A Price Supreme. A Price Supreme
This one comes from CeeDee in an email with the above headline and all I can say is “WOW!” John Coltrane, A Love Supreme, Impulse 77. This was an original white label promo copy. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was Ex. The final price was $1,225, which is the most we’ve seen for A Love Supreme. It is certainly a classic record, and there is definitely a limited supply of promo copies, so I guess if you want to own one you have to pay the price. The same seller also sold this: Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was an original pressing listed in VG+ (or slightly better) condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $2,550.
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The Trane was relisted with a Buy It Now for $525, which someone bought. Either price seems quite high considering how many copies there are (even if promos are rarer).
This seller has no feedback in the last 12 months. I note he has completed auctions going back to 22nd November, so one would expect some feedback by now. I suppose he could be a very tardy shipper.
One thing I have found a little odd about that seller is he still doesnt have 1 positive feedback. Would make me nervous if I bought a 2500 dollar record from him.
Hey Mike – I thought the same thing and did not consider placing any bids as a result. Also, the whole story about moving made me a bit leery as well. I think I could manage to bring 25 or so of the greatest jazz LPs with me wherever I ended up on this earth (or beyond)!
Looks like the seller was not active on eBay for over a year so he lost his feedback ratings?
If you look at his feedback, most of them are from the same seller which is very strange.
Good point on the feedback. Time will tell, I guess.
@Jim R maybe the records he listed do not fall into his top 25 records ever bin 😉
He got premium prices for all records he listed so the feedback he is going to receive will complete the story…
If you’ve never seen Coltrane’s notes/doodles he jotted down during the Love Supreme recording session you have to check out this NPR article. The 5th photo in the slide show is a scan of Coltrane’s spiritual thoughts and drawings. There was a higher resolution image that was online years ago but the Coltrane estate made them take it down. My suggestion is to listen to the lp again while absorbing his notes and you can imagine where John was spiritually as he recording his musical “Ode to God”. I regret that I was too young to have ever seen or met him.
http://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2014/03/28/295470520/a-love-supreme-comes-alive-in-unearthed-photos
The Coltrane estate seems very weird.
By the way, unless someone hacked jazz_moods ebay account, he had perfect feedback as a buyer. He bought high-end records from me while I was ebay listing for acadamylps. He also bought from Jazz Record Center, Bobdjukic, and other reputable dealers for years.
I bought three items from this particular seller on Ebay–received them today which I felt was very quick. Packaged well and I feel he was very accurate if not even a little conservative on his grading. I’m very pleased w/ how they look visually and will listen to them tonight.
@Jim R, I guess I had a different perspective on the seller’s reason for selliing. Not only is shipping to Japan a bit risky (by container), but I assumed that with dwellings in Japan typically being very small and very expensive, storing a horde of LPs becomes impractical from a living space standpoint.
I got a basically mint stereo original of “a fickle sonance” that was signed by Jackie for $100 from this seller; I thought that was a nice deal!
Maybe the high price is related to the recent issue of vaulted Love Supreme material, including tracks with additional players (Shep I think).
I personally think a promo of Love Supreme should go for a lot. There is usually only one or two copies a year that turn up on ebay.
@mikec in principle I agree because it is a phenomenal album but that original price, over a grand, is steep. That said $500+ is alot but certain Impulses seem to be on the rise value wise so it doesn’t surprise me if someone nabbed it for that lower than original price.
I listened to the three I bought mentioned above–all three were, to me, better than described. I listened through headphones and the VG+ sounded clear w/ minimal background noise, mostly very quiet. Very pleased w/ my purchases
I wish I knew more jazz nerds who would give me cool Xmas presents. I just got my friend a copy of a six eyed “Jazz Suite” by Art Blakey. Santa was good to him.
I tactfully send affordable “Buy it Now” links to my family and tell them it would make me much happier than a sweater I’ll not wear or DVD sets I’ll never watch. Works wonders 😉
Excellent suggestion.
A few questions re: Impulse white label promos …
Were any WLPs issued with the Am-Par 1st pressing label? How would one know if a WLP is a first or later pressing, or is it not possible to determine? What is the prevailing wisdom?
Mac, I’ve never seen one. Sorry, can’t be of any assistance.
@Mac: I have several WLP’s from both the Ampar and ABC Paramount periods, but the white labels don’t have the line “Product of Ampar Record Corp” or “Product of ABC Paramount” printed on the bottom.
You might be interested to check the site of London Jazz Collector: https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/impulse-labelology-the-first-pressing-of-the-first-hundred-classic-titles/