Jazz Vinyl for the New Year
Let’s close out the year with another real-time excursion through eBay, with a search of some of the higher priced jazz vinyl on auction now. It’s off to hunt we go. Here’s a new listing: Freddie Hubbard, Hub Cap, Blue Note 4073. This is an original West 63rd street pressing, one of the last of the West 63rd Blue Notes. This one is graded in VG+ condition for the record. The seller has a bunch of pictures of the cover. My grade would be VG based on the pictures. There is nearly a week left in the auction and the start price is $500, with no bidders so far.
Here’s another one with a start price of $500 and no bids: Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris, Blue Note 4146. This looks to be an original mono pressing with the New York USA label. The record and cover both look to be in VG++ condition based on the seller’s description.
Let’s keep going through eBay. We’re bound to fine something that has a bid.
Ah, here we go. A Blue Note, of course: Hank Mobley, Soul Station, Blue Note 4031. This is an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record and cover are both listed in VG+ condition, with not a lot of additional details or explanations. The bidding is in the $375 range, but it has not yet met the seller’s reserve price. There are four days left in the auction.
We are now on page three of eBay, 60 listings per page. So we have been through 120 records, some nice ones, but any more nice ones with bids. We are under $200. Let’s see what awaits us as we scroll down this page.
Here we go again. Another Blue Note. Big surprise: Donald Byrd, A New Perspective, Blue Note 84124. This is a stereo pressing with the New York USA label. The record is listed in VG+ condition and the cover is VG++. There is one bid at $150. I love this record, but I’ve never regarded as one of the more valuable of the Blue Notes, possibly because it is so different, with the voices, and possibly because it was so successful and there were probably more copies in print than its neighbors in the early 1960s Blue Note catalogue.
If you listen to my radio show tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on WTBR FM Pittsfield, you will hear Beast of Burden from this record. My theme for this week’s show has to do with records having a 24 in their catalogue number, hence, Blue Note 4124. I also play Jackie McLean’s Swing, Swang, Swingin’, Blue Note 4024, but not Kenny Dorham at the Café Bohemia, Blue Note 1524, because I recently sold my copy through the Carolina Soul auction. It was fun putting the show together. The only one I found worth playing with the actual number 2024, was Things Ain’t What They Used to Be, Prestige Swingville 2024.
Which brings me to . . . . Happy New Year, Jazz Collectors everywhere. May the new year bring peace, health, comfort and rare vinyl to you all.
Happy New Year, and thanks for your efforts Al.
It seems like the heyday of Ebay is well behind us. Discogs, Instagram, and storefront record shops are all on the upswing. The internet has proliferated the tools that a collector has at his disposal, but the diffusion/dilution of proliferating venues poses new limitations. As a collector, I am nostalgic for the days when Ebay treated sellers more fairly. Imagine, one-stop shopping with established sellers, and buyer protection! It was great while it lasted. As I enter my 60’s, with diminished hearing, I wonder where my records will eventually be sold.
Happy New Year to Al and to all of you, regular readers and contributors to “our” favourite site.
I quite agree that Ebay has done everything possible to make their site unattractive for sellers.
Happy New Year to you and yours Al, and to all out there in the Jazz Collective! Cheers !!!
The Soul Station seems to be an interesting “Non DG” label on one side. Although I’ve already seen a Liberty press of this one, this variant is new to me. I think it’s rare.
Selling on Ebay is now very complicated. Shopping remains of interest. It is fine to buy through IG and Discogs, with friendly and reliable sellers, but the great bargain era is long gone on internet.
IG tends to narrow jazz collecting to Blue Note and to promote a bunch of records (always the same ones). As in other social networks you have to show them if you want to be in the gang. Algorithms will determine place in the hierarchy of visibility. No big deal for me anyway as I don’t post records.
And Btw : happy new year to Al and everyone ??
Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all have a blessed year. Mahalo!
most of us just like sounds
Michel, I think that Soul Station is an early P-less pressing. This based on the non DG and the inner bag with the 27 years info. They made a stereo Liberty with another cover
My Soul Station has double DG and a blank inner bag. A hefty price for a second or later pressing!
I must correct myself, read the description and they state a 1965 pressing with ear. Hand etched “P”. Could be right. Even so I would not say it’s a first pressing when it came out in 1958 and if this is probably a 1965 re-pressing. And the ear is stamped – not hand etched IMO.
I dunno, $155 for a pretty common Byrd and $588 for Dexter (the 10th-highest price ever, per Popsike)? It seems like ebay is still a decent place to sell (enjoy losing a chunk of that to fees, of course). Hey, I’m no fan of ebay, but just because a Blue Note doesn’t fetch $1000 doesn’t mean the market has bottomed out (he says, with fingers crossed because he’s not getting any younger and sitting on a ton of records).