A Few For the $1,000 Bin
So what’s been going on at eBay? Here are some recent interesting sales of jazz vinyl:
Lee Morgan, Indeed, Blue Note 1538. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing that was listed in M- condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. It was among that batch of records that were originally listed with a very high start price and then re-listed with lower start prices but undisclosed reserve prices. This one was originally listed at $2,500 and eventually sold for $2,450.
This one got a nice price, right: Cannonball Adderley, Somethin’ Else, Blue Note 1595. This was an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,352. That’s the highest price we’ve ever recorded for this item in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Not bad for what seems to be a down market.
Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079.This was an original New York pressing, another one with the “EX” grading system, which I’m still not sure how to interpret into the one I use. VG++, perhaps. The cover was VG+. The price was $1,324.
Rudolf recently posted an impression of prices slowing down: I think he’s right, with obvious exceptions.This Morgan seems adeguate, Cannonball too much.
I’ve just won a Blue Train with W63NYC 23 on one side for less than $ 900.00
I don’t think it’s a high price for a very seldom seen label.
@dottorjazz
I was chasing that Blue Train to high 800s..Nice buy…let me know once it arrives as to how strong the play grade should be
Arrived to-day.
record and jacket were described in VG+ conditions.
Cover is ok: no splits, some minor corner wear.
Record:”Lp shows play wear”.
Side 1 has a nice appearance while side 2 has 9 noticeable and feelable scratches.
Playgrading:side 1 is Exc but skips once.
Side 2: skips twice and second track, a ballad, concentrates most of defects.
My personal grading is G-.
I have 4 or five records graded G in my collection but I didn’t pay much for them.
The seller showed side 1 label,New York 23: a question asked, and has been published, if the address was the same on both labels and the answer was: “Hi, yes, labels are the same…w 63rd st.”
For a serious collector this means that side 2 had New York 23 address.I asked the seller to show the other label and he replied he could not add it to the details but kindly sent it to me by mail.
As I expected it wasn’t New York 23 and my offer was so related to the split label address.
Now I don’t know what to do: I never had to leave a negative feedback.
Surely I wouldn’t have made an offer if the record had been described correctly.
OK, well that’s bad news. And then to think I was willing to buy your W63NYC both sides.
My advice, Dottore, would be to contact the seller through eBay and see if you can return the record and ask for your money back. Leaving bad feedback is not going to change the quality of your record, it’s not going to take away the skips and scratches and you will remain with a record that cost you a fortune and didn’t bring you the joy that you had envisioned.
If the seller has a good and long standing reputation, then it might as well be that if you’re not satisfied as a buyer, they will take the record back, no questions asked. Some sellers even have that described in their profile. I have once even been able to obtain a seller’s phone number through eBay (they also ran a record store besides eBay and I called the store). I called him because it took incredibly long before the record arrived. But the phone call and the fact that I got a reassuring and straight answer gave him good feedback eventually.
Contact the seller, that’s the only thing I can say. Explain the situation to him. Work something out as two adults, ask your money back and return the record. I can’t imagine that a highly acclaimed seller is going to put up a charade. I’m sure that his reputation on eBay is important to him and that he’s more than willing to work something out with you in stead of losing his good status.
Please keep us posted; I’m curious where this endeavor will end!
Good luck,
Matty
I agree with Mattyman, there’s no reason to keep such an expensive record that was not as described.
dottore: return the record even if the seller states in his auction that no returns are accepted. After some pressure reluctant sellers will accept returns.
If you cannot resolve the problem directly with sellers,
you have means of pressure through EBay. You report a problem to EBay on this transaction. Also, use Paypal to resolve your problem, state that the merchandise is not according to description. Good luck.
Thanks guys: as you all know I don’t buy records to be covered with dust but to listen to.
In this case, owing another copy in EX/NM conditions, I decided to make an exception for this only reason: Customs charged me € 116.06 ($ 170,00), money that I couldn’t ask back from the seller. So I decided to make an arrangement and the seller immediately agreed.I keep the record with some discount, the seller won’t have a negative feedback.
Can’t say I’m happy, but that’s it.
A rare record is nice for me when I can listen to it: I’m back in chase for another one.
that is one of the nasty things about some U.S. sellers: many think it is inappropriate or even “against the law” to state a lower value than the sales price. This, of course, is nonsensical: a used record which initially has costed $ 4.98, and now sells for $ 2500 should not necessarily be declared to customs at that value. U.S. Customs is passive and how a buyer deals with his national Customs is his sole responsibility. A seller who does not follow my explicit instructions with respect to customs declaration gets automatically a negative feedback. No zealotry on my back.
I must admit it’s my fault only.
Never, in the past, I got problems with record descriptions nor with custom declaration.As I never asked to declare lower values for customs, which sellers made by default, I assumed this was the rule.
Here’s my fault: in this case I wasn’t asked and didn’t ask myself.
Paid for it, but today is another day.
I’ll follow a different path in the future.
On the Blue Train, the original is NY23 on only one side, not both, according to an esteemed Tokyo dealer I know, so at least this is the absolute original record.
But man, that’s a lot of money for something that is less than perfect. These prices make me cry for the records I sold 20 years ago that were N/N-.