Pepper Prices Nothing to Sneeze At
Let’s catch up on some jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay, starting with a dash of pepper: Art Pepper Quintet, Discovery 3023. This was an original 10-inch pressing listed in M- condition for the record and probably about VG+ for the cover. The final price was $481. This is not one that comes up when you think about rare records but, honestly, I can’t recall the last time I saw a copy of this on eBay. I had a copy once. It had a scratch that caused several skips. I had a friend who was a Pepper fan and he offered me $50 for it. I think he wanted the cover and probably to listen to the side without the scratch. And then we are back in the nearly $3,000 bin with Art Pepper, Modern Art, Intro 606. This was an original pressing listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $2,700. This was the same record that ostensibly sold for more than $3,500 last week but something must have gone wrong and it was back on eBay. Perhaps the first buyer missed the line about superficial hairlines, which may take it out of the M- category.
There’s another copy on eBay of Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This looks to be in VG+ or so condition for the record and VG for the cover. The seller has a start price of about $1,500 and so far there are no takers.
I’ll add another from my personal want list, while I’m at it this morning: Roland Kirk, Triple Threat, King 539. This was an original styrene pressing, listed in VG- condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. The final price was $611, surprisingly high (to me) because of the condition.
Wonder if the Pepper buyer got cold feet after seeing the seller’s negative and neutral feedback? Sketchy…
That Kirk is very high on my want list too, but styrene sounds terrible for anything short of a strong EX.
Is the 10″ Art Pepper a lot more rare than the 12″ record? A lot less were made so why the big price difference? Just asking.
@Clifford, I wondered that myself … especially the negatives on mis-grading. I’d want to inspect and play the LP first if I was considering a purchase at $2000+.
art,
first pressing fundamentalism, if you suffer from it as i do, is a huge factor.
The Jackie Mac went for $2,400 today! Maybe there is more to a record/performer than the Blue Note Mystique.*
*(sarcasm)
Art Pepper “Modern Art” Intro – vinyl graded NM-. This is a grade that always irks me. My line of thinking has Near Mint and Mint Minus being essentially the same. So I always wonder what is a NM-. It’s kind of like saying it’s not really Near Mint. So how about calling it VG++? Or then again E. That E is a grade the 78rpm people used and now it’s all over the place or maybe it’s (E)nglish.
Whatever the case, yes, maybe the winner of the first ebay auction of this Intro was left with the same ambiguity that I have tried – Oh my gosh – I have tried to express. Happy record hunting.