Some Top Collectibles, Some Top Prices
We could be looking at some record prices for jazz vinyl this week. The Jazz Record Center has a significant auction of some very high-end collectibles in beautiful condition. With two days to go several of these are more than $1,000 and $2,000 and at least one will certainly surpass $3,000 and perhaps $4,000. Here are a few to watch:
Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This is one of the rarest of the rare, and it already owns the top price in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. This copy is in beautiful condition, M- for the record and the cover. The current price is $2,981.
Curtis Fuller, The Opener, Blue Note 1567. Here’s another one that looks to be in beautiful condition, with a little bit of issues with the cover. This one is priced at $1,575 as of this writing.
Hank Mobley Quintet, Blue Note 1550. This is another original pressing. The condition looks great, perhaps not M-, however. This one is currently at $2,036.
1550, 1567, 1568; we see them a lot lately. A coincidence, or is it just me? You’d almost say that they ‘come in waves’. The last three weeks we saw the same with the endless offers of the known Blue Notes with the Warhol covers. To me it felt as if ‘all of a sudden’ there seemed to be a Warhol frenzy going on. Maybe the same will happen with 1536 soon as well 😉
Al, When looking at JRC auctions how do you convert to the goldmine standard? The majority of things Fred puts up are M-, but take the 1550, would you rate that as VG++? When he describes “splotches”, do you think that lowers the grade? Thanks
Mike
Fred Made this adjustment to this listing
My apologies to bidders. This is an early pressing with a beaded rim, not an original with a flat rim. As for splotches I would grade it as VG+
Nick, I appreciate your opinion. Does anyone else have an opinion. I’ve always thought of a record with splotches and no other defects to be VG++ on the goldmine scale. I also tend to go for records with light splotches because they tend to play better than they look. Obviously this is a generality, as we all no with records it can look great and play like crap and vice versa.
Completely unrelated though but are Blue Note 45s (and for that matter other jazz pressings on 45) worth anything? If so what should I be looking for? Cheers, Matt
The seller also says there is 2 ticks to one side at opening caused by press defect on 1550(Sir Mobley) ++ or +? + in my book. It can’t be ++ with a permanent defect. BUT …. IT’S RARE! I just picked up a UA stereo 1540 (Sir Mobley man again!) for $10! Works for now I guess!
I agree Zarabeth. I would think that the splotches taking it down to VG++, and then the pressing defect with audible tick take it down to VG+. Honestly though, I would love to have it. I’m betting that besides the ticks it sounds nice for a mid-50s pressing.
Honestly, I prefer the way that Fred explains the flaws in the record as opposed to grading them. I think that many sellers overgrade. If we can have a nice neat standard that all sellers follow, I’d rather the seller just give me the info and I’ll decide for my self.
My two cents worth: The seller’s records will always look better to him than to the buyer’s eyes. The buyer will take an excessively harsh view of grading. I find the truth lays somewhere in the middle…and to comprehend this you need to have been both a seller and buyer in the past…Suffice to say that record grading remains (and will always) be an excessively subjective and disputed art form!!
As a former dealer and a collector grading is a subject of debate for years. If you look at 78rpm dealers they seem to grade E+ E VG+ VG. Goldmine standards for lp’s is the best. When selling records I believe you should define what mint, near mint, vg++, vg+ and vg means to you in your ads. In my life I have gone thru hundreds of thousands of records.. I purchased records right out of warehouses that were sealed. And many times these records were not mint or near mint they were vg+. Most of us see what we want to>
see. Fred grades the best way, he examines the record and than lists what he see’s. Now as for listening to each record! As a collector Yes this is possible, but as a dealer this to me was impossible with all the records I had it would have taking 5 life times of non stop playing (lol)
Nick, I agree that I like the way Fred does it the best. It is more objective. You can’t take the subjectivity out of record grading unfortunately, but I think Goldmine is a good attempt. Most dealers just don’t use it, or don’t use it properly.
Most people don’t expect a play grade on every record, it’s just not feasible. I can play grade my own collection but any mid-size plus operation deals with too many records.
I always expect a record I shell out big bucks for to sound perfect and they never do, but that’s just me being irrational. All that can be asked from a dealer is a quality description, so that your expectations are in line with what you are getting. There are plenty good dealers out there, unfortunately there are even more bad ones.
Hello,
If I would sell a $3000 record I would find the time to play grade it 😉
/Shaft
Shaft, I concur. $3000 is a nice chunk of change.