Month: November 2009

Still Waiting For Answers on Nautiluso

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No major new updates on Nautiluso. I spoke to media relations at eBay again this morning and posed a bunch of questions, such as: Is eBay ready to declare this a fraud? If so, are they pressing charges and, if so, where? What about the probable victims — who gets protected and who doesn’t? It will be interesting to see how they respond. I’m hoping to speak to someone directly in eBay corporate, no offense to the media relations person who is quite nice and friendly. I haven’t seen any new complaints or negative feedbacks on the eBay profile of Nautiluso, but they haven’t pulled it down yet either, so that’s a good thing, since it is a place we can keep monitoring events if eBay is not forthcoming with information. I did notice that Nautiluso doesn’t have any items posted this week.

Buyers File $30,000 in Fraud Claims Vs. Nautiluso

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In the past two days five buyers have filed 21 instances of negative feedback against Nautiluso and have indicated in their feedback posts that they have filed claims with eBay. The actual number of records involved was higher — 24 records in total — because some of the feedback actually registered as positive, accidentally we presume. You can check out the feedback comments here, but here are some samples:

“Buyers be aware! 10/10 jazz auction was a mere fake; you’ll never get your recs!”

“Never received the record. No communication from seller. Claim filed with Paypal”

“Never received the item, filed claim with Ebay and Paypal…”

“Records never delivered. There is not a response at all either.”

If those comments are not bad enough here is the piece de resistance, from a classical buyer:

“The contents are 100% different Useless trash Search with Q123Q word.”

So the assumption on that last buyer is that he received a package from Nautiluso, probably timed to arrive after the 45-day time limit for filing a claim with eBay, and the contents of the package were not relective of those that he had won on the auction. We’ll do more reporting on this later today and tomorrow, but so far the tally is as follows:

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Prestige Day At Jazz Collector

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Let’s catch up on some of the Prestige jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay:

Sonny Rollins, Moving Out, Prestige 7058. This was an original New York pressing. It was listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover and the seller has a good reputation. The price was $197.50. This one has Kenny Dorham and Thelonious Monk. We would have expected a higher price.

Webster Young, For Lady, Prestige 7106. This was an original New York pressing as well. The record was only VG, while the cover was M-. The price was $213.50.

Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot, Prestige 7294. This was an original yellow label pressing with

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On Ebay: Hope, Dex, Jackie & True Blue

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Let’s take a break from all this Nautiluso stuff and get back to our real business of watching real records on eBay. Here’s a few that will whet your appetite:

Elmo Hope, Informal Jazz, Prestige 7043. This is quite a nice rare record featuring John Coltrane and Hank Mobley, later issued as Two Tenors. This is an original New York pressing. The record is in M- condition and the cover is listed as VG++. The current price is nearly $400, but it hasn’t reached the seller’s reserve yet. The seller has a few other nice items as well, including: Jackie McLean, A Long Drink of the Blues, New Jazz 8250. This one is listed as M- for both the record and the cover and is currently at about $115 — also still short of the seller’s reserve price. The same seller also has a copy of:

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eBay Responds To Nautiluso Questions (Sort Of)

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If we’re going to get to the bottom of the Nautiluso case, eBay is probably not going to be all that helpful, based on the initial response from their public relations people to our inquiries. We posed a few questions and actually had hoped to speak to someone directly at eBay, but we wound up talking to a PR person from an outside firm and she relayed the questions and relayed the responses. We’ll follow up again after the Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, this is what eBay has to say about Nautiluso:

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Esoteric Question Of The Day: Does This LP Have RVG?

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Duonri reminded me that I didn’t include this record from Nautiluso in the list: Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This was listed in M- condition and wound up selling for $4,036, the highest price we’ve ever recorded for a jazz record on the Jazz Collector Price Guide. So I went back to the original listing in order to record it, and I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before: The seller says this one has the RVG in the deadwax? The question I ask: Is this possible — does an original pressing of The New Tradition have the RVG in the deadwax, or did he just make that up? I would have looked in my own collection for the answer but, unfortunately, I sold my copy of The New Tradition for a mere $400 nearly 20 years ago. Many of you may have heard this story before, but I sold a bunch of my rarest records in one shot so I could buy a boat. Six months later

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A Winning Nautiluso Bidder: Still No Record

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We finally tracked down one of the buyers from the Nautiluso auction. Paul Sagerman is a collector in Tuscon, Ariz. He had purchased the LP: Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington on Riverside. It was an original pressing in near mint condition and the price was between $500 and $600. Sagerman was the one who had original filed the negative feedback on Nautiluso back on October 14 when he suspected that the auction was not legitimate. However, he withdrew the negative feedback after he learned that the seller would accept Pay Pal. So far, Sagerman has not received his record and has filed a dispute with eBay. Originally, Sagerman said he had planned to bid on about 20 records, but was concerned when the seller did not respond to his questions. “I asked for a scan of the label, a scan of the back cover and

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Nautiluso: Starting To Assess The Damage

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I just looked back again at the records we were watching from Nautiluso and the numbers are staggering. Here are some of the prices that we recorded:

Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568: $3,805

Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588: $3,750

Tina Brooks, True Blue: $3,249.99

Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims: $3,242.99

J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536: $2,247.22

Tommy Flanagan Overseas: $2,247

Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby: $1,500

Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1540: $1,705

Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet: $1,175

That’s a total of about $23,000 for just nine records. Perhaps these were the ones that sold for the highest prices but, still, with 75 jazz records that week, you could still be looking at $60,000 or more. Maybe it’s not Bernie Madoff territory, but in our little world of Jazz Collectors it is quite a score if, indeed, the records don’t exist.

No, No Nautiluso: Buyer Opens Claim With eBay

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A couple of readers have already pointed this out in various comments: The feedback is starting to come in on Nautiluso and it is not very promising. One buyer has issued two feedback reports, stating the same thing: “Records never delivered from Oct. 16 purchase . Have opened claim with eBay.” Both of these claims were for classical records, but the notes are ominous, as is the fact that so far there has been zero feedback from the huge jazz auction we were watching: Nothing at all. If you go back to our original report on this alleged Jazz Vinyl Collection, we had pinpointed about 75 records, in pristine condition, all among the rarest of the rare in the world of jazz collectibles: Jackie McLean on Ad-Lib, Tina Brooks True Blue, Hutta Hipp on Blue Note, and many, many more. We were somewhat skeptical and many visitors to Jazz Collector

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