Back in Action: Updating the $1,000 Bin
Been so busy around here, haven’t even been on eBay in days. So what have we been missing? Here’s some interesting jazz vinyl stuff.
Donald Byrd, Byrd, Transition 5. This was an original pressing with the booklet. The record was listed in VG condition and the cover/booklet both looked very nice, probably VG++ the way we rank things around here. The price was $1,336.55. I was willing to sell my Byrd’s Eye View on Transition, no booklet, but no one has really taken me up on my offer to shop through my collection in person. Now, I’m starting to pack things up in preparation for the big moves, coming soon — although the “store” is still open.
This one also made it to the $1,000 bin: Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims, Blue Note 1530. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing, quite lovely, and it was in what looked like VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,300. Just seeing pictures of those Lexington Avenue labels gets the heart kind of racing.
While we’re on Blue Note Lexingtons, how about this one from the same seller: J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This also looked quite lovely, probably VG++ condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $1,200.
It’s remarkable that the Byrd-LP still has the labels stuck to the record.
Al, will you still be doing the “store” post move? It sounds like you will be short on space.
Hi, Mike. It turns out there really was no store at all, in that no one really called to take advantage of what I was offering. I’m going to move some records to the country, some to the city and I’m going to put some in storage until I know exactly how much space I have in both locations. The idea of the store was for people to come to the house and purchase records the old fashioned way, but there was no interest. So I probably won’t be doing a store again like that. I would be happy to be offering up some of the records on eBay or even through the Jazz Collector site but, frankly, I just don’t have the time. I have a real job and a real company and our business is very busy, which doesn’t give me time to do eBay anymore. I lost my Power Seller ranking and my Top-Rated Seller status and I’m not sure when I will be back on eBay as a consistent seller. It was really weird — offering the opportunity to do the store and having so little interest, especially being in the New York metro area. I really thought I’d be inundated with calls. It’s a new age, isn’t it?
Yes Al it is indeed a new age (although your experience is somewhat unique). I was just at my friend Dave’s record store in Berkeley. There was nobody there. He’s in the midst of putting a bunch of stuff on ebay. Take it from an old record store owner; goodbye to brick and mortar.
I know a few record stores that seem to be doing ok, but I think it’s tough out there…….I went to a craigslist garage/record sale last weekend. From the description it sounded like it could be pretty good–much better than normal garage sale. I got there at 9am, just as it it was scheduled to start and there were at least 25 people already there digging through the crates! It was super crowded, but I dug around and found some nice jazz records pretty cheap. Although record stores and the music industry are struggling, it seems like I’m often surprised at how much interest there is in vinyl…….Al, I’m also surprised you’re not getting local interest, but I’m sure if you opened your sale up for shipping you’d sell hundreds of records. I see why you don’t have time for that though, it would be hugely time consuming. Maybe you can chip away at it through the website or on ebay after your move.
Eh… Al? Please go back to your “Where Is Everybody” post and read the comments that we left for you. In the above comment to Mike you say that “there was no interest”, but I assure you that there are definitely a lot of regulars here on the site that are most definitely interested. BUT: a lot of us, including yours truly, live in Europe, which makes a quick trip to the U.S. quite an expensive thing to do. I think that that’s the main reason why your phone didn’t ring off the hook 😉
I second that. And I’d assume that it’s maybe something american. Would this be in Germany or Europe, I’d certainly drive some miles for taking such an opportunity. And I am sure that there were more people.
You have to imagine: When you’re living in NYC, you could easily go to some record stores and see at least some Blue Note or Prestige original pressings. Back in Germany such a record will see the light of a record store only once a year. It’s different situations and the people in the US have the records at their hand, because they were produced and pressed in their homecountry. So there’s much more movement in all these record-stores than abroad. If you’d live in Japan, I would count on the fact that by now you wouldn’t have any records left.
i agree with Mattyman and Katharsis, being from The Netherlands… if i was livin’ in the US, i would probably sell my Wife, and buy some beauties from you Al!
I bet your lovely wife won’t ever take a look at this post…
😀
On the topic or record stores I just wanted to share about this brave girl that just OPENED a new record store in my town. I currently live in Baton Rouge, LA which is an hour from New Orleans. Despite being a similar population to New Orleans it is a very different market. New Orleans supports a few pretty good places but Baton Rouge does not. The last store that sold vinyl here closed late last year. So when I saw that someone was opening a new one I was happy but taken aback. Seemed nuts. I actually am going to organize a few boxes of records that I have no interest in that I have accumulated over the year and give them to her. These are not quality records, nor are they the music I listen to. But hopefully she can sell them for $1 a piece or something. Mostly disco crap, and other things I have no interest in like Davie Jones.
I just am impressed that someone is opening a record store and hopefully she will take these records off of my hands and make a few bucks out of it.
Interesting indeed. Opening a record store from scratch probably won’t be easy for her. On a personal note: during my funk collecting years, I also laid hands on disco here and there. Some of it it is quite good. So disco ‘crap’ hurt my feelings, Mike! 😉 I’m curious what’s in that box. Some highly sought after disco 12″ singles with lengthy extended versions? For a buck each I’m interested too 🙂
I’m sorry for referring to disco as crap, I guess its not all crap. But this is stuff like the Beegees, mass produced stuff. Also lots of Neil diamond, don Ho, lots of donnie jones, christmas albums, and some Vegas stuff. I bought about 120 records for $20. There was no jazz but some Sly & the family stone, a nice copy of the meters “fire on the bayou”, a few common Motown albums, and a sealed original of “The Dark Side of the moon.”. Also a pretty cool but rarely common dr Seuss record I gave to a friend for her children. Not bad, but the records I don’t want have been sitting in my closet for 10 years taking up apace.
Ahaaa… Well, you’re right. The names that you cough up aren’t exactly appealing. And of course my remark towards the ‘crap’ was a bit tongue in cheek 😉 But when it comes to the more obscure names, you’ll be amazed at what some collectors are willing to pay for a well preserved “disco single”. I mean, some of these disco 12inches are so well produced, with live drums, live bass and an overall floor filling sound, that you simply can’t understand why they’ve never been rereleased on CD. Usually you only get the same recycled hits over and over again in poorly edited radio versions. Some of these extended versions are real works of art and craftsman ship. Last but not least that Dr Seuss album sounds attractive. Would have been fun to use bits and pieces of it for a hiphop kinda acid jazz track 🙂