Four Favorites, For a Price
Back online again and tracking some of my favorite jazz records on eBay, starting with Jackie McLean, McLean’s Scene, New Jazz 8212. This is an original deep groove purple label pressing. The record is listed in VG+ or perhaps better condition and the cover is VG++. The start price is about $200 and so far there are no bidders with more than five days left. This one will get action, right?
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia 1355. This is an original white label promotional copy. The record is listed in M- condition and the cover is Ex or Ex+ condition. There are more than four days left on the auction and the bidding is in the $170 range, with 13 bids. Curious to see where this ends up. We were watching a promo Kind of Blue a few weeks ago that had a $600 start price and no bidders — but it also had some condition questions. We have seen promo copies sell for as much as $2,700 in the past, but this one will not get to that level.
Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims, Blue Note 1530. This looks to be an original Lexington Avenue pressing with the frame cover. The record is listed in VG+ condition, based on a mark on one track. The cover is listed as VG+. Bidding is in the $800 range with nearly five days left as of this writing.
Joe Henderson, Inner Urge, Blue Note 4189. This is an original New York USA mono pressing with the plasylite ear. The record and cover are both listed in M- condition and the price is in the $100 range with more than five days left. Given what we’ve seen with Blue Note prices lately, would anyone be surprised if this one came close to (or into) the $1,000 bin? We’ll keep an eye on it.
Kind of Blue is from the same seller who got $2700 in June for his last copy. I’m curious if it was returned or if the sale was never completed.
I think the Joe Henderson will fetch around $375.
Looks like a somewhat later pressing for KOB, no? Even with it being a promo, the stampers and inner have me questioning.
If that McLean cover is VG++ I would hate to see the vinyl!
The Kind of Blue inner is from the late 60s. Ill-informed mix and match job.
ditto on the mclean, clifford. my new MO is to either return the record and demand a shipping refund, or to keep it but leave 2 or 3 star feedback if i do not feel the return is worth the hassle when i get an ill-graded album. i got a nice record recently that plays NM but was not play graded, and the visual grade was way off.
i don’t really mind, because i buy records to play, rather than look at, but it always bothers me in the back of my mind. i worry a lot. it’s a compulsion. i always worry that i would have to sell off a lot of my collection to pay for some horrible medical bills for myself or a loved one, and then the “plays NM looks shitty” records would not be worth much. but that’s a sad and weird though, i suppose.
and as much as we complain, ebay comes through for us pretty often. i recently grabbed an NM/NM (audio AND visual) copy of a record that easily is a $50 record for about $8 because the seller spelled the name wrong. haha.
Gregory; as a long time seller (as well as buyer) on eBay it goes both ways. I’ve been shafted more then a few times by buyers just wanting a refund for no good reason or a record for free.
Trust and pictures go a long way…
mark, yeah I sell too. it has happened once or twice. that is why my policy is return and refund or nothing. i also have a method for telling if the record has been switched on me. it caught a guy once. good story, that.
but still. predatory sellers i think are a far bigger pox. i think the worst part is that most sellers probably don’t even fully realize they are doing it.
GTF I too tend to believe most sellers aren’t being malicious, but how hard can it be to take a record out in the sunlight and see what it looks like. I think that would eliminate so many discrepancies.
Gregory what’s your method for that? Please share
I always have fear to buy Prestige if they arn´t audible graded. Bob Weinstock often used recyled, bad
quality for RI´s and also originals. I don´t have problems to hear them with my mono set up but i would like
to know that in advance. To have to hear them with a modern sharp edged stylus is no fun…
GST, 100% agree. One. Hundred. Percent.
Mark, I am hesitant to share, but to put it lightly, I add a mark somewhere that no one would probably notice or think to look for, and when I get a record back, I make sure it is still there. i have only ever had three records returned, and in my opinion, two of those returns were completely unwarranted, though the third fellow had a fair point and i did miss something. but one of those first two returns lacked the mark, and i called him on it. ebay claimed he was banned, though i have no way to verify this.
have you heard about how spies in old movies would use their saliva to put a hair on a door frame and also the door, so that if opened, they would know, but their method wouldn’t be detected? it’s like that, but less weird.
For my method, I just smoke a pack of Lucky Strikes and eat some fried food before I pack the records up and leave alot of fingerprints that are uncleanable. Oh wait, that is how i usually receive records. Never mind.
Al,in case you missed it-here is what the Miles KOB promo went for…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MILES-DAVIS-Kind-of-blue-CL-1355-6-eye-PROMO-/182775478377?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=%252BctdhaFhbd8d%252BEb2XOZoh9rLz2k%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc