An Old Fashioned Jazz Vinyl Auction

Here’s an interesting opportunity: An auction house in the U.K. is auctioning a private jazz collection on Tuesday June 27 and there are options for individuals to bid live, either online or by telephone. The auction house is Omega Auctions and music is one of the areas in which they specialize. The collection belonged to a collector named B.W. Duncan and, of you are interested, you can read his bio here. As for the records themselves: There are quite a large number of Blue Notes, offered as individual pieces, such as Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch or Herbie Hancock My Point of View. There are also Blue Note packages sold in lots, such as an Art Blakey lot or a Horace Silver/Lee Morgan lot. Many of the records in the collection are U.K. pressings. It looks like there are 260 lots in all. It’s worth taking a look at the auction, but make sure to read the instructions if you want to bid because you have to set things up in advance and you have to pay some fairly hefty fees.

I have one experience with this type of auction, and it was a great one. I chronicled it in a 6-part series on Jazz Collector back in 2010. I got some great records in great condition at great prices: Wes Montgomery Full House for about $70, a few original New Jazz LPs for less than a hundred bucks, Stan Getz For Musicians Only, a batch of Bill Evans records and others. It was also a kind of fun process, bidding on the phone and listening in as the action was taking place. In retrospect, as I look back, I could have been more aggressive. For example, an original Lexington Avenue Pressing of Introducing Kenny Burrell on Blue Note in nice condition sold for $325.  A copy of Kenny Burrell Blue Lights Volume 2 sold for $230. I would be quite pleased to get those records at those prices today.

What do you think? I think I may be participating in this, probably online and not on the phone. It’s a fun thing to do and, if you win anything, it’s great to get one of those surprise packages in the mail and enjoy your score. Of course, by publicizing the auction here, I greatly diminish my changes of winning anything. But that’s what we do here at Jazz Collector. 🙂

 

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15 comments

  • Holy crap, that auction is about 20 miles from where I live. A couple of years ago, I bought a very cheap box of records from Omega, which I think were either unsold lots, or stuff which never made it in the auction.

  • I won’t be able to get the day off at such short notice, bugger

  • Richard, I sense perhaps you are getting a summer flu?

  • That is tempting Al. It would be interesting to attend in person and have a look at the lots. I’ll keep you posted

  • Omega Auctions is a UK based auction house conducting vinyl collector items auctions regularly.
    I have good experience with Omega Auctions in the last few years in Utrecht, Holland – world’s biggest record fair conducting regularly twice a year – in April and in November.

  • Damn! Wish I wasn’t in belt-tightening mode but it is very tempting…

  • Looks like some condition issues on a lot of the more desirable titles…

  • I can’t help feeling that a few of the guide prices are a touch high, especially when you add 17.5% + VAT (20% of the commission price)

  • Almost every lot I looked at had condition issues but without any previous experience with this seller I have no idea how conservative in their grading. The 28 lp CTI Lot No. 23 states the records range from VG to EX. That doesn’t help me at all as the titles that interest me the most could all be VG. Does the public get to see final value when the auction is over?

  • Woody,
    Final price of previous auctions is online.

  • Terryfromflorida

    It appears that bidders from USA will incur a 27% buyers premium (including VAT) using the online bidding process.

  • ah, that starts to get more than a little expensive…

  • USA bidders should not incur VAT, but still the buyer’s commission is excessive. With suspect condition, I’m out. No return policy, so caveat emptor.

  • Hi all

    I work for Omega Auctions. I can confirm that if items are being shipped outside of EU then VAT is not applicable, so buyers premium would be 22.5%. We normally just advise people to calculate the maximum they wish to pay in total and then work backwards ie take off the buyers premium to calculate their maximum hammer price.

    With regard to condition, for lots with individual records or up to 6 records we would show individual gradings, but for larger lots we do a general grading (we handle thousands of records so it is impossible for us to grade everything individually unfortunately). However, if there is a specific lot you are interested in eg lot 23 (Woody), if you email details of the ones you are specifically interested in we can take a look and give you more detail (individual grading). We are the main auction house worldwide for vinyl and we rarely get any comeback on items (condition/grading issues etc).

    If anybody has any other questions, we would be happy to help.

    Best wishes
    Karen

  • Not sure this ‘grouping’ of titles works for me.
    On initial first thoughts your heart skips a beat and you think wow a bargain could be had but
    As Mark said, I think there is are a fair amount of dished records..
    besides when you start adding those taxes…
    Surprised to not see more desirable British and European titles, where are the Don Rendell’s or Tubby’s?

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