Author: Al

One For the Price Guide (We Hope)

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One of our readers sent me an email and asked me to include this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide: Art Pepper, Modern Art, Intro 606. This was an original pressing in VG+ condition for the record and VG- condition for the cover. It sold for $730. In the headline the seller mentions that this is a 1951 pressing, but that cannot be possible. They weren’t even pressing 12-inch records in 1951, were they? It was during that time that the 10-inch LP was the “standard.”

Anyway, I will add this to the Price Guide, although I have to admit I’ve been quite remiss in doing regular updates. I know I used to use the Price Guide all the time when I was selling records on eBay. I found it very helpful. And I know that people are using it now and referring to it fairly often, because I see the analytics from Google. It seems to be particularly popular in Japan. Really. So I will slog along, put aside a day or a half day somewhere in the next couple of weeks, and make sure I plug in all of the records I’ve been promising to plug in since I last did a major update about four months ago. It would certainly help the motivation if there were a few kind words about the Price Guide as well. 🙂

Lee Morgan, Hal McKusick and Sonny Clarke (sic)

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Here are some jazz vinyl auctions we’ve been watching on eBay:

Sonny Clark, Leapin’ and Lopin’, Blue Note 4091. What caught my eye about this one is that the seller kept referring to him as “Sonny Clarke” in the headline and in the text.  I mean, can you look at the album cover? If potential buyers have alerts for Sonny Clark or if they are doing searches, would they not find this LP? Interesting question. This one was in VG condition for the record and M- for the cover. It was an original mono pressing. It sold for $289. My bet is that the misspelling did not impact the final price.

Hal McKusick, Bethlehem 16. This was an original pressing with the deep red label and deep grooves. The record was VG+ or perhaps a little better and the cover was VG++. The start price was $275 and when I looked at this there was one bidder. I was a bit surprised anyone was interested at that price so I kept an eye on it to see if the bidding would go higher. It didn’t.

Lee Morgan, Lee-Way, Blue Note 4034. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing that was in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. As I’ve watched this record through the years, it’s typically topped out in the $500 range, although we’ve seen one in the Jazz Collector Price Guide sell for $847. I expect someday we’ll see this regularly in the $1,000 bin given the quality of the recording, vintage, personnel, etc. Not yet. This one sold for $757.

 

Watching A Pair Of Heavy-Duty Jazz Collectibles

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My goodness, here’s a jazz collectible to make the heart flutter (my heart, at least): Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants, Prestige 7150. This is an original yellow label pressing, although the record itself is a reissue. No big deal, right? Except this one is autographed by, get this, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. That’s about as an impressing a lineup of jazz autographs as you could get on one record. This one is being auction by The Jazz Record Center so I would be one to trust that the signatures are original. Perhaps Don-Lucky or another autograph collector might shed more light. In any case, the bidding on this one starts at $2,500 and there is already a bid so the record will sell. If I had this one, I’d frame it for sure.

Here we go again: Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This is an original original pressing, based on all of our feedbacks and comments last week, and it has the New York 23 on the B Side. This one is in M- condition for both the record and the cover and, based on the seller’s description, it sounds like it’s in amazing shape. The auction closes later today, in about four hours, and the bidding is in the $2,000 range. My guess is that it goes in the $4,000 range. If it was from a seller with more history and more of a reputation using this description it would probably break the $5,000 barrier. Maybe even more. And maybe it will with this seller. We’ll see soon.

Pining (Again) For Record Store Days

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Here’s an article about another record store closing: Cutler’s record store in New Haven closing after 64 years in business. It’s not necessarily news anymore when a record store closes, but this seems to have been a pretty popular store. The real news would be a record store opening. Not much chance of that, is there? I’ve never been to Cutler’s in New Haven, but I’ve been to many record stores in my  day, all around the U.S. and a bit in Europe as well. Of all the things I love about collecting, the think I miss the most is being able to go into a record store and going  through the bins searching for that one record or two or even, hopefully, many more that are sitting there with great music, great covers and an affordable price. You know that feeling of rifling through the bins, record by record, passing all of the Herb Alperts and George Bensons and Al Jarreaus and, boom, there it is, an original Fats Navarro on Savoy or Stan Getz on Verve or, on the best days, a Jackie McLean or Lou Donaldson or anyone else on Blue Note. The business of collectible buying and selling has moved to eBay, with good reason (at least for the sellers), but it’s certainly not nearly as much fun. Is it?

 

More Jazz Vinyl For the $1,000 Bin

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Time to update the $1,000 bin and there is quite a lot to update, not counting some of the ones we’ve watched recently, such as the Hank Mobley 1568 and others from the recent Jazz Record Center auction. Here goes:

Paul Gonsalves, Boom-Jackie-Boom-Chick, Vocalion 587. This was an original British pressing that looks to be in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $1,593.88.

Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address and it was in VG++ condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $1,578.99.

This was a surprise to sell for such a high price tag: Clifford Brown Memorial Album, Blue Note 1526. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing with the framed cover. It was in M- condition for the record and probably VG++ for the cover. It sold for $1,567.

Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This was an original pressing. The cover was VG+, but the record was in VG or worse condition, based on the seller’s description. It sold for $1,376.11.

Finally, here’s one we meant to include from the Jazz Record Center auction because it was actually in the $3,000 bin:

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One for the $3,000 Bin (And A Few More)

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So how did some of those jazz vinyl auctions we were watching pan out? Thought you would never ask.

Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This was an original pressing of one of the rarest and most valuable of all jazz records and it was sold by the most reputable of all jazz sellers, the Jazz Record Center in New York. The record was in M- condition and the cover looked like VG++. We’ve seen this record sell for more than $5,000 in the past on the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Not this time. This one sold for a mere $3,362.

Presenting Ernie Henry, Riverside 222. This was also from the Jazz Record Center and it was an original white label pressing that looked to be in quite lovely condition, M- for both the record and the cover. This one sold for $510. Great cover, isn’t it? Perfection, really, with the great picture and his eyes closed and the scripted typeface with the finger pointing to Ernie. Love it. Great record too.

This seller had a few interesting records from the Prestige New Jazz label, including:

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Perusing Jazz Vinyl on eBay

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Was perusing eBay this morning, taking a break from my real work, and these are some of items I stumbled upon:

Coleman Hawkins, The Hawk Flies High, Riverside 233. From my experience, we don’t see too many Coleman Hawkins records garnering collectible prices these days. We only have a few mentions of Hawk in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. So I was surprised to see that the bidding for this record had already surpassed $150, closing later today. I was surprised again to see that the record was not an original pressing — it has the blue label as opposed to the white label. It is in nice condition, however, M- for the cover and the record.

This record was closing just as I was perusing, not that I would have bid on it: Charlie Mariano With His Jazz Group, Imperial 3006. This was an original 10-inch pressing in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. It was sitting at $95 with three minutes left and wound up selling for $180. It also had more than 150 page views, which surprised me. Glad that people are still interested in 10-inch Charlie Mariano records.

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Real Original Originals (In Nice Shape, Too)

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Here’s one that will sell for quite a lot of money this week: Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This is an original original pressing and it is being offered by the Jazz Record Center, which describes it as a “the original hybrid deep-groove RVG-stamped ‘P’ pressing.” This is a lot to take in, but the key word is original. The record looks to be in M- condition and the cover probably around VG+. There are close to three days left in the auction and the bidding is in the range of $1,125. It will continue to rise. We’ve seen this record sell for as much as $5,600 in the Jazz Collector Price Guide, the highest price we’ve ever recorded for any single record.

What are some of the other items we’re watching from the Jazz Record Center auction. Glad you asked:

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Four More Blue Notes For the $1,000 Bin

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Those Blue Notes I was coveting the other day? Even if I had bid, which I considered, I would have been out of the running quite early. Several of these broke into the $1,000 bin. Here are some results.

Jutta Hipp, At The Hickory House Volume 2, Blue Note 1516. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing that was in perhaps VG++ condition for the record and VG for the cover. It sold for $1,402.88.

J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This was also an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was VG+ and the cover was probably VG++. The price was $1,472.

John Jenkins With Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1573. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record and cover were both in VG++ or so condition. The price was $1,107.

Here Comes Louis Smith, Blue Note 1584. This was an original pressing in VG++ condition for the record and M- for the cover. It sold for $1,025.

Four Blue Notes, four $1,000-plus jazz records. Whew.

Odds and Ends and eBay

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When I was buying and selling regularly on eBay a few years ago I would monitor the listings religiously. Every day I would go through all of the listings, one by one, page by page, and I pretty much never missed a thing. These days, I’m more likely to do occasional searches and focus on items I’m most interested in. Last night I had some time, so I went through my old routine of listing by listing, page by page. Here’s some of the jazz vinyl I watched.

Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz, Diz and Getz, Verve 8141. This was an original pressing with the trumpeter logo. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG+, although it seemed to have original shrink wrap. The start price was $29.95. There were no bidders. Really? When I started collecting this would have been a nice commodity, hard to find, great artists, great collectible label. And it’s got quite a nice cover to boot. Now it’s not worth thirty bucks? Wow. How about Stan Getz and Chet Baker, Stan Meets Chet, Verve 8263. This one says “trumpet logo” in the headline, but there’s no picture of the label so I actually have to wonder if it is original. The record was listed in VG++ condition, close to M-, and the cover was VG+. The price was $57.

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