Author: Al

Catching Up, Up, Up

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Catching up on a few jazz vinyl sales from the recent auction by Carolinasoul, starting with Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing listed in VG+ condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $3,000. Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was an original purple label mono with deep grooves. The record was VG and the cover as VG+. The final price was $1,598. Doug Watkins, Watkins at Large, Transition 20. This was an original pressing with the booklet. The record and cover were VG. The final price was $1,415. Read more

Prestiges and Transitions and Booklets and Speculation

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Perusing eBay and came upon this record: Wardell Gray Memorial Album, Volume One, Prestige 7008. This is an early New York yellow label pressing with the second cover. The cover has a cutout hole in the center. The record is listed in M- condition and the cover is VG+. Start price is $350 with no bidders and plenty of time left on the auction. What strikes me about this is why Prestige changed covers so early and often in the early years. Off the top of my head, I can think of a bunch of similar situations: Sonny Rollins Plus Four,  John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, All Day Long, all come to mind. I know the cynical answer is they did it to make money, but how? Were they also experimenting to see what would sell better? Perhaps covers with innocuous photos such as this Wardell record, versus a picture of a black artist? Perhaps a careless buyer would buy both copies? Perhaps they envisioned a time in the far off future when they could drive collectors crazy with questions like this? I have raised this question before and Rudolf has been helpful in sharing his insight. Any other thoughts? Read more

A Supreme Love Supreme, Prestiges and Blue Notes

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Still here. Still watching jazz vinyl on eBay. Here’s one: John Coltrane, A Love Supreme, Impulse A-77.  Gotta give the seller credit for being loquacious and highly descriptive about this record. We know why he is selling it, what equipment he played it on, how loud. It is one of the more unique listings I’ve seen. Anyway, after reading all that, I would guess, as the seller does, that the record is in VG+ condition, that it is an original pressing and the cover is probably in VG+ or VG++ condition. The start price is $400 and so far there are no bidders with a bit more than a day left on the auction. The seller says he is ambivalent about selling the record because he is afraid to play it, so maybe the market will make it an easy decision for him to keep it. Read more

Guest Column: Digging Vinyl in Portland

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I recently received a note from a reader who asked to write a short post, so here it is, from Stuart Levine.

I moved to Portland, Oregon a week ago and have spent every day but one (Record Store Day; I don’t like crowds) hitting the local record shops. The first one was Jackpot Records, where I had anything but good luck. You see, there was a pristine copy of “My Favorite Things,” but it was on hold for another customer. That led me up the street to Exiled Records and things began to improve. I found an original 1971 Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On.” That’s no easy feat, considering the fact that Rolling Stone had named it the top album of all time. Oh, and it’s VG (not a beater) and plays through. Read more

Another Mini Adventure At the Central Berkshire Record Show

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Speaking of buying records . . . there was a record show in my neck of the woods this weekend. It was advertised as the first ever Central Berkshire Record Show and it was in a little town called Dalton in Western Massachusetts. I arrived early and paid the additional VIP fee to get first crack at the records, just in case there were any rare Blue Notes to be had. But I was not among the first to arrive and I was pleased to see that the show was pretty crowded. There were more than 20 dealers and the aisles and tables were pretty full during the whole time I was there. I kept a low profile, as is my natural tendency. I found a few decent records at fair prices, as you can see in the photo. The Jaki Byard was a pretty pleasant find because (1) I don’t have a copy of the record and (2) it was an original pressing and (3) the price was about $50 and (4) the seller had it marked as VG which was extremely conservative. To me, record looks M- and the cover is VG+. Checking Popsike, I see that the record, Jaki Byard, Here’s Jaki, New Jazz 8256,  has sold for more than $200 several times, so I feel like I got a good deal. Hey, that’s what it’s all about. Read more

A Mini Adventure in Jazz Collecting

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I think, and hope, I will never get over my passion for buying records. A couple of years ago, I decided I had too many records in the house. I was spending too much time looking at them and organizing them, and less time playing them. Plus, they were taking up more space than we had originally planned, of course, because that’s what record collections do when they multiply. So I took about 2,000 records out of the house and put them into storage with the idea that these will eventually be sold. I wrote about it here at Jazz Collector and have had many inquiries, but so far I’m not ready to do anything with these records. The point of retelling this story is this: Even though I have more records than I want, and certainly more than I will ever need, I am still buying more records and bringing them into the house. Because that is what I do and what I like to do. Buy records. The other day, I had a chance to go into a good record store where I had not been for a long time. I was, as has often been the case for many years, dragging The Lovely Mrs. JC along for the adventure. Before we got to the town and to the store, I told her “you know I’m going to buy records. I don’t know what, I don’t know why, but I do know that, yes, I will be buying records.” Read more

Hot and Heavy

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Here are some jazz vinyl auctions we are watching this week, starting with a couple of heavy hitters: Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. This is an original pressing listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. The bidding is in the $800 range with more than six days left on the auction. Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This looks to be an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record looks to be in VG++ condition and the cover is probably VG+. The current price is $2,995. There is one bidder and five-plus days left on the auction as of this writing. Last week we saw a copy sell for more than $8,000 (WOW). Read more

From the InBox: Sun Ra, Sonny Stitt, Swiftly Flow The Bucks

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Let’s start by looking in the Jazz Collector inbox to see what treasures and wisdom might be awaiting us. I see that our old friend CeeDee has a few links for us, starting with another WOW: Sonny Stitt Plays, Royal Roost 2208. This was an original deep groove mono pressing listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. The cover pictures could indicate some optimistic grading. The final price was $760. It went from $219, which is pretty high for this record, to the final price in the last few seconds of the auction. There were 12 bidders altogether. This has to be the highest price ever for a Stitt on Roost record. So, let’s swing over to Popsike and . . . . Indeed, it is not just the highest price for a Stitt on Roost, it is the highest price for any Stitt. Hey, it’s a great record and he was a great player. Read more

Wow

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The comments on the previous post were intriguing, to say the least, so I jumped over to eBay to see this auction in particular: Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address from the seller vinyl-house-uk. The record was listed in Ex+ condition, which I translate into M-, and the cover was Ex/Ex+, which I translate to VG++. The final price was approximately 6,200 British pounds, which I translate to $8,132.92. By my calculation that’s the top price I’ve seen for True Blue, which seems to be confirmed by Popsike. For those who keep an eye on these sorts of things, is this the highest legitimate price we’ve seen for any 12-inch jazz LP? If not, what is? Looking at some of the other items from this auction, my eyes are popping out of my head. Read more

Volumes of Jazz Vinyl

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I’ve been back in New York for the past week or so, but haven’t had a chance to visit any record stores. If you had a few days in New York, where would you shop these days? If you were shopping on eBay, here are some of the items you may have considered, starting with Pete LaRoca, Basra, Blue Note 4205. This was an original New York USA pressing that looked to be in VG+ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover, although the seller listed it as VG++ (it wasn’t). When we wrote about it last week, the bidding was in the $750 range. The final price was around $1,190. I kind of assumed this would have been the highest price ever for this record, but according to Popsike a copy last summer sold for $2,375. There were also a few others that ended up in the $1,000 bin, so my assumption was not quite accurate. Read more

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