Vinyl Record Grading

No matter if you're a collector of records or a seller, knowing how to grade records can be very useful. Vinyl records were originaly made of shellac filled with vinyl. As technology progressed, so did the make up of vinyl records. Eventually, companies used vinyl as their primary source for making records. Records are a fragile music source, but, if properly cared for, records will last much longer. Listed below is a record grading scale with the descriptions of each related to their specific grades.

Poor (P) - A record that will have deep scratches, gauges, and other defects. A record in this condition will not play without skipping. Only extremely rare records are sold in this condition.

Good (G) - A record that will show heavy play wear and may contain a few skips. A record in this condition will not bring more than $2.00-5.00, unless it's extremely rare.

Very Good (VG) - A record in this condition will show some signs of having been played, but will still contain much of it's original gloss. All in all an enjoyable record. A record in this condition may bring $10.00-15.00, unless it's extremely rare.

NM - A record that is virtually flawless in every way. Will show little to no sign of having been played. A record in this condition may bring $20.00-30.00, depending on the rarity.     

Things to Avoid When Repairing Antique Radios

When repairing antique radios, there are several things you need to remember before you attempt any type of repair.
1. Never attempt to repair a radio without having some technical experience first.
2. Make sure you never plug a radio in without checking everything thoroughly.
3. Always check all tubes with a tube tester, even if they look okay.
4. If the radios power cord looks frayed or broken, replace it with a new one.

Places to find antiques

Antiques can be found practically anywhere, your parant's house, your friends house, antique shops, etc. Among the best places to find antiques, and buy them cheaply, are yard sales, thrift stores, and friends. A lot of people are not aware that what they have is worth anything, or don't want to take the time to sell it properly and get out of it, what it is actually worth. Many times you can find, for example antique radios for pennies on the dollar, just because the person who is selling it, just sees it as being old and outdated. You, the buyer, knows that with just a little effort and technical knowledge, you can have a very nice looking and functioning radio. Below are some before and after pics of radios before and after they were restored.

Radio front before restoration



Radio front after restoration



Mattel's Barbie - 1959

 When Barbie was released on March 9, 1959 she became a world wide phenomenon, capturing the hearts of young girls everywhere. The original 1959 barbie has now become nothing short of a cultural icon. Barbie was named after the daughter of Barbie's creator, Ruth Handler. The idea came to Handler after seeing her daughter, Barbara, play with paper dolls and giving them adult roles. Handler's husband Elliot, co-founder of Mattel Toy Company, was enthusiastic about the idea and Barbie was eventually brought to the market.  



Barbie 1964





Barbie 1959



Starfox SNES video game review

Starfox box art

Screenshot

When Star Fox was released in 1992, it broke new ground with it's cutting edge visuals and addicting gameplay. Starfox puts the player in the cockpit of a futuristic space craft fighting against multiple other enemies, all while trying to get to the boss at the end of each level. The Game excels in almost every department, so it's easy to see why the game has maintained it's popularity over the years. The Story is simple, an evil scientist named Andross, who sends out an army to destroy the planet of Corneria after being banished from there. You must destroy his army to reclaim the planet.

Graphics: 10/10 - They may seem dated now but in 1992 people were amazed at how good this game looked. We can attribute that to Nintendo's inclusion of the Super FX chip, which was used to accelerate the graphics display.

Controls 8/10 - If you are a beginner to Star Fox, the controls may take a little getting used to so that you get everything down pat, but once you've gotten the hang of everthing, the game becomes very addictive.
  Replay Value 9/10 - This game is so addictive, even after you have beaten it, you will find yourself coming back for more.

Phonograph History

Edison Cylinder Records pamplet 1903

Edison Phonograph ad

The Phonograph was first concieved by Thomas A Edison, inventer of the lightbulb, etc. Edison got the inspiration for the phonograph from two other inventions he had worked previously, the telegraph and the telephone. The idea came to Edison in 1877. He was working on a an invention thought would be able to transcribe sounds through the indentions on paper tape and play them back. This led Edison to believe that a telephone message could be recorded in a similar way and played back over the telegraph. He experimented with a diaphragm that was held against the rapidly moving paper tape to produce sounds, in doing so the vibrations of the human voice made indentions on the paper. Edison later revised this idea, changing the paper diaphragm to a metal diaphragm with a needle and adding a metal cylinder with tin foil wrapped around it. Edison's machine consisted of two of these diaphragm units, one used for recording and one used for playback. When someone spoke into the mouthpeice on the machine, there voice was recording on to the cylinder in what is called a hill-and-dale pattern. Hill-and-dale means that the voice was recorded vertically. Edison gave a basic sketch to a mechanic named John Keusi, and it is reported he finished the machine in 30 hours. When the machine was finished, Edison tried out the machine by singing "Mary Had A Little Lamb" into the mouth peice of the machine, to his astonishment, the words played back to him! It was originally believed that the date of this event was August 12, 1877, but some historians believe that the event probably did not occur until several months later, based on diary entries by Charles Batchelor, one of Edison's aids. Edison composed a list of possible future uses of the machine including, preservation of a language, keeping a family record, and preserving lectures made by teachers. But eventually the novelty wore off, and instead, Edison concentrated on inventing the light bulb.        

Video Game History

Atari 2600

Sears Tele-Games PONG 

Video games have travelled a long and winding to get were we see them today, a multi billion dollar industry. Once seen as only a fad, video games became very popular starting in about 1972 with the introduction of the PONG arcade game. This game was placed in a local bar,and quickly won the people over, who were having drunken battles with their friends. This game became so popular, that a home version was inevitable. In 1975 Atari Introduced PONG to the home market. Marketed through Sears Department Stores, people stood in line for hours to get their hands a PONG system for their kids in time for Christmas. It is reported that Atari could not keep up with the demands of consumers, and thousands of systems had to be put on back order, which in turn put people on a waiting list, just to get one. Then, just as quickly as they had become popular, they began to decline in popularity, everyone was tired of playing PONG, the people wanted something new. The Answer to those prayers come in October, 1977, when Atari released the Atari 2600. This system eventually became synonymous with video games, but not until it's killer app, Space Invaders was released in 1980. Everyone rushed to the store to buy an Atari 2600, just to be able to play Space Invaders at home, they didn't care about any other games that were coming out for the system. Overwelmed by the success of the 2600, Atari quickly became a juggernaut in the video game business. Atari was now able to obtain the licences to high profile games, such as Asteroids. Then in 1982, at the height of their popularity, Atari obtained the rights to one of the decades most popular games, Pac-Man. Atari hired game designer Todd Frye to design Pac-Man, who reportedly hated Pac-Man. Frye was paid an unheard of 1,000,000 to design Pac-Man. It is reported that after completing the game Frye posted the check on his office door for all the other employees at the office to see. The release of this game, and another game by Atari, called E.T. The Extra Terrestrial is said to have triggered what has came to be known as the Great Videogame Crash of 1983-4. This crash put an end to what is known as the classic era of video games.