A Couple Of Records You Don’t See Every Day
Several readers sent me the following link: John Coltrane, A Love Supreme, Impulse 77. This is a test pressing, dated Dec. 31, 1964. Look at it — it really does say “Ken” Coltrane. Anyway, it is in VG condition. And you can buy it now for a mere $20,000.
Here’s another really odd one I was watching: Miles Davis, Blue Note Volume 1. This is a Taiwan pressing with orange vinyl??? And it’s stereo??? I have no idea of the vintage or the motivation behind issuing an orange vinyl version of this record, but it was offered on eBay for $500 and did not sell. Can’t say I’m surprised. Stereo??? I don’t think so.
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That price for A Love Supreme has to be a joke or typo. This very copy sold at auction less than two years ago for $300: https://www.popsike.com/Test-Pressing-JOHN-COLTRANE-A-Love-Supreme-Impluse-A77-Van-Gelder/172373963916.html
A local store had a copy of that Taiwanese Miles Davis record recently (for $30) and it had the same deadwax etchings as the original US pressing, for sure a hand-etched RVG but can’t remember if it had the “P” or not.
That Taiwanese Miles is pretty wild. As for the Trane, that exact copy sold on eBay maybe a year ago somewhere between $300 and $400 I think (noticed this auction myself a few days ago and compared, the label writing is the same) – pretty sure it was featured in one of Cliffords posts here. So this is some pretty ridiculous price gouging if you ask me.
here it is: https://jazzcollector.com/blue-note/here-are-jazz-collectibles-you-wont-see-every-day/
the seller of the taiwanese miles record seems to suffer from the delusion that “rare” is the same as “valuable”. case in point, my “trio treiter” record is very rare, but not very valuable. or, more crudely, a copy of 1568 with a picture of my butt pasted over the front cover is very rare, in fact none are known to exist, but i doubt it would fetch higher prices than a copy with a mint jacket…
I have a copy of the Taiwan Miles Davis Vol 1 but mine is more red than orange.
Although the labels are stamped Stereo it’s the mono-mix.
In the dead wax on side one, it’s stamped BNLP – 1501 – 1 with a RVG machine stamp.
Except for the additional Chinese characters the Catalog number and RVG are identically placed which makes me think they made a master from a clean copy.
Even though it looks unplayed it’s not quiet vinyl and the high notes fuzz a bit.
The short story on the Miles Davis is that CSJ Records was a bootleg label selling stuff primarily to US servicemen in Asia. I’ve come across a couple in thrift stores and they often have amusing typos on them.
You can get some more info about that label at Discogs.
There is a market for those Taiwanese boots, although more often with recognized rock classics, which do feature some pretty amazing typos and cover “variations.” The pressings are unlistenably bad so the allure is mostly due to the absurdity of the jackets.
I used to work at used bookstore and we sold records as well. One time in a stack of records we bought there were a bunch of Asian boots, I think they were Filipino because it looked like Tagalog on the covers in addition to English. They very well may have been Taiwanese. At any rate, it was a bunch of Everly Brothers LPs on colored vinyl that was the worst quality I’ve ever seen. You could wobble them back and forth and they flopped like pancakes in your hand.
@GTF, thank you for making me laugh out loud, as I ponder JC on my lunch hour. A wonderful respite from an otherwise stressful morning. “BN 1568, very rare butt cover, NM- … $10 OBO.” Or, it could be like a Butcher Cover, and would need to be peeled. 🙂
mac, if you wanna peel a picture of my butt, you’re gonna need to put up more cash! 🙂