If you want to buy a collectible jukebox, this guide will help you determine how much to pay. Jukeboxes start out expensive, get used for a few years and become almost worthless. After 20 or so years some become collectible and after 35 years a few become prized museum pieces.
Jukeboxes never really wear out unless left out. They are engineered as commercial units and are maintained by pros on a regular schedule. Jukeboxes are usually retired because of outmoded styling or obsolete technology. When a jukebox is retired it ends up in someone's home. It plays for a few years, is ignored for a few years and then spends a few years in the garage. Eventually it is sold to a dealer or collector or given to charity and begins a new life. Postwar jukeboxes are seldom "scrapped".
When buying "My First Jukebox" it is easiest to buy from a reputable dealer. Check the Yellow Pages and go take a look. If you have the dreaded "Collector Gene" this first purchase may lead to more jukeboxes. Some people have over a hundred jukeboxes, many over a score. If you do not succumb to Jukebox Fever, you will have a nice jukebox and someone to fix it. In a decade or so, when you tire of it, you will be able to get your money back even accounting for inflation.
If you are the "Prospector" type, you can advertise "Jukebox Wanted" in local papers and see what turns up. And, of course, read the Hobby Mag ads and go kick a few wheels. Buying this way is like buying a car from a private party: you are on your own.
A good way to buy a jukebox is at one of the many jukebox shows. At the shows all of the above applies with at least two added buyer advantages:
1. there is real competition to sell
2. there are many Jukeboxes
Although you have a price guide, the seller might not know the value of their jukebox. This can be good and it can be bad: sellers sometimes think their abominable jukebox is worth $25,000. Save yourself a trip by calling first and asking questions; especially, "How much do you want for it?"
