Lou, Lexington, Blue Note . . . Temptation

I randomly logged on to eBay a few hours ago and the first record, about to close in 30 seconds, was this one: Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. This is a long-time favorite and, somehow, I don’t have an original pressing. My copy is a Japanese reissue. So I had 30 seconds to decide whether to bid and how much to bid. At the time, the record was in the $350 range, and I was thinking I might be able to get it for about $525. Now, if I were to have done that, it would have been by far the most I had ever spent on a single record. I was tempted, tempted, tempted. I looked at the seller’s description. The condition was listed as VG+ for both the record and the cover. But the listing also included

a description of the seller’s grading and he described  a VG+ record as: “Scratched vinyl, plays well.” In the 30 seconds I had I figured that was just a bit too risky for the most expensive record I’d ever buy. In the end the record sold for $455 and I have no regrets. Zero. I’ll be just as happy to listen to my M- Japanese pressing.