Tag: Mercury Records

. . . And In Jazz Vinyl on eBay . . .

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cannonOK, I’m starting to feel guilty over my minuscule posting production over the past few weeks. I vow to do better and, again, I will post every day this week. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I will just catch up with some items I was watching last week and then move on to some new items.

This seller has had a bunch of items recently with high prices. Many of the prices seem to be unrealistic, despite the seller’s nom d’eBay, but sometimes the items sell, such as: Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago, Mercury 60134. This was a stereo pressing that looked to be a first stereo pressing with the deep grooves and black labels. It was listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. This one has sold for collectible prices a few times in the past, but it has always been relatively common and available, even on eBay. So the inflated prices seem to be an aberration, such as this one that sold for $149.99.

Just as that price seemed to be inflated, this one seemed to be less than expected:

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Sing a Song of 78s

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One of our readers has been in a 78-RPM frame of mind recently and has sent me a couple of interesting 78 auctions on eBay, specifically boxed sets. Here’s the latest: Billie Holiday Sings, Mercury C-118. We all recognize this cover from the 10-inch LP of the same title and packaging with the iconic David Stone Martin illustration, but this is a boxed set that includes four 78s. Everything seems to be in about VG+ condition. This is definitely a cool item, particularly if you are into 78s. The price is already more than $200 and the auction closes later today. I do have an issue purchasing 78s on eBay, however, and it has to do with shipping. I’ve purchased 78s on eBay and I’ve sold 78s on eBay and shipping these fragile items in the mail is a challenge. I’ve sent some that I though were packaged perfectly, using recommended packaging material from the industry leader, yet they still broke in the mail. For an item like this, I’d be a little nervous. By the way, I play my 78s on a portable Califone record player, the type they used to use in public schools. The 78s sound really good on them, they are convenient and you can easily buy one for less than $100 on eBay. We haven’t asked this in a while, but are their 78s collectors out there, and how do you handle purchasing/playing your records? Also, what do you collect, and why?

Into the $1,000 Bin, Including Rare Autographs

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We’ve been away, now we are back, and we see that we’ve missed some pretty heavy-duty sales on eBay for some pretty heavy-duty dollars.Let’s catch up.

I think we predicted these two would sell for more than $2,000 and they did: Hank Mobley Quintet, Blue Note 1550. This was an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $2,350. From the same seller was Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was also in M- condition for the record and the cover. The price: $2,075.

How about this one? Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago, Mercury 60134. This was an original stereo pressing and it’s the one that features John Coltrane. What does it normally sell for, maybe $30? This one, however, offered by Euclid Records, happened to have been autographed by both Cannonball and Coltrane. What does that make it worth? How about $1,037. Don Lucky, where were you on this one? I know many of you are blase about autographs and actually prefer records that don’t have autographs, but to me, having a record signed by two of my heroes, that’s just priceless. Well, perhaps not priceless, but $1,037 seems a reasonable price.

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Max Roach, Dorham, Mobley

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I was poring through my records the other day and stopped for a moment on this one: Max Roach Four Plays Charlie Parker, Mercury SR 80019. I’ve had this record for a while and haven’t listened to it in years, but it struck me as such: It features two of the great stalwarts of the Blue Note catalogue — Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham — both in their primes; it has a great cover and a great concept. Yet, it is not really high on any list of collectible records and, in fact, we have never once even tagged it in the Jazz Collector Price Guide, which means we haven’t really seen it sell for a collectible price in the past seven years. And it struck me: What if this record, with this personnel, in this era — 1958 or so — had been issued on Blue Note? What would it be worth? Why is there such a profound difference between the value of a record like this, on the Mercury label, and a record with similar personnel in the same era from the Blue Note era? I think these are rhetorical questions, but I’m happy

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Price Updates: Lights Out, Zoot, Kenny Drew

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Here are some of the items we’ve been watching on eBay:

Jackie McLean, Lights Out, Prestige 7035. This was an original New York pressing with the deep groove and heavy vinyl. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG+. It did not have a flat edge, according to an answer to a questioner, but I’m not sure that doesn’t mean it wasn’t original. Anyway, the price was $639.49.

Phil Woods, Warm Woods, Epic 3436. This was an original pressing and it was listed in M- condition for both the vinyl and the cover. The price was $495.

Zoot Sims, Zoot, Riverside 228. This was an original white label pressing and it was listed in VG++ condition for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. The price was $413.

Here are a few we were watching the other day:

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Collectibles Anyone? Astaire, Kenny Drew Riverside

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There are quite a few interesting items on eBay now. Here are a couple:

Fred Astaire, The Astaire Story, Mercury 1001 1004. Most of you are probably familiar with this set, produced by Norman Granz in the early 1950s.  There were 1,384 copies produced, all autographed by Astaire, and the set came with four LPs, a booklet with exclusive photos and a set of drawings by David Stone Martin. The music is all jazz even though Astaire was not a “jazz singer,” and the sidemen include many of the greats within the Granz stable, such as Oscar Peterson, Flip Phillips, Ray Brown, Barney Kessel, Charlie Shavers. Anyway, it is quite a nice set and used to regularly sell in the $2,000 range. Our top price in the Jazz Collector Price Guide is

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Jazz Collector’s Essential Cannonball Adderley

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Blipp asks on an earlier post if we can make any recommendations on Cannonball Adderley’s earlier material, in particular the Mercury records. We can certainly do that, and we’re sure others in the audience will be happy to weigh in as well. First, we will give our own Jazz Collector version of our top five Cannonball LPs altogether. Blipp has been listening mostly to the Capitol stuff, he says, and we don’t think any of those records is going to make our list. Here goes:
1. Cannonball Adderley, Know What I Mean with Bill Evans, Riverside 433. Evans and Adderley obviously had a great rapport from their days with Miles and the addition of Percy Heath and Connie Kay made for a more lyrical setting that suited both Evans and Adderley quite well. And, as one might expect, within that lyrical setting they both swing like crazy.
2.  Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco, Recorded at the Jazz Workshop, Riverside 311. The ground-breaking early quintet with Bobby Timmons and the great tracks of “This Here” (with Cannonball’s engaging introduction) and “Hi-Fly,” plus a very swinging “Spontaneous Combustion.” This LP captured the energy of the group

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Some 10-Inchers For the Price Guide

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There was a lot of discussion on Jazz Collector last week about 10-inch LPs and we said we’d keep track of some for the price guide. To be honest, based on these prices, we’re not sure if demand is diminished. We do know that prices tend to be inconsistent week to week, so it’s best to keep track over time, which is why we do the Jazz Collector Price Guide, which, so far, has been tracking prices over a five-year period. Anyway, here’s an update on some 10-inch LPs, all of which will go into the Price Guide later this week:

Elmo Hope, New Faces, New Sounds, Blue Note 5029. This was an original pressing in M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $620.

Jon Eardley in Hollywood, New Jazz 1105. This was also in M- condition. It sold for $232.44.

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