Worse than expected

When the gramophone eventually arrived I was a bit disappointed by its condition. It was quite a bit worse than I had been expecting. Unfortunately I'd made the stupid mistake of only viewing the auction photos on my mobile phone before bidding. Auction photos often look a lot better on a phone than on a computer screen, and can hide a lot detail.

Note the horrific homemade replacement carrying handle - fashioned from a wire coat hanger wrapped in white plastic. Oh dear. These photos actually make it look a lot better than it was....hiding the fact that the rexine covering was badly ripped on all the corners and edges.