Posted by Where is the market? on March 28, 2003 at 18:31:53:
In Reply to: STOLEN SOUSAPHONES/PLS READ posted by Chuck Jackson on March 28, 2003 at 17:28:44:
It is no secret, that I am a great lover of pre-1930 Conn sousaphones (newer ones might be OK and fine, but mine are of 1927 and 1928 vintages, so that is what I know of).
Yet it is a profound secret to my concept of the low brass world, that thieves repeatedly (which I count as premeditated and sort-of-organised crime) steal sousaphones not representing anything much above the middle of the road.
Fences hardly would be other school districts, if there has not been a lot of pro-level "buffing" involved in the process. And who would take a pride in taking an "off-colour" sousa to a Tuba Christmas event?
I am not denigrating the stolen instruments, as they certainly have represented a value in their educational and representational contexts.
But who in h**l wants to own stolen goods of, at best, a midlevel value?
I can understand the sick logic behind owning a stolen Rembrandt or van Gogh and staring at it all day long.
But making oneself a fence for owning a cheap Xerox copy is representing sickness beyond my understanding.
Klaus