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Guest Column: Digging Vinyl in Portland

May 3, 2022 Al 10 comments

I recently received a note from a reader who asked to write a short post, so here it is, from Stuart Levine.

I moved to Portland, Oregon a week ago and have spent every day but one (Record Store Day; I don’t like crowds) hitting the local record shops. The first one was Jackpot Records, where I had anything but good luck. You see, there was a pristine copy of “My Favorite Things,” but it was on hold for another customer. That led me up the street to Exiled Records and things began to improve. I found an original 1971 Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On.” That’s no easy feat, considering the fact that Rolling Stone had named it the top album of all time. Oh, and it’s VG (not a beater) and plays through. Read more

Guest Columns

Of Market Value and Music Value

October 29, 2018 Al 15 comments

Back on eBay and wanted to first catch up on some of the items we were watching last time, starting with George Wallington, New York Scene, New Jazz 8207. This was the one from the Jazz Record Center and the bidding was at close to $800 when we wrote about it. The record wound up selling for $2,000, well surpassing the previous top price paid for this record, according to Popsike. I still find it fascinating that certain records have a strong appeal to collectors, i.e., value, while other records of the same era, perhaps by more prominent artists, have less of an appeal. Off the top of my head, I’ll use Sonny Rollins Plus Four as an example. This is a great record, featuring ground-breaking artists in their prime, on Prestige, yet it has never come close to the $1,000 mark, let alone $2,000. I’m sure I can come up with other examples, but you get the drift. I’m sure it has to do with supply and demand and all of that and perceptions of what is “rare” and what isn’t, which, I guess, is one of the nice things about having sites like eBay and Popsike to monitor the market and see on a daily basis what actual market value looks like. Back in the dark ages before the Internet, most of us were probably operating in the dark, not quite understanding the market value of what we were collecting. I guess we were focusing on the music that we loved.

Rare Jazz Vinyl, For Thousands of $$$ or, Perhaps, 25 Cents

October 21, 2018 Al 13 comments

I have more stories to tell, including a return engagement at Spike’s Record Rack in Catskill, but I feel I must get back to the business of looking at collectible vinyl on eBay before I do so. Nothing too exciting — no new collections — just some random stuff. So let’s get on with some eBay watching first and do the story-telling later in the week. If it’s eBay, there must be an expensive Sonny Clark record selling for thousands of dollars somewhere. This week it is Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588, courtesy of our friends at the Jazz Record Center in New York. This looks to be in really nice condition. Based on the description, my grade would be M- for the record and VG++ for the cover. There are nearly two days left on this auction and the bidding is now in the $1,100 range. We have consistently seen this record in the $3,000 bin and, at least once in the rarified $5,000 bin. I’m setting the over/under on this copy arbitrarily at $4,100.

Into the Woods (At the Right Price)

March 21, 2018 Al 28 comments

I was watching a few items from the Jazz Record Center auction that closed yesterday, including Phil Woods, Woodlore, Prestige 7018. This was an original yellow label New York pressing that looked to be in M- condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. The final price was $493.88. In looking at this auction, I realize I’m still somewhat of an old-school collector whose attitudes haven’t changed all that much, even as the value of the records has increased over the years. I love this record and have never owned an original pressing. As you know, I’ve been collecting jazz records for nearly 50 years. Still, as much as I would want an original pressing of this record in may collection, I would prefer to go without it at this kind of price — even though the market value will likely increase — and continue to wait until I get lucky and find it for a price I feel is reasonable. It’s not the money and it’s not even the principle. It’s more like the ingrained habit and the ethos of “this is how I choose to collect.” If I want to listen to Phil Woods, I have a lot of other great Phil Woods records to listen to. If I really want to listen to Woodlore, I have my Japanese pressing. That’s good enough for this collector.

Prestige

Jazz Vinyl Catchup

November 30, 2017 Al 8 comments

Sorry, again, for the long gap between posts. With Thanksgiving and an abundance of real work, time has just slipped away. I owe you an update on some of the auctions we were watching, so here goes. We’ll start with some of the records from the seller vinyl-house-uk, including Elmo Hope, Informal Jazz, Esquire 32-0139. This was an original British pressing listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for a whopping $925. When we started watching this UK pressings a couple of years ago, the prices weren’t nearly this high. Hope we didn’t start a trend. There were a few other similar pressings in the same auction list that sold for high prices, including these Read more

Listings and Musings on Rare Jazz Vinyl

June 13, 2017 Al 37 comments

We’ll start with a rare Blue-Note-free day here at Jazz Collector: Jack Sheldon, The Quartet and the Quintet, Jazz-West 6. This is an original pressing listed in M- condition for the record, although it is probably closer to VG++, and probably VG+ or VG++ for the cover. This is a 1956 record that features Zoot Sims. The price is in the $200 range with about three days to go. I did a quick Google search and am happy to report that Jack Sheldon is still alive. 🙂 I remember him not only as a terrific player but also as a pretty good comedian, playing sidekick on the Merv Griffin show when I was growing up. You wonder about an artist like this in terms of both their legacy and the long-term value of their records in the collectors’ market. Read more

Impulse

Why a Monk?

July 12, 2015 Al 2 comments

Thanks to Lennib for spotting this one: Thelonious Monk Plays, Prestige 189. This was an original 10-inch pressing, listed among the very nice 10-inch records we mentioned the other day. This one was also very nice, probably in M- condition for both the record and the cover. Even in this condition, the price was quite a surprise, selling for $1,136.11. That has to be the highest price we’ve seen for a 10-inch Prestige and, frankly, there’s no explanation we can come up with, other than the likely reality that two people really, really wanted this record and the bid the bidding up. From what we can see, the other records in this batch sold for prices that you would typically expect, given the titles and condition, including:

Odds & Ends From The Jazz Collector World

January 26, 2015 Al 2 comments

Let’s catch up on a few odds and ends, starting with some of the promo records we’ve been watching on eBay:

John Coltrane, Coltrane, Impulse 21. This was a mono pressing with the white label promo label. It was listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. It wound up selling for $493.88. Wow. From the same seller was this: John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Impulse 40. This was also a white label promo copy, also in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. This one sold for $282. Then there were the two on Prestige: George Wallington, Jazz For the Carriage Trade, Prestige 7032. This was an original New York yellow-label pressing with the “Not for Sale” stamps on the label and cover. It was listed in M- condition for the record and probably VG++ for the cover. The start price was $499 and it did not sell. Somewhat surprising, right? Then there was:

Records That Are Not Quite Records

February 19, 2014 Al 5 comments

Let’s catch up on a few more jazz records from our watch list, starting with: George Wallington, New York Scene, New Jazz 8207. This was an original pressing with the deep grooves and the purple label. The record and cover both looked to be in VG++ condition. The price was $698, which we though was the highest we’ve ever seen for this record until we looked at the Jazz Collector Price Guide and realized that we’ve seen this one sell for as much as $865. I literally bought a copy of this record for a quarter many years ago, when one of the young workers at Mr. Cheapo in Mineola mistakenly threw it into the bargain bin, for which I have been forever grateful.

That copy of Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’ that we were watching would up selling for $3,507, also not a record, but a pretty hefty price indeed.

I just sold a copy of this record to a dealer, and I would have expected it to get a higher price than it did here:

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