Author: Al

Jazz Vinyl Record Price? Hank Mobley Blue Note Sells For More Than $11,000 on Ebay

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Mobley copyI feel like Rip Van Winkle. My computer goes down for four days, I come back to eBay and the world has changed. First there was the $1,600 record from The 3 Sounds and then, of course, was this: Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. I know you’re all writing about this on the earlier post, but I have to have this in a headline and in a separate post so that it will live on for posterity, as well as Google searches. This is a big event in the Jazz Collector world, seeing this record — or any jazz record — selling for the whopping price of $11,191.63. Now, admittedly, we haven’t been keeping up with the Jazz Collector Price Guide, but that price is just about DOUBLE the previous highest price we’ve recorded for any other record, ever.

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“Wow” Just about sums it Up

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3 Sounds Vinyl copySorry for the lack of posts. My computer crashed last week. I was working in the country and it was a beautiful day and I had the windows open. Then I stopped working, did a few other chores and a thunderstorm came passing through. I hadn’t closed the windows in my office. Everything got soaked, including the computer. Yada, yada, yada, I now have a new computer. And when I finally logged back on, I was greeted by this quite amazing note from our friend CeeDee, with the subject line: “r u kiddin’ me?” Among other comments, was a listing with the statement: “‘Wow’ just about sums it up.” The listing in question? Blue Note Presents The 3 Sounds, Blue Note 1600. This was an original West 63rd pressing with the deep grooves, RVG, ear. It was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price? Pardon me while I take a deep pause . . . .

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Blue Note Vinyl and A Blue Note Loss

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Fuller2 copyLet’s begin the day with some Blue Notes on my own personal want list, starting with Curtis Fuller, The Opener, Blue Note 1567. This looks to be an original pressing with the West 63rd address, deep grooves, RVG and ear. The record is listed as M- and the cover is VG++. The price is currently around $450 with more than three days to go. This record, in this condition, I fully expect to sell for more than $1,000. This is another one of those records that I owned and sold about 35 years ago to buy a boat. You know the story: The boat sank and I’ve still never replaced the record.

Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record is in M- condition and the cover is VG++. This one is in the $460 range and I also expect it to sell for more than $1,000. This was

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A Brief Adventure

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Monk Jazz VinylI had another one of those fortunate coincidences yesterday that sometimes seem to cause some sort of envy around here, but which I shall share nonetheless. So I am up at my home in The Berkshires, and The Lovely Mrs. JC works in Manhattan and sometimes she takes the train up and I meet her at the station in Hudson, N.Y., about an hour from our home. And yesterday she was arriving at 6:30 but I decided to leave a bit early because there is a major construction project along the way and I didn’t want to be delayed, anxious to see her and all that. But there was no traffic and I made it to Hudson with about 15 minutes to spare and I know that there’s a record store in Hudson and as I was driving past it I figured, OK, if I can find a parking spot in front, I’ll go in. And there, of course, was a spot right in front, so it was no hassle. Now, I’ve been to this store several times before and I have never purchased anything. They have come vintage jazz and their prices are fair, but they aren’t bargain prices by any means. Except . . .  Read more

Monk, Blue Notes, Warhol: Another Day on eBay

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Monk Jazz Vinyl copyWe’re going to ask our European readers about this one: Thelonious Monk, Piano Solo, Swing 33.342. This is a 10-inch LP that I think is an original French pressing. I’m not sure if it’s a re-issue of Blue Note tracks. I’m not sure of much about it at all, in fact. When I did a Google search, the previous mentions that came up were from postings here at Jazz Collector, showing that the record has sold for more than $500 in the past. This one is listed at M- condition for the record and Ex+ for the cover and is now in the $150 price range with just a few hours left in the auction. Anyone doing a search for this record may be stymied because the seller didn’t realize that the label is “Swing” and not “Wing.” Any background on this rare record would be most appreciated. Awesome cover, by the way.

Meanwhile there are always Blue Notes and more Blue Notes:

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Rekindling the Jazz Vinyl Passion; Taking a Walk with Sonny Rollins

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Donaldson copyBack in action, feeling a little bit less burdened. To be clear: I have not lost my passion for collecting jazz vinyl, nor have a lost my passion for buying jazz vinyl. And certainly not for listening to jazz vinyl. I was never that much into selling jazz vinyl, so that was the real impetus of the last post. Just to be clear for anyone who may have had a different interpretation. In fact, I spent some time on eBay yesterday, perusing the listings and getting the same old rush of adrenaline. And, of course, the first record that caught my eye is one that I don’t own in an original pressing and have sought for many years: Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing that looks to be in M- condition for

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See You In Brooklyn? Not Anymore

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So, yesterday I had either an extraordinary epiphany or an utter psychotic episode, depending upon your point of view. Let me set the stage by going back about 30 years to the time when I borrowed $10,000 from family to acquire my first record collection, 1,000 records that seemed like a poor investment at the time, paying $10 apiece. At the time I probably had about 1,000 records of my own and I wound up with many duplicates. There was no e-Bay at the time, of course, and the best way for a collector like myself to get rid of duplicates was to work the record shows that took place on the weekends. Between Long Island and Manhattan, at the time, there was probably a show every month or so, but I would be selective and do one or two a year. Sometimes I’d take my daughter and she would hang out and, when she got older, sometimes follow in her father’s footsteps and go out and seek some scores of her own. In between these record shows the duplicate records would sit in boxes somewhere in my house. Over the

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See You in Brooklyn?

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Spent the day in Brooklyn yesterday with a table at the WFMU Record Fair, which is being held at the Brooklyn Expo Center in lovely downtown Greenpoint, where my father spent his youth and learned to love jazz. It was a weird day, a bit unlike the other record fairs I’ve attended. Usually, there’s a ton of action before the doors open, with a lot of transactions between dealers, but even more among the dealers and heavy-duty collectors who don’t have tables but purchase expensive early admission passes or pretend to be with dealers that have tables. There was none of that yesterday, and not even a lot of action when the doors opened for early admission at 4 p.m. There was a full crowd at 7, but not a preponderance of jazz collectors.

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Catching Up On Some Rare Jazz Vinyl

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Sonny Clark copyI know I haven’t posted in a while when every item in my eBay watch list is no longer active. Here are some of the highlights that I’ve missed, starting with Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd address, deep grooves, etc. The seller listed the vinyl in VG++ condition and the cover as VG+/VG++, but the picture clearly shows that it’s not VG++, so that might cause some concern about the vinyl grading as well. It would concern me, that’s for sure, particularly at that price, which was $2,524. Not that I would ever pay that price anyway, nor would I pass judgment on anyone that would

Here’s another Blue Note that ended up in the $1,000 bin: Lee Morgan, City Lights, Blue Note 1575. This was also an original West 63rd Street pressing. The vinyl was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The final price was $1,081.

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A Day at the Town Dump, Redux

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Just to close the loop on yesterday’s post. Yes, indeed, I went back to the town dump to see if there were any more treasures to be found and to see if there was anything I had inadvertently left behind. There was nothing new there, but I did wind up taking a few more CDs, not just for myself but for a few friends as well.  I’m in a band up here with three other musicians and we had practice so I brought some CDs and told them they could take whatever they wanted. Some of the CDs, it turned out, were just the cases, but most of them had CDs, including all of the boxed sets. So, now that I’m settled in and had a chance to go through my score, here is the final tally:

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1 … 59 60 61 62 63 … 210