Month: July 2005

Reflections From Sonny Rollins, 1965

Leave a comment

I must admit, I’m putting a lot of time into my regular gig these days, and not spending too much on eBay. So, this morning, looking for something quick and simple to write, I came upon an old Downbeat from August 26, 1965, with a cover story titled: “The Further Adventures of Sonny Rollins: A revealing conversation with the controversial tenor saxophonist, by Joe Goldberg.”

 

Without doing major analysis, I will offer a couple of revealing quotes: One today and one tomorrow. Here’s today’s:

 

“The average Joe knows just as much as I do – he knows more than I do. I’m the average Joe, and I think people recognize that. That’s why I play standards. Everybody knows Stardust. These guys who play only their own tunes, they can cover up a lot of things, but if you play the melody of Stardust, everybody can tell whether you’re doing it right or not. I’ve called tunes like that to guys who didn’t know them. How can you call yourself a professional musician if you don’t know all those songs?”

What’s on eBay for More than $1,000?

Leave a comment

I was away with hardly any access to the Internet and I wasn’t on eBay all of last week. Just for the fun of it, and to see if I missed anything significant, this morning I did a search through completed jazz auctions for all items that sold for more than $1,000. To my surprise, there wasn’t that much. Here’s what I found:

Tina Brooks, Blue Note 4041. This was an original pressing in what looked like very nice condition. Price: $1,703.30

Fred Astaire, The Astaire Story, Clef 1001. This is the complete boxed set, signed and autographed by Astaire. Price: $1,826. It so happens, I also have a copy of this, in comparable condition. If anyone is interested I’d sell it for $1,750. Contact me alperlman@hotmail.com.

 The final $1,000-plus item was this:  The Jacques Pelzer Quartet in Italy, on the Italian Centra label. I had never seen or heard of this record and, according to the dealer, there were only 200 or so copies pressed. This one received a top bid of $1,226, but still failed to meet the seller’s reserve price. Perhaps it will appear again.

 

Grading and Guarantees on eBay

Leave a comment

In our last couple of newsletters we’ve been talking about buying and selling records on eBay. Here’s a response from one of our readers about grading: “As a ‘Dining Room Table’ guy dealing records on eBay, I find grading to be the hardest thing I do. The first issue is that it is very difficult to do anything other than visual grading when you are posting a hundred or so LPs each week. The more critical problem is that condition is in the ear of the beholder. Read more

A Milestone for Milestones

Leave a comment

I can’t pinpoint exactly when this happened, but sometime over the past couple of years it seems the Miles Davis Columbia LPs crossed the $100-barrier for original mono pressings in nice condition. Kind of Blue has gone way beyond that. Here’s a recent copy of Milestones, Columbia 1193. Price: $102.50

 And here’s Round Midnight, Columbia 949. Price: $122.49

 Here’s another we were watching. Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This was an original New York pressing, but it was not in great condition. The seller listed both the record and cover as a cross between VG and VG+. I don’t know this seller, but in most cases, that means closer to VG. Still it went for the hefty sum of $510.

 Here’s one that went for a higher price than usual: Stan Getz Quartets, Prestige 7002. This was in nice condition and was offered by a very reputable dealer. Price: $282

 

A Bulls-eye for Giant Steps

One comment

When we started the newsletter last year, a few readers gave us a hard time for paying $50 to get a stereo copy of John Coltrane Giant Steps, Atlantic 1311, with the bulls-eye label. Well, here’s a copy in worse condition that recently sold for $129.17.

 Here are some of the other items that we’re loading into the Latest Prices and Price Guide for Jazzcollector.com

 Hal McKusick, Triple Exposure, Prestige 7135. This was in near mint condition and sold for $371.60. This is a higher price than we’ve seen before, but the record looks very clean.

 Here’s one that broke the $200 price range: Joe Henderson, In ‘N Out, Blue Note 4166. Price: $215.50

 And another one that came close: Beverly Kenney Sings for Johnny Smith, Roost 2206. Price: $190.50

 

 

 

Dexter On Dial, Jutta On Blue Note

Leave a comment

We’re putting together a new price guide and entering new entries into the database. Here are a few interesting items that won’t make it into the next newsletter. More of these tomorrow.

Dexter Gordon, Dial 204. This was the original 10-inch pressing in just VG condition and still sold for $232.54.

Stan Getz, West Coast Jazz, Norgran $217.50. Admittedly, this was in nice condition, but it still sold for a very high price, compared to other copies we’ve seen: $217.50 Read more

Advice to Sellers on Ebay

Leave a comment

Jazz Collector Newsletter, July 2005

Welcome to Jazz Collector. We’ve been very good about updating the web site every day, so if you haven’t been visiting, please take a look: There’s been some interesting discussion and we’ve been watching some nice items on eBay. Speaking of eBay, as we often do, we start this newsletter with advice to sellers, which we hope will generate some reader response. We also have our usual assortment of upcoming items, some new LPs in our Price Guides and an all-time favorite music clip.

I was recently talking to a subscriber who is interested in selling his collection on eBay as a retirement business. Here’s the main advice I gave him:

Read more

1 2