Jazz Vinyl Countdown: For Love or Money

I’m still doing my Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Selling more records, writing about them a bit less. However, I did make a couple of interesting decisions in the past couple of weeks I’d like to share. In the course of doing the Jazz Collector Price Guide I logged a copy of this record: Zoot Sims and Joe Newman, Lockin’ Horns, Rama 1003. It sold for $260 in near mint condition and had sold for more than $400 in the past. I happened to know I had a nice copy of this record, a promo, and I happened to know that I had not listened to it in 25 years, since I bought it. So the question was: Keep it or sell if for the bread. I listened to the record and it’s actually very nice. But, I thought to myself, would I ever listen to it again: Not likely. I have a lot of Zoot records that I prefer, so this one probably wouldn’t make it off the shelves. So I put it up on eBay with a start price of around $50, no reserve, and it sold for about $215. That was fine by me. The second recent incident involved a rare Blue Note and a higher price tag:

Horace Parlan, Us Three, Blue Note 4037. This one happened during the course of trying to uncover the Nautiluso Jazz Vinyl Fraud. I was talking to one of the buyers who had been scammed. He had told me he had gotten his money back, so he was pleased on that account, but somewhat disappointed: He had really wanted the records. We talked a bit about his collection and what he was looking for and he mentioned this record. Again, I knew I had a nice original pressing, not quite mint condition, but fairly close, a solid VG++. This has sold for as much as $1,725 on the Jazz Collector Price Guide. He asked if I’d be willing to sell it. I said I probably would: For the right price. He said name a price. I named $1,500. He said “sold” without a second of hesitation. So I sold an original Blue Note right out of the collection, with no duplicate copy and miniscule hope of ever getting that record back for a reasonable price, in the same condition. What this means, I guess, is that nothing is sacred: For the right price, I’d probably be willing to sell any record out of my collection. It’s just a matter of finding the right price. That is quite a new, mercenary, attitude around here and it actually surprised me that I was willing to sell an original Blue Note, which I love to own and look at and fondle and occasionally place on the turntable, in exchange for cold hard cash, or whatever it is you receive on Pay Pal.