Will these beautiful home organs ever be valuable again?

[Guest]

Hi, first post here. I'm in the process of taking care of my parent's estate and wonder if these beautiful organs will ever be valuable again? I, like many, have very fond memories with them. I'm finding it hard to know what to do with it now, as sadly I'm not much of a player myself and I'm finding almost zero interest in classifieds, etc.. It seems such a shame for these beutities to just be discarded. Any suggestions?

[andyg]

Welcome to the forum.

We've discussed this a few times over the years and the short answer is "No". There is almost zero demand for most instruments and there are lots out there, so prices are very low. A few select models will command a value. The Hammond B3 or Lowrey DSO-1 'Heritage', for example. But if you have an old Conn, Baldwin or Wurlitzer, you'll have a hard time getting much for it. That's just the sad state of the market. Some owners are in 'negative equity', they have a large or old instrument that nobody wants and have to pay someone to take it away to landfill. :(

There are still some enthusiasts out there, like me! You'll find some on here and others on the Vintage Organs Facebook group - and there are probably other groups on line too. It would be great to see newcomers to the hobby snapping up the good organs out there but I see little sign of it happening.

[Nicole]

I'm a recent victim of the organ bug, and occasionally long over organs being thrown away for free in local classified sites... but I live in a tiny third-floor apartment, and doubt I could get anything bigger than my little Electone up my narrow and awful stairway. It's really a shame.

If you can't find a buyer for the organ as a whole, I would say at least see what you can do with the parts; I've seen a number of conversions of wooden organ bodies into desks, which are at least better than trash. And those circuit board internals might be able to save someone else's instrument (and are certainly easier to ship); they don't make them anymore!

[orgfred65]

I tried for several months to give away, for free, a classically styled electronic organ, and had zero interest. Following a suggestion from a friend, I tried advertising parts on eBay. Although I had the effort and indeed sadness of dismantling the organ etc, I ended up selling the parts to a number of people, for over £700!

[andyg]

I'm a recent victim of the organ bug, and occasionally long over organs being thrown away for free in local classified sites... but I live in a tiny third-floor apartment, and doubt I could get anything bigger than my little Electone up my narrow and awful stairway. It's really a shame.

Welcome to the forum, and to the fold, Nicole. I hope you have fun with the Yamaha. When you want to move up, you'll find that some of the larger models from some makes will either split in two or fold in half, to make them easier to shift. Actually they did that to make them smaller for shipping from the factory. They could pack more into a single container but the cost of shipping that container from Japan or wherever was the same!

Yes, parting out is done all the time, but it does depend on what you're selling and why. An organ that nobody wants contains parts that nobody wants. A more desirable organ that's failed for one reason may contain parts that would fix an organ that's died for another reason. Console organs are regularly gutted and used to drive software based instruments, the value being in the console, keys and pedals. But the 'virtual' organ players are canny and know what to look for and just how much to pay!

[johnbeetem]

Hi, first post here. I'm in the process of taking care of my parent's estate and wonder if these beautiful organs will ever be valuable again?

I don't have anywhere the experience of Andy, but I imagine that some will be quite valuable "some day". LIke any other objet d'art it's all a question of supply and demand. Right now supply is high (the people who bought these things in the 1960s and 70s are "downsizing" in various ways) and demand is low because people who might be interested don't have the space for them and have to get by with a digital keyboard. I recently moved into a much larger space so I'm able to fulfil a long-time wish to acquire an old instrument to fix up.

Plus there's the maintenance issue. A beauty from the 60s or 70s is going to have problems and if you can't fix it yourself it's going to be expensive and difficult to keep it running. That cuts demand.

So right now it's a buyers market and many beautiful instruments are ending up in landfills. It's just as bad for pianos, and there are far more of those. However, eventually the bulge will work its way through the system and there will be a shortage. Demand isn't likely to increase unless it becomes trendy/retro to have an old theatre organ.

I recently benefited from today's buyer's market by scoring a Rodgers Trio 321C, which has wonderful theatre sound and style. It has 3 manuals, 32 pedals (slightly reduced from AGO), 8 blind presets, and a working Glockenspiel. The seller had bid on the contents of an abandoned storage locker and the 321C was what was in it, along with some old bicycles. I had originally planned to get a non-working organ for free and make a VPO -- I'm a computer engineer so this isn't a difficult project. However, my 321C is mostly working and has such wonderful sound that I'm going to keep it going as long as I can (I think I know enough analog electronics to do this). I'll add VPO as an option. In fact, when I opened it up I discovered that a previous owner had MIDIfied the top manual. So that saves some time :-)

[Nicole]

Welcome to the forum, and to the fold, Nicole. I hope you have fun with the Yamaha. When you want to move up, you'll find that some of the larger models from some makes will either split in two or fold in half, to make them easier to shift. Actually they did that to make them smaller for shipping from the factory. They could pack more into a single container but the cost of shipping that container from Japan or wherever was the same!

Good to know! Do you know any particular models that might be worth looking out for?

[andyg]

Technics GA1 and GA3, and the slightly smaller EA5, are great instruments. If you can get a GA3, you'll probably never need another organ.

John's comment about objets d'art is an interesting one. There was a Thomas organ that was launched in 1976, called the Bicentennial. It was basically one of their regular 'Californian' models in a fancy case that was shaped like an 18th century writing desk. Some people have paid a fair amount for the organs, gutted the console and converted them into - writing desks! The same model was also put into a curvy white console called the 2001. These have occasionally sold on ebay for huge amounts. They probably didn't work but they were wanted as designer objects, for want of a better term. Mind you, I expect the buyers were quite miffed to see the same organ being sold for peanuts a while later! And I expect that the white curves will eventually delaminate. That console and the problems it had pushed the company that made them for Thomas into bankruptcy!

[seamaster]

That's the organ those white car paint Wersis always remind me of.