A Misadventure in Jazz Collecting, Part 4

Back on the phone with Debby. She’s reading titles, again. I can’t stop her. She doesn’t listen when I talk, she talks over me. So I listen. I’m hardly paying attention. But this I hear.

“Freddie Redd, Shades of Redd on Blue Note.”

“Which one?” I ask.

“Freddie Redd, Shades of Redd on Blue Note.”

“What’s the address on the label?”

“47 West 63^rd. That’s an original, right?”

“Right.”

The collection just got more interesting to me. I realize there is no logic to this. As I’ve said before, I can go on eBay any time, now, this minute, and buy a copy of this record. I can listen to it on vinyl right now in either my house in the country or my studio apartment in the city. So why do I care that it is in this collection that I may or may not be interested in purchasing?

It’s the existential question for many of us, isn’t it? What is it about the pursuit that makes it better, more intriguing, more rewarding? Why do I want to find and purchase this record the hard way, rather than the easy way?

I don’t have the answers but, as I said, this whole process of dealing with Debby and thinking about possibly purchasing this collection started a whole lot of soul searching for me. This is where the soul searching ended up. I like buying jazz records. I like handling them, holding them, cleaning them, fixing the covers, organizing them, putting them in plastic sleeves, placing them on my shelves. I like listening to them, putting them on my turntable, sitting back in an easy chair, reading the liner notes. I like calling Dan and sharing my scores, bringing the records home and going through them with The Lovely Mrs. JC. I like looking at my doubles and determining which ones to keep and which ones to put in a pile or box to eventually sell. I especially like buying collections because it is something I had never really done before I started Jazz Collector and it’s a whole new world that opened up to me, accidentally, and totally as a result of doing this site, which I’ve always done just for fun, never for money.

This realization may not seem like much of an epiphany to you or anyone else who knows me, but it was quite empowering to me as I was thinking about making a decision about whether to continue dealing with this woman who had already taken up a lot of my time and this collection whose very presence was taking up a lot of my energy. I sat down with The Lovely Mrs. JC, who, in her professional life is a psychotherapist and therefore quite adept at guiding people through these types of life decisions because that’s what this had come to be, not just Al buying another jazz collection but some kind of bigger thing. I explained to her what realization I had come to, that I was interested in this collection not because I could resell it, not because there were so many records I wanted, not because I yearned to open a record store or go back on eBay or anything else to do with money. I was interested in the collection because, under the right circumstances, I would have a lot of fun buying the collection and get a lot of enjoyment out of the process.

“What are the right circumstances?” she asked.

I thought for a few seconds.

“If I could purchase the collection for a reasonable price, so that I could enjoy the process of discovery, keep the records I want, and flip the rest relatively easily – to a collector on Jazz Collector or perhaps one of the dealers I know – and get either all or most of the money back relatively easily, that would be the right circumstances.”

The Lovely Mrs. JC listened and came back with two questions:

1. What would be a reasonable price?
2. If I did somehow make an agreement with Debby, could I trust her to follow through?

I didn’t know the answer – yet – to the first question, but that I could figure out. As for the second question, that was more difficult. Debby had proven to be a bit unreliable, a bit off the wall, and more than a bit delusional about the worth of her collection. My nightmare scenario was driving five hours to Rochester and driving five hours back empty-handed because she either changed her mind or decided to sell the collection to someone else or not sell the collection at all.

I decided to address the situation in order. First, figure out what would be a reasonable price for me to pay for the collection, not in terms of making a financial killing, but in terms of having fun and minimizing risk. Then, knowing my own limitations, I could deal with Debby and gauge her reactions. I went back over the pictures she had sent. I went back over the notes I had taken in my conversations with her, the hours on the phone with her reading record titles to me. I created a Word file as follows:

12-Inch

Shades of Redd, $1,000
Mobley, 1540, $1,000
Stylings of Silver, $300
Miles Volume 1, Blue Note, $500
Miles Volume 2, Blue Note, $500
Somethin’ Else, Blue Note, $500
JJ Johnson, Blue Note, $300
Bud Powell, The Scene Changes, $500
Sonny Rollins, Plus Four, $300
Sonny Rollins, Moving Out, $300
Miles Davis, New Quintet, $500
Miles Davis Plus Milt Jackson, $200
Monk/Rollins, Prestige, $400
Jazz Messengers, $400
Roll Call, $1,000
Dorham, Bohemia, $1,000
Duke Pearson, Profile, $500
Kenny Burrell, Blue Lights 1, $800
Kenny Burrrell, Blue Lights 2, $800
Mal Waldron, Left Alone, $600
Dexter, Daddy Plays the Horn, $500
Sonny, Colossus, $2,000
Also: Curtis Fuller New Jazz; Warne Marsh Atlantic; Max Roach; Kenny Dorham

10-inch

Bud Powell, Blue Note 1, $400
Bud Powell, Blue Note 2, $400
Horace Silver, Blue Note, $400
Jimmy Raney 1, $200
Jimmy Raney 2, $200
Miles Davis Blue Note 1, $400
Miles Davis Blue Note 2, $400
Monk, $400
Thad Jones Debut, $200
Happy Minors, $200
Rollins and Monk, $400
Jazz From the West, $400

The values I placed next to each record were off-the-top-of-my-head guesstimates assuming the records and covers were in great condition. It was back-of-the-envelope type work to give myself a better sense of what the collection might be worth so I could fit an offer into the criteria of maximum fun, minimal risk. The total came to about $20,000. Then there were, of course, all of the other records to consider, the ones I hadn’t seen, the ones whose titles were not read to me over the phone, the hidden gems and surprises that were among the reasons I was even considering making an offer on this collection. Having gone through this exercise, I was starting to get a sense of what might make sense to me.

Before I could make a decision, I heard back from Debby.

June 13, 2018. Email from Debby to Al. Subject: Pics on beige loveseat most valuable

Then the blue coach! OMG finally done!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So now, finally, we were at the point where we could talk money. She had finished her exercise of going through each record, looking up the “value” in the Goldmine price guide, and compiling her piles of $25, $50, $250, $350 and, for all I knew, million-dollar records. And I had spent enough time on the phone with her listening to her list record after record and hearing the absurd values she was placing on them.

It was time to go back to my consiglieres, Dan and The Lovely Mrs. JC. After looking at all the pictures, the piles of records, the rare and the not so rare, I came to the conclusion that I would be comfortable purchasing this collection for $25,000 and would probably also be OK up to $30,000. Don’t ask me how I came up with these numbers, I just did. Dan, who had seen all the pictures, was very encouraging but felt the same way I did: Debby’s expectations were much higher than this. The Lovely Mrs. JC was equally encouraging and equally pessimistic/realistic. We looked at our finances, including an unused line of credit, and we decided I would be looking at $25,000 or so, but would have leeway all the way up to $40,000 in case the collection was better than anticipated. Once again, The Lovely Mrs. JC proved herself to be a wife for the ages. With a firm idea of where I was prepared to go, I called Debbie to get a sense of where she was at.

It was another one of those calls. Back and forth, back and forth, more recitation of titles, more talking over me, more blabbering on and on about how many records there were, how they were all over the place, how she wanted me to have the records. I did not tip my hand on what I was willing to offer and I tried everything I could to get her to give me a number. But she wouldn’t. I told her to think about it, that I was interested in the collection, and that I would talk to my wife about our finances and think about an offer I could make. I told Debby she needed to have an idea of what she would want for the collection. The next day I received the following email:

June 14, 2018. Email from Debby to Al. Subject: Yesterday

Mng Al, Good chatting yesterday! I got pretty excited I finally finished looking up those records 🙂 They are all in piles according to that books value. It will make it easy for you if you want to see them. Only thing is if you decide to take the collection you would most def need someone to come and move them for you.  We are in an upstairs condo and there are so many of those records to move.

Found a few collectible ones yesterday. In reality I would love for a true collector to have this collection. I have 0 idea of what the collection is worth as far as the three big piles of international and Japanese blue note labels. Best,Debby

We had reached some sort of end of the line. It was time to talk money for real, no more beating around the bush, no more vague insinuations, to more hiding the reality. Somebody was going to buy this collection and deal with this woman. It was now a matter of who would buy it and at what price, in terms of both dollars and aggravation. On the one hand, I hoped it would be me. On the other, I hoped it wouldn’t. At this point, if there were a race going on, the “wouldn’t” would have been solidly in the lead.