Author: Al

Jazz Vinyl Countdown: For Love or Money

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I’m still doing my Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Selling more records, writing about them a bit less. However, I did make a couple of interesting decisions in the past couple of weeks I’d like to share. In the course of doing the Jazz Collector Price Guide I logged a copy of this record: Zoot Sims and Joe Newman, Lockin’ Horns, Rama 1003. It sold for $260 in near mint condition and had sold for more than $400 in the past. I happened to know I had a nice copy of this record, a promo, and I happened to know that I had not listened to it in 25 years, since I bought it. So the question was: Keep it or sell if for the bread. I listened to the record and it’s actually very nice. But, I thought to myself, would I ever listen to it again: Not likely. I have a lot of Zoot records that I prefer, so this one probably wouldn’t make it off the shelves. So I put it up on eBay with a start price of around $50, no reserve, and it sold for about $215. That was fine by me. The second recent incident involved a rare Blue Note and a higher price tag:

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Jazz Vinyl Giveaway: Milestones by Miles Davis

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Time for another Jazz Collector giveaway. Let’s go with another classic this time: Miles Davis, Milestones, Columbia 9428. This is a stereo pressing, a later pressing, not an original. It is, however, in near mint condition. I have it on the turntable now and I’d guess this is the first time it’s been played. Considering that it is marked as “electronically re-channeled for stereo” it sounds quite good actually. I’m listening now to Cannonball Adderley’s solo on the track “Miles,” which most of us think of as “Milestones.” Anyway, this is a great record, recorded a little before Kind of Blue, with much of the same band, although no Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly or Jimmy Cobb. This one features Miles and Adderley and John Coltrane, with Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. The tracks are Dr. Jekyll, Sid’s Ahead, Two Bass Hit, Miles, Billy Boy and Straight, No Chaser. We have one copy of this LP to give away Read more

Jazz Vinyl Fraud: No News, More Comments

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Here’s an update on some of the stuff going on in the Jazz Collector world.

Nothing new from eBay on the Nautiluso Jazz Vinyl Fraud. I had sent a follow-up note asking specifically what eBay was doing about paying off victims of the scam and I haven’t gotten a response. I’ll follow up sometime today or tomorrow. I’m sure they’re sick of hearing from me. Also, there’s no new feedback on the profile page for Nautiluso. Frankly, I’m surprised eBay still has the page up and available.

Some of the Jazz Collector readers have commented offline about the fraud, presumably because they wanted to be anonymous on the site. I will share excerpts here:

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On eBay Now: Jackie, Mobley & a Sealed Dolphy

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Some interesting items on eBay this weekend. Let’s take a look:

Here’s a beauty: Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This one looks to be in beautiful condition and is a promo copy. How many promo copies do you think there are of this record? I do have to say, for a very rare record, it comes up fairly often on eBay. I guess that’s just a function of eBay. I’ve been going to record stores all over the world for 40 years and never saw this in a store, although I did own the record at one time and sold it. On eBay, it seems there is a copy at least once a week, sometimes more. Of course, some of these may not be real — Nautiluso anyone? — and some may not be in very nice condition. This one is and the current price is $1,500 and it still has not reached the seller’s reserve.

Here’s a rare Blue Note that may be difficult to judge, based on the seller’s description:

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Opening Up The $3,000 and $2,000 Bins

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It looks as if the fallout from the Jazz Vinyl Fraud of 2009 hasn’t had much of an impact on the prices of high-end vinyl in the past few weeks. Here are a few records that will be entering the $1,000-plus bin in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. If things continue like this, we’ll have to create a $3,000 bin as well as a $2,000 bin. Take a look at these:

Dexter Gordon, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone 207. This was an original pressing with the red vinyl. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $3,371. This sets a new high price for this record, as far as what we have recorded in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Our previous high was $3,059.

This was one of the items on eBay this week from the seller Blue Nipper, who received a lot of unsolicited praise from members of the Jazz Collector community who commented on the site: Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was

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eBay Files Criminal Complaint in Nautiluso Case

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Well, our persistence paid off. We finally got a response from eBay media relations today on the Nautiluso case and it’s a doozy: The company says it has filed a criminal complaint with the Berlin Police. Here’s the full text of the reply:

“I have an short update for you and your readers. I appreciate your patience and I’m sure you understand that an international investigation takes time. You can tell your readers that eBay is continuing to investigate this matter and has filed a criminal complaint with the Berlin Police. This is all the detail I can provide at this time.”

That’s all we have for now, but it’s really fascinating and gives us hope that we’ll eventually get to the bottom of what actually happened. Also, I went through all of our

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Putting a Name on the Jazz Vinyl Fraud

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As Rudolf pointed out in a comment yesterday, Nautiluso, perpetrator of the Jazz Vinyl Fraud of 2009, is no longer a registered user on eBay, so the public information about him is slowly starting to disappear. There was a point at which he had a My World page, but that is gone. You can still see on eBay that he had been a member since June 8, 2003 — in Germany. Personally, I’m not sure he was ever based in Brazil: It’s likely he had an accomplice mail from a Brazil mailing address because he believed it would provide a safe haven. The thing about this guy is, for several years he was probably a legitimate seller and probably used his real name in communicating with customers. I will tell you the name he used: Thomas Lamprecht. If you had any dealings with him, please let us know. What’s also starting to disappear from eBay are

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Nautiluso: More Feedback, No Response From eBay

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Here’s a quick update on the Nautiluso Fraud:

I contacted media relations at eBay on Monday with a bunch of questions. Still no response. I’ll follow up today. Still trying to find out if they are acknowledging a fraud, if they are pressing charges against the perpetrator and if they are consistently reimbursing victims.

There are two new instances of negative feedback on Nautiluso if you check out his profile here. These are from a classical buyer from the same auction. He was ripped off to the tune of about $3,400 and says on his feedback that eBay refunded his money. So far, everyone we’ve heard from directly has

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New Ella, If You Can Find It

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Have you read about the newly discovered and newly released Ella Fitzgerald Boxed Set from 1961 and 1962? It’s called Twelve Nights in Hollywood and it features 76 songs recorded at the Crescendo in Los Angeles. I read the article in The New York Times on Sunday and was pretty excited and I was a little down today and I figured, well, what could be better on a down day than Ella. There are plenty of places that sell CDs near where I live — I’m in the New York metropolitan area, so really, they’re all over the place, or at least they used to be. And it’s Christmas shopping season, so every place should be fully stocked, right? Well, so far I’ve called six different stores and not a single one is carrying this item. Zero. They all told me to go online and I could get free shipping. So why bother having a retail store at all?

In Nautiluso Case, PayPal May Be The Biggest Loser

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Brian makes an interesting point in his comment in the article on the buyers filing $30,000 in claims against Nautiluso. He notes in the earlier fraud that emanated from Italy, most, if not all, of the buyers were made whole by PayPal. He mentions a maximum of $2,000, but I think there actually is no maximum. I spoke to one of the Nautiluso buyers yesterday who spent more than $2,000 and was fully reimbursed by PayPal and was asked not to talk about it, so I won’t mention his name. We also heard from one of our readers that he has already been reimbursed by PayPal. The challenge for organizations like eBay and PayPal is that their business model is predicated on creating a safe buying and selling environment, so something like this poses a major challenge to them. At the end of the day, they don’t want the negative publicity Read more

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