Prior to the release of the Columbia Type A in late 1896, phonographs like the Edison Class M and Columbia Type K were sold for home use, but their lofty prices limited sales to the wealthy. The Type A Graphophone was priced at only $25 -- a lot of money at the time, but substantially cheaper than Graphophones like the Type G ($75) and even Type N ($40) which directly preceded it, and well below Edison's newly introduced Home Phonograph at $40. For the first time, recorded entertainment was within the reach of the average consumer. The Columbia Type A would become a very popular machine in the next few years.

This particular Type A is distinguished by a very rare decal from the famous San Francisco dealer, Peter Bacigalupi, who entered the phonograph business in 1894. (See the Edison Standard with Polyphone Attachment for another example of a Bacigalupi decal.) This decal is slightly different from those seen on Edison machines, marked as "Edison Phonograph & Graphophone Agency." Edison eventually compelled Bacigalupi to drop Columbia products in 1900 and no reference to Graphophones would appear on Bacigalupi's decals or cylinder box labels again. The decal carries Bacigalupi's 946 Market Street address, in the Baldwin Building in San Francisco. This building burned to the ground on November 23, 1898, after which Bacigalupi moved to 933 Market Street (until that too was levelled, in the 1906 earthquake and fire). The address on the decal serves to definitively date this interesting machine to 1897-1898, during San Francisco's heyday.