Shorter Shilling?
I’m watching a couple of Wayne Shorter auctions on eBay now, starting with Wayne Shorter, JuJu, Blue Note 4182. This looks to be an original New York USA pressing with the Plastylite ear, RVG and deep groove on one side. The record is in VG condition with “surface marks and some scratches” and the cover is also listed as VG. The auction closes in a couple of days and there is a single bid at $300. The more interesting record, to me, is Wayne Shorter, Speak No Evil, Blue Note 84194. I put this one second in this post because I typically like to use a picture with the first record I mention and, for aesthetic purposes, the idea of putting this particular Speak No Evil cover violated my sense of good taste.
The cover is a mess, with the name of a previous owner etched in dark black ink right across the top. And the rest of the cover isn’t much better. The cover is listed in G+ condition. The record is listed in G+ condition with scuffs, scratches, crackles and pops. Sounds more like a cereal than a classic Blue Note. It is, by the way, a stereo pressing with the New York USA labels. So why is this record more interesting to me than the Juju pressing? The Juju pressing I can understand a $300 bid. Speak No Evil has a single bid at nearly $500. I would never accuse a seller of having phony shill bids without evidence, but I do have a hard time imagining who would want this record at nearly any price, and particularly at $500. What would you do with it? You can’t play it and you wouldn’t want to look at it.
May as well stick to Blue Notes today: Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, Blue Note 1580. This looked to be an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was listed in VG- condition with some noticeable flaws, according to the seller. The cover, with the Andy Warhol design, was listed as VG++. The final price was $695 and my expectation is that the buyer was more interested in the cover than the vinyl. Why not? The cover is quite cool and adds enormous value to the record in visual and financial terms.
J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This looked to be an original Lexington Avenue pressing listed in VG+ condition for the record and VG- for he cover. The final price was $1,365. The prolific seller, funkyousounds, has had some nice records for sale the past few weeks so it may be worthwhile to keep an eye out for their auctions, if you are in the market to buy records on eBay.
funkyou and funkyousounds, which are the same seller, are very trusthworthy and accurate graders, in my experience, and they get some serious top coin for their auctions! And since they start every record at $8, it always feels like I miss out on great bargains. We’ll see how this round goes, I suppose.
…Always sad to see covers like Wayne Shorter’s 1964 masterpiece ‘Speak No Evil’ defaced by the previous owners name ! (Only Wayne is allowed to do that when he sign’s them 🙂
blasted jazz records are now selling at a premium. I’ll never understand it. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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^^That comment above was meant to be a facepalm emoji…
That J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536 lacks a frame cover and deep groove labels, a pretty high price for a later repress IMHO.
I live in the same town as funkyousounds, and was friendly with him when he first got in the game about 17-18 years ago. He was young and working out of his bedroom in his parents’ house! He’s a very nice and genuine guy. At the time, he would only sell NM-level records on ebay, because he didn’t want to mess with people complaining about condition. So he had tons of “leftovers” to move. Thus opened a couple-year window where he would let me come over and pull stacks of VG and VG+ records for what we’d now consider bargain-basement prices. As his business boomed and the vinyl resurgence took hold, he wisely realized that even those VG- and G+ records were still worth big bucks, and that was it for me! Ha! But I owe him big. Thanks in part to him, I was able to amass a Jazz collection that I could never dream of being able to build today.
If this copy of “Speak No Evil” sells with a price over $500 with multiple bidders, I’ll be listing my VG+ copy very soon.
Jazz records. Speculative bubble, or investment grade?
Bill W. I can almost guarantee that the VG+ “Speak No Evil” will go north of $500.
“Sounds more like a cereal than a classic Blue Note.“ – great line!
Did this end up selling for over $500?