Sealing the Deal, or Not?
A reader sent me a link to this record: Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section, Contemporary 3532. This record looks to be an original pressing in its original seal. It’s always hard to tell with a sealed record, but this one has the red ink on the back and it seems to have original promotional materials from Contemporary within the seal. If it is not an original seal, someone went to great measures to pretend that it was. And, if so, there was a nice payoff. The record sold for $718. Still another existential question: What do you do if you are the buyer of this record? Do you break the seal and actually listen to it? Or do you preserve it on your shelf like a museum item, perhaps the world’s only original pressing of this classic jazz record still in it’s original factory seal 56 years after its original release? I know what I would do. What about you?
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Personally,I wouldn’t have bought it in the first place. First, there is no guarantee of geting what you think you got (I have seen some sellers offer such a guarantee, however); second there is probably a price dividend for the seal – since I would open it to play (to answer your other question) I would have already wasted that dividend – best not to buy it at all.
Of course if you’re only buying it for investment purposes, I guess you would leave it sealed – doubt that many of the readers of this column are in that category, unless thay already have a copy for themself.
BTW, my copy, which appears to be original in all other regards, has Blue instead of Red writing at the first line – anyone know if either constitutes the “original?”
just tooo tempting to open,
that would be SHOUTING at you every time you went near it… i suppose if i had enough about me, keep it un opened.
Like an itch that you just gotta scratch…no pun intended.
I would hold it and keep it sealed until I wanted to listen to the record, then I would have zero qualms about opening it and putting it on the turntable. Before doing so, I might open a bottle of wine, or pour myself a nice porter, to honor and celebrate the occasion.
too rich for my blood,I’m afraid-and I’d say the nearly $500 spent for a sealed copy of the first “Shelly Manne At The Blackhawk”-from the same list?- is even MORE of a “wha?” moment(although it is a killer lp)…
Unfourtunately this was not the original first pressing. The original should have the blue heading with the pink line around the tunes on the back slick. This is a second pressing.
Fredrik — how do you know that, about the first pressing?
Al – I’ve asked both Fred Cohen and Ron Rambach regarding this before and they both confirmed it. It should be the 3 color back.
ceedee – that price for the Shelly Manne clearly indicates that the buyer will NOT be opening that one. Super record (as you say), but easily had in NM for far less than $500.
I’m glad I lost this auction!
Moments after this auction closed, I bought a real nice copy of Gerry Mulligan meets Johnny Hodges on Verve with the trumpeter label from the same seller.
Hope I didn’t pay too much for it. Oh well, i guess “value” is largely in the eye of the beholder in many respects, as well as market dictated pricing.
Rich man has two original records.
Maybe…
If I permit it economically, I want to have two original record.
That seller had some very very nice records.
I would certainly open it, but I wonder when it was re-sealed. I’ve heard (wrong or right) that records were not sold sealed in 1957.
Here is a pretty good article from Goldmine about sealed LP’s:
http://www.goldminemag.com/article/sound-advice-tell-if-that-old-album-is-still-sealed-or-re-sealed
One quote:
“The 1960s is when the mass sealing of LPs began to take place.”
One may reasonably conclude that very few if any albums in 1957 were sealed – doen’t make it impossible but highly unlikely.
What would you do if you bought a selaed LP for investment, kept it sealed, and then decided (say 5 yrs later) to sell it – the buyer opens it, finds it to be a re-release. Would you give him a refund and sorrowfully take your loss?
I still say, stay away from the selaed jobbies.
I have seen many of these sealed Contemporary lps of the same vintage,unfortunately few of the “desire level” of the Pepper.It was common practice for a label like Contemporary to provide “for demonstration only” copies of records to retail record outlets for in store audition.When the customer decided to buy the record a fresh sealed copy was brought forth.
True,not all labels actually sealed the records during this period,you constantly run into records of this period with penciled in retail prices in the corner and small stickers from the retailer next to the price.
Fredrik: do you have a picture of this three-tone Art Pepper on CR?
Who is Ron Rombach?
Not Fredrik, but here is a picture:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ART-PEPPER-Meets-The-Rhythm-Section-Original-DG-PROMO-Contemporary-LP-CLEAN-/121202791972?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item1c383fd624
Blue text on top and red box around the song list.
Aaron: thanks. Unfortunately, EBay does not show this listing to me, “due to legal restrictions which forbid to show certain items to buyers in certain countries”. Is the info / spionage war now on EBay too?
Would it be technically possible for you to take just the picture of the rear and transpose it to jazzcollector readers? I could not do it, but people more gifted than I am, would find a way around.
The subject is really bothering me. I have an early copy, which came with a green catalogue (starting with 10″ series) and it has just the red, no blue.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/843/up9o.jpg/
Aaron, thank you so much for this valuable (and distressing) info. Fortunately, I have no access to this item, now on auction, otherwise I would be tempted to make some crazy bids.
By the way, do other EBay.com members have the same experience as me, that certain items are not shown “due to legal restrictions in some countries”? To me, living in France, it happens every now and then and I find the vague EBay explanation rather frustrating.
just wonderin’ if the semi-barcode-ish looking thing and the blocked mail permit stamp on the insert would keep people from bidding(?) Did they have that stuff in 1957? Almost seems like a 70s pre-ojc press to me. That longer insert just reeks of 70s / 80s to me. I would of kept my bid to $50 highest, if won, park it for awhile and then sell it sealed! It wouldn’t be calling me from behind the shrink to open it as Pepper makes me sneeze bad (not a west coast jazz kinda guy)
Zarabeth – You can’t be serious about thinking this is a pre-OJC press. The inserts were all standard in Contemporary records from the late 50s era. The shrink alone, clearly being a loose baggy, does not fit the 70s pre-ojc issues.