Stuffing the $1,000 and $2,000 Bins
Welcome, Mr. President
My goodness, the $1,000 bin is overloaded, including all four of the records I was watching last week (A New Crowd For the $1,000 Bin?). They were:
Sonny Rollins Plays, Period 1204. Final price:$1,300
Kenny Dorham, Cafe Bohemia, Blue Note 1524. Final price: $1,482
John Jenkins and Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1573. Final price: $2,025.01 (wow!)
Paul Chambers, Bass on Top, Blue Note 1569. Final price: $1,126
And then there were:
Lester Young, Le Dernier Message, Barclay 84069. This was an original French pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. This one had seven bidders and 13 bids. Welcome to the $2,000 bin, Mr. President: This one sold for $2,025. Further evidence, if any was needed, that the so-called 50-year rule is not yet applying to certain records.
Since I’m browsing in the $2,000 bin, here’s one more: Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was an original pressing from that same seller in Germany that has been stuffing the $1,000 and $2,000 bins lately, including the three Blue Notes mentioned at the beginning of this post. This one was in M- condition all the way around and sold for only $2,912. If you take a look at the seller’s current listings, you’ll see plenty more where thee came from.
The seller of that Lester Young had a lot of cool stuff that rarely comes up for sale.
If I had a collection like some of these dudes do, and I sold it all at once like this, I don’t know what I would do with the money. It’s hard to imagine.
Collect something else? 😉
Buy more records, what else?
GTF, regarding what to do with the money, you’d most likely begin by giving nearly 6 c’s to eBay due to their 10% fee.
the german seller has over graded many of the lp covers currently up for auction. a close examination of the photos shows splits and chips on many of the covers graded m-. i fear for the buyer if the vinyl grading is as off as the cover grading. buyer beware. $1000/$2000 bin beware !!! unfortunately there is no way to remove the overgrazed items from the auction aggregators or your wallet if you’re the sucker who took the chance that the grading was accurate. if anyone who reads this site has an experience with this seller and is willing to cop to it i’d be curious to read how your experience went with actual grading vs. what was stated in the listing.
david j: i am a german collector and i bought many times from the seller who is offering those blue note gems mentioned here (certainly i did not buy any record in the $1000/$2000 bin, my acquisitions were far from that) . He is a superb seller, very trustworthy as far as i can say. Certainly i can not say anything about the condition of the records he is currently offering.
i think al is right. i’d just start over again. some of these sellers must be crazy, to let go of such gems.
i’m glad they do, though. i’m currently trying to save my pennies for an NM lexington copy of whims of chambers. the lineup is so great, and i’ve wanted it for so long. i have to try. but it’s tough. so many other records call!
I’m extremely pleased that the Prez made a 2 large appearance in the vinyl frontier . Do old guys rule? It wasn’t a Blue Note and it didn’t start life in New Jersey! Just maybe IT WAS THE MUSIC AND THE GREAT MAN WHO MADE IT. Pop, click and hiss…. yours truly Art
yeah, @david j, I wouldn’t grade any of those covers higher than VG+.
Reinhard, I don’t know if you got lucky or if the eBay auctions aren’t representative of his normal wares. In any case, I believe that the pictures of the covers speak for themselves: they are not m- or even vg++ as is described on the auction pages. Normally I wouldn’t mention it, but considering the jazz vinyl industry now uses past auction sales as a guideline for pricing lps m- and otherwise, and related prices at auction are rising rapidly, these kind of errors (whether intentional or not) help to further drive up already high prices. I don’t like it when I buy a $20 lp and it isn’t as described (I usually send it back), but a $2000 lp not as described in a market with accelerating price points is really a problem. On top of that there is no way to edit the auction history to show that the lp was returned or not as described. In such a scenario all future auction (and many storefront or record show) prices will be forever influenced by a misrepresented sale.
At the time Lester recorded in Paris March 4, 1959 at the Barclay Studios, he was under contract to Norman Granz’s Verve Records. The session was issued on 12-inch LP on both the Barclay label and Verve. It has also been issued since on Verve CD. Lester was the first artist Granz recorded. It was on June 15, 1942 at Wallachs Music City studios, Hollywood, on a glass-based disc. At the time, the store was the biggest record store in Southern California. Because of wartime shortages, metal-based lacquers were not available. The founder, Glen E. Wallachs, was also one of the three founders of Capitol Records. Wallachs also started Dot Records. The four tunes recorded were not issued until 1945 on two 12-inch Philo 78s, 1000 and 1001, issued in Philo album A-1. I have never seen the album but have the two records. They were also later issued on a Crown LP with drums added and portions of tunes repeated to fill out the disc. I have this as well. Crown had the habit of re-releasing albums with different covers. A good example is Way Out Wardell, originally issued on Modern, then in several iterations on Crown, and, I believe, several other labels..
The Philo recordings were released as the original trio recordings on a 10″LP Aladdin AL 705 around 1953 and on 12″ LP Score SLP 4019 dated 1958 which I have ( includes 3 extra tracks from later 40’s sessions.)
Just thought I’d toss this out there.
Dial S For Sonny”. (Mono 63rd St pressing, with deep groove, RVG stamp, 9M etch, and ear! Vinyl is nice and clean, but has a click on part of one track. Cover has water damage on the bottom few inches – light peeling on the front, and back – but top 3/4 is fine.)
And it is only $999.99
https://www.dustygroove.com/item/1179?cat=jazz&filterfield=veryrecent&format=lp&new_status=used&limit=100&sort_order=price_low&page=3
Water damage to covers is almost always a deal breaker for me. I figure if you have $1000 to burn on something like this you might as well save a few big bills more for a better copy.