Bob Barker's Microphone For Sale

[sayingsorry]

Rich Fields has listed Bob Barker's Microphone for sale that Bob gave him. Starting bid is $2500. Buy it now is $12,500

https://www.ebay.com/itm/145015039625?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=2fjYBT9VSTm&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=H49ZGDQkSdC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=SMS

[Utkman]

Considering Rich’s current situation, I wonder what other items he has that might find their way to auction?

[CBSpromoman]

The ad copy seems a bit suspect to me. I'd love to know what "verifiable lineage" that mic has that no other one does.

I mean even if Barker gave it to Rich, that doesn't necessarily mean that was THE only mic Bob used on the show. It doesn't necessarily mean it was ONE of Barker's mics...it could have been one of several used in that studio for the show. How would Barker know that was one HE used? Talent doesn't keep up with things like that. To them, one ECM-51 looks just like another.

I'd have to have a little more info before I'd even consider shelling out that kind of money (assuming I had that kind of money to shell out to begin with).

[garffreak]

So if you're executive producer / W.G.M.C., you can just give away CBS' property?

There should be some documentation somewhere showing serial number 8673 was sold to CBS and they had it in their inventory at TVC.

[Wayoshi]

Considering Rich’s current situation, I wonder what other items he has that might find their way to auction?

This was my first thought as well.

[CBSpromoman]

So if you're executive producer / W.G.M.C., you can just give away CBS' property?

There should be some documentation somewhere showing serial number 8673 was sold to CBS and they had it in their inventory at TVC.

Well, presumably, CBS was tossing the mic. From what I've been told from an audio engineer at Television City years ago, the engineering team would have only been too happy to see them go.

Sure, it'd be a problem if someone just walked off with a mic out of CBS's inventory. But if CBS was getting rid of them, there'd be no problem with someone going "dumpster diving," and if someone decided to give Barker a mic that was being thrown out, what would be the problem with that?

[compdude512]

I mean even if Barker gave it to Rich, that doesn't necessarily mean that was THE only mic Bob used on the show. It doesn't necessarily mean it was ONE of Barker's mics...it could have been one of several used in that studio for the show.

I think this is important. As far as I'm aware, all the host-used mics at TVC had 100' cables permanently soldered to them. All of Bob's mics had the handle shrink-wrapped with heat shrink tubing from the late '70s until he started using the custom ECM-510 in 1992 because the paint flecks off the handle of an ECM-51 with any sort of use. The one instance I can recall where a host used an ECM-51 with the stock 10' cord was right before Gene Rayburn's custom non-telescoping mic was built in 1978, and you can see him carrying all 10' of cabling up to the XLR connector in all these shows. I believe these episodes are available to watch on-demand on Freevee right now.

I have no doubt in my mind this came from TVC's inventory and probably existed on Stage 33 at some point in its life, but I doubt it was used by Bob. It seems more likely this was a contestant-used mic just going by the cord length and the condition of the handle. Whether that's worth $2,500 to someone is up to them, and as of this writing, it seems worth that to at least one person.

[Mark]

There was an auction serveral years ago that listed Bob's mic that he used, black with heat shrink tubing on the handle. IIRC, the proceeds went to charity.

[Sizeman]

Bob's original ECM-51 was supposedly placed in a time capsule for the 30th anniversary, as noted here: https://calisphere.org/item/48604b5f29f61198b3d1e9e36d39a6a7/

and discussed briefly in this thread: http://www.golden-road.net/index.php/topic,19187.0.html

[priceguy]

There was an auction serveral years ago that listed Bob's mic that he used, black with heat shrink tubing on the handle. IIRC, the proceeds went to charity.

Yes, that was one of the ECM-510s from the 1990s.

[CBSpromoman]

Yes, that was one of the ECM-510s from the 1990s.

It wasn't a true ECM-510. Those are much longer mics and don't telescope. CBS engineers custom made a mic about the length of the unextended ECM-51 from the body of an ECM-510. You couldn't find a 510 out in the wild without that specific customization. That would, presumably, would be easier to authenticate than an ECM-51 that's purported to be one Barker used.