Setting Some New Highs For Jazz Vinyl Prices
Many of the jazz vinyl auctions we’ve been watching on eBay have ended, so here’s a bit of a summary, starting with some of the final prices on the recent auction from the seller bobdjukic:
Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago, Mercury 60134. This was an original stereo pressing in M- condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $410. I’m not going to comment on the prices of the records I’m listing here. They tend to speak for themselves, no?
John Coltrane, Giant Steps, Atlantic 1311. This was not an original pressing. It was a fairly common mono pressing with the red and purple labels and the white fan logo. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. It sold for $142.50.
Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto, Verve 8545. This was an original stereo pressing. The record and cover were probably in M- condition. The price was $361.
John Coltrane, Ballads, Impulse 32. This was an original orange label pressing. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $410. Our previous high price for this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was $205.
Joe Henderson, Mode For Joe, Blue Note 4227. This was a Liberty pressing. Liberty Pressing. It was in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $154.02.
Enough for now. Here are a couple of other auctions we were watching.
We started watching this when there were about two hours to go on the auction and there were no bids at a start price of about $100: Donald Byrd, Byrd’s Word, Savoy 12032. This was an original pressing with the blood red label and heavy vinyl. It looked to be in VG++ condition all around and sold for $125.55. We thought it would get more play. Perhaps if it were offered by a different seller and labeled as insanely rare . . .
Abbey Lincoln With the Riverside Jazz Stars, Riverside 251. This was a stereo pressing with the black label. Haven’t seen it like this in stereo before with the word “stereo” prominently displayed over the title. This one looked to be in M- condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $128.70.
I dont understand those Bobdjukic sales, they are all well over market rates…. Does smell rather fishy if you ask me.
Right, but on the other hand, some BDJKIC prices are prefectly market matched. So what to think ?
This line in the item description of Mode For Joe does it for me, quote: “MONO version of this album has NEVER been available on legitimate Compact Disc or in any other digital format.” -Of course not! It’s like saying that snow is white. From the very first time that Blue Note reissues appeared on CD in the States and in Europe(we’re talking mid-19eighties and up), every reissue that could be released in stereo was released in stereo. And even if they only could release partially mono/stereo copies of an album they did that too: look at the Connoisseur edition of Jenkins/Burrell. Only if they were left with nothing but a mono master tape, then the CD would be reissued in mono. Michael Cuscuna oversaw those releases back then and left enough extra notes in the booklets to explain the above. So for Bob saying that, quote: “MONO version of this album has NEVER been available on legitimate Compact Disc or in any other digital format.” is nothing more than making up a unique selling point that isn’t a unique selling point at all. Oh, I know it sounds good and it obviously sells, but at the end of the day it’s nothing more than a half truth, which is worse than lying.
Hi,
I see this SR-60134 from Bobdjukic is one of the copies pressed at Columbia’s plant (matrix stamp starts with SRC, different fontset for the label print from ordinary Merc label), rather than ordinary Merc pressing (around the period) at the Richmond plant. Columbia pressing sounds rather edgy and less fresh than Richmond pressing as far as I know.
Several years ago I did a detailed research on SR-60134/MG-20449 by collecting and inspecting various copies.
http://microgroove.jp/mercury/column/CannonballInChicago/
Not to mention of course that it’s a Liberty pressing, too…
The Joe Henderson I mean.
Short time lurker coming out of the shadows…
There’s a sealed(the original plastic inner sleeve is sealed) copy of the Cannonball record on ebay right now for $60, but it now.
If I’ve understood Shaolin’s website and the pictures on the two ebay listings correctly, it is the same pressing as the Bobdjukic copy(third pressing).
I picked up my similarly sealed copy of Cannonball’s Sharpshooters on ebay last year for $20. Mono, deep groove.
I know people are skeptical of sealed records being re-shrinkwrapped, but these sealed inners seem pretty safe to me.
Anyway, I don’t know how he gets these prices. I’ve always thought his listings looked…untrustworthy and hard to read(too busy).
Well, all I can say he sure has some, let’s say, unusually loyal customers.
This bidder with (7) feedback has placed 130 bids on 54 items in the last 30 days, all of them on items listed by ‘bobdjukic’:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidderProfile&mode=1&item=350547110637&aid=4***4&eu=ldRDDSLGwalkBIgOxFHfm2aGtMavRaEM&view=NONE&ssPageName=PageBidderProfileViewBids_None_ViewLink
The Getz/Gilbert record was not even Deep Groove. So it’s not the original first pressing as stated in the item description. I simply cannot understand who would pay $361 for this record.
@Nogran Afficionado: Is it true, that a DG would be indicative of an original pressing. I always thought, that old Verve records should have DG while the newer ones can have DG, which indicates, that they’ve been pressed on the Westside of the US, rather than the Eastside.
Can anyone confirm?
@elix: it’s hard simply to say the copy is “third pressing” – as you may know major labels (such as RCA Victor & Columbia) and “big minor” labels (such as Capitol and Mercury) had several plants, and an album might be pressed two distinctive plants at the same period. Furthermore, although they have their own plants, they asked other companies’ plants to press some of them when their own plants were very busy. Mercury often asked Columbia to press some of their releases (other than that, Mercury passed some of their titles to Columbia as “Columbia Record Club” releases). In the “Cannonball in Chicago” case, Merc’s Richmond pressings (S1, S2) and Columbia pressings (S3) might be pressed and released around at the same period. But the Richmod pressing sounds better than the Columbia pressing for sure, so I can say at least the Bobdjukic’s copy is NOT the ‘original’ copy.
About rather crazy bids on Bobdjukic’s listings – I can’t say anything but “Hey people, let’s settle down, relax, and place your bid” 🙂
The MGV pressings all have Deep Groove. I always assumed that only the earlier MGM pressings had Deep Groove, but I do not no this for sure. Maybe someone else can clarify.
the BLP 1595 second pressing we discussed here at length was sold by our friend for 256 dollars. Not the top price of a first pressing of over one thousand. So people are aware of the intricacies of Blue Note collectiong, with or without Fred’s guide..
Even Bob couldn’t strike gold twice, but still a high price. http://www.ebay.com/itm/350554155197?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_5239wt_933
Wait! Isn’t that the same picture? Same description? Is it the same record? Re-upped after the shill was the high bid and a 2nd chance offer didn’t work? Just asking.
@Bill : I checked pretty good. I’m sure it was a different album.
darn it!