Probably the best thrifting find Ive ever made, a Voice of Music Record Player Console Model 1804. Everything you see here cost me $6.50. :)
I found it at one of my favorite local thrift stores with a sign that said, 'Broken. Needle won't connect. $10!' So, I grabbed one of the records out of their bins, opened it up, and tried to figure out what was wrong with it.
After some fiddling around, I noticed the center spindle had a mechanism stopping the record from completely falling onto the platter.
I had never seen a Record Changer before, and presumably, neither had the owners of the thrift store. :)
After I knew it wasn't broken, I claimed the tag and brought it up to purchase, just to find out that all furniture is 50% off that day. :)
So, I took it home and started fiddling with the mechanics, watching videos on how to operate a record changer, how the dials worked, etc... (as I only had modern record players at home at the time.)
Then I looked online for information on replacement parts in case I ever needed them for repair, as I really wanted to make this a lifelong investment.
Luckily, there's a wonderful man running a website all about Voice of Music brand record players, and he has a list of every model made by the company! But I couldn't find much information on my model, other than it is listed as 'for Sperry & Hutchinson'.
So, I messaged the owner of the website for information on my model, and this is what he sent back to me.
(Along with a manual for my model and a list of replacemt parts he offers.)
So I have a 1 of 500, sold only by one company, record console that cost 62... books?
Then I started looking in the Sperry & Hutchinson Company and what a 'book' was, exactly. They were a company that partnered with department stores, giving 'green stamps' as a reward when certain dollar amounts were spent in the dept store. You would collect these stamps and redeem them for... just about anything.
I was able to find a single S&H Green Stamps Catalog on the internet archives, unfortunately not the catalog with my record player being advertized, but still a very interesting look. They really offered everything in exchange for these stamps.
Later, I found some of these books for sale at a different antiques store.
The lady that ran the antiques store gave me a 20 min long lesson on how the books worked and how the stamps had different values, like these being 10 dollar stamps. She even had one of the dispensers for the stamps for sale, and she showed me how it worked. :)
Plus, because it was made in 1970, it is compatible with the original 78 sized records! The same shop that sold me the record player also had a bunch of 78s and a sign that said '20 records for $1', so I sifted through and found any titles I knew plus any titles that sounded fun, like this song here 'I Need Attention Bad' by Earnest Tubb. :)
