Lexingon Avenue, to West 63rd, To St. Louis

Let’s look at various items sitting in my watch list for various reasons, starting with The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume One, Blue Note 1505. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was probably in VG+ condition and the cover was probably VG+ as well, based on the pictures. The final price was $610. I flagged this one because my recollection was that this record wasn’t among the Blue Notes you would expect to see in the $1,000 bin, being a pre Van Gelder Blue Note that was a compilation of music originally issued on 78-RPM or on 10-inch vinyl. I wasn’t surprised to see the $600 price tag because nothing would surprise me these days and because, hey, it’s an original Lexington Avenue Blue Note, and just holding one of these in your hands is a thrill. Not to mention the presence of Clifford Brown and Charles Mingus, among others, on the record. I did check in with Popsike and discovered that The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume One has, indeed, had a presence in the $1,000 bin, selling for more than $1,500 back in 2010, well before the most recent market spike.

From the same era was Herbie Nichols Trio, Blue Note 1519. This was also an original Lexington Avenue deep groove pressing. The record was listed in VG+ condition and the cover was VG. The final price was $393. Staying on Lexington Avenue, there was J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1538. This was an original deep groove pressing, listed in VG+ condition for the record and VG for the cover. The final price was $1,180.55.

Moving from Lexington Avenue to West 63^rd Street we head in the direction of the $2,000 bin, starting with Paul Chambers Quintet with Donald Byrd, Clifford Jordan, Tommy Flanagan and Elvin Jones, Blue Note 1564, This was an original deep groove West 63^rd Street pressing, listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $2,205. From the same seller was Lee Morgan Volume 3, Blue Note 1557. This was another original pressing listed in just VG condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $2,146.21. These latter two were among the ones that apparently were purchased for $3 each by Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis, as described by our friend Japhy in comments on the previous post.

I personally don’t have a huge issue with the buyer paying $3 each for the records. If the seller was happy with that price, so be it. It just surprises me to find someone in the Internet era who was completely ignorant about the potential value of the records. There’s a lot of information out there now. Being Jazz Collector and coming up on a lot of searches, my experience is that most people have done a little research and tend to over-value what they have. I had someone recently contact me about some Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday 78s. She was looking for $10,000 apiece, but said she would negotiate.

Pretty hard to negotiate with someone on another planet. Over the past few years I’ve been generous in sharing information with potential sellers and, if I have bid on a collection, I have tended to make offers that are more reflective of the current market. But, frankly, if someone wanted to sell me a collection with Paul Chambers Quintet and Lee Morgan Volume 3 and the average price was $3 each, I’d whip out my wallet in a nanosecond.