Victor VV-210 Victrola opinions?

[radiotvnut]

Someone I know has a Victor VV-210 wind-up Victrola from around '25 that he may be willing to sell. He actually recently bought it at an estate sale for $75 with plans to keep it. I asked him to please keep me in mind if he decided to sell it. He's now telling me that he's thinking of letting it go; but, he wants to make some money off of it. He won't give me a price. Instead, he wants me to make him an offer.

The cabinet looks decent with no major damage that I can find. In fact, with a little cleaning and polishing, it could go inside the house. However, I can't get the platter to rotate (hopefully, it just needs a good cleaning and relubrication).

From what I'm reading on the internet, this model is one of the least desired by Victrola collectors and the particular site I was looking at valued it at $75-$300, depending on condition.

I was thinking of offering $150 for it, unless you think that's too much.

I've always wanted a Victrola; but, I don't know that much about their value and most of the Victrola's that I see locally are often in bad shape and/or obviously overpriced ($300+ for junk with missing parts, busted cabinets, or otherwise "barn fresh" models).

[Kamakiri]

I'd probably go $100 on it, as long as it plays records and you don't need to rebuild the spring motors. Rebuilding the reproducer is pretty easy. If it needs work to be displayable or presentable, $60 or less.

The VV-210 is a common machine, but the nice thing about that particular unit is that you don't have to stand up to change records, which is kind of a pain with my XI. It's at a height where you can comfortably listen to it sitting in a chair next to it, and swap records at will.

I like that cabinet style a lot, just because of that

[radiotvnut]

Here it is and I got it for $100. After I played with it, the platter turns and it somewhat reproduces a record. It needs some attention; but, at least I know that nothing major is wrong.

[Kamakiri]

Nice score! Looks to be in pretty decent shape

Usually if the platter only spins at proper speed for 10 seconds or less, the secondary spring is sticking. Believe me, you don't wanna try to unravel a grease covered 30 foot coil of spring steel if you don't have to. On mine, I took them apart, popped the covers off the spring casings, chipped away the hard grease, and soaked the snot out of the spring with carburetor cleaner which softens the remaining grease. Then, add in some fresh vaseline, and put it back together....