happens on eBray-- Ron Rich

There are several factors here, the one Ron cited being most obvious, but there is more to it.

These European electronics from that era have a certain cache with regard to styling and perceived quality.

This was the era when Verner Panton was to Europe what Isamu Noguchi and Charles Eames where to the USA in terms of styling.

The little Phillips players were based on Panton's concepts, they are colorful, fun and you can't help loving them when you actually see one....though my "love' is limited to $25-$50 here.

On the quality side, Phillips and most European-Scandinavian electronics did have performance somewhat better than the average American equivalent items and were vastly better than the Japanese knockoffs. The American stuff holds up -much- better though.

The main drawbacks to the Phillips players is that nearly all of the 1960's-early 70's models had integrated tonearm/pickup heads. The head plugs-in but there is no option for using a different cart. you either get that one rebuilt, or look for a good original.

I had a 1964-5 Phillips portable tube player. It was all plastic Blue/white and used a version of the ECL82 that had a 50 volt heater and a rectifier tube of some number. the speaker in the detachable lid was of inverted design, that is the magnet was in front of the cone to limit depth. When all was set up the unit sounded quite good for what it was and much better than my American 'grinder".

Rob/NYC

Here's a pic of Bob Dylan listening to the same Phillips machine I had back then:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J3xjRft8pU4/T ... 2/050f.jpg

Rob

This was a better portable on record wear than many. They were sold in the USA as Mercury products (yes, Mercury Records who was purchased in 1961 by Philips of the Netherlands). And a design icon. Very nicely styled and sounded very decent.

They used the Mercury name because European Phillips is a different company from US Phillips. They were the same company until the 1930s, when isolationist laws forced European Phillips to divest its US holdings. Anything European Philips sold in the US after that had a different brand name because US Phillips holds the trademark here. Norelco is also one of their US brands.

RC,
Are you sure that the two "Phillips" companies have not "re-joined"--same as the "Bayer" company--which is now once again, one BIG (happy?), German family--Ron Rich

The name is Philips, not Phillips.
Philips was unable to use the Philips name it the US because it was too similar to Philco. This was corrected when Philips purchased Philco, and Sylvania, and Magnavox, circa 1981.

Brian,
Now that you mention it, I re-call hearing that a "long time ago"--and that was the reason for the "Norelco" brand--
Ron Rich

There were several brands hatched because companies had to divest their holdings during the isolationist laws of the 1930s:

- Phillips had two different American brands to avoid, because its record company was sold to one firm, abut its electronics firm was sold elsewhere. One was Phillips record, the other was Philco. They used the Norelco name for their electronics imports.

- RCA Victor was split into 4 pieces: RCA Victor (US), Deutche Grammaphon (Germany), His Master's Voice (Britain), and Nivico (Japan [Nippon Victor Company = Nivico] - now JVC). They never rejoined. HMV used the Parlophone label to get around the problem, and RCA Victor used the Camden label in Europe.

- Decca was split into Dutch, English, and American versions, all called Decca in their own countries. English Decca uses the London name for exports to countries with the other Decca companies. Dutch Decca used several labels. American Decca used several labels, including Uni.

There were English, French, American, and Japanese versions of Columbia. French Columbia became Polydor. US Columbia used the Okeh label in Europe. The Japanese version is now Nippon Columbia.