How can I tell if my Victor or Victrola is “legit” and not a fake?
Forgeries of external horn phonographs (Victors) are rampant on Ebay and at flea markets. These can usually be spotted a mile away by any serious collector; the horns are often plated in a phony brass or gold and the angle of the horn is high and very incorrect. Most are made in India from a mish-mash of old and new parts. Before a novice purchases an external horn phonograph online, an expert should be consulted to provide an assessment of the machine in question, as there are many fakes on the market today. There are not a lot of fake Victrolas currently on the market, primarily since the value of most inside-horn phonographs has not yet risen as much as the earlier external-horn Victor machines. Recently, I have seen a few misrepresented Victrola machines on Ebay and elsewhere. The most frequent “forgery” is to take a cabinet from a common model, and simply attach a dataplate from a rare model, to make it appear more valuable. I’ve also seen Victor dataplates attached to phonographs
