The Answer To The $1,000 Question

That last item on $1,000 records didn’t get much response, to my surprise, but Rudolf and Robert were definitely on track thinking about looking under “Mo” in their collections. Based on our quick and unscientific perusal of the $1,000 bin within the Jazz Collector Price Guide, these were the artists that come up with the most different records:

Hank Mobley, Six Records, all on Blue Note: Blue Note 1540, 1550, 1560, 1568, 1574, 4031

Charlie Parker, Five Records: Dial 201, 203, 901, 905, Savoy 9000

Lee Morgan, Five Records: Blue Note 1538, 1557, 1578, 1590, Mosaic MQ6-162

Sonny Rollins, Four Records: Blue Note 1542, 1558, Prestige 7079, Period 1204

Kenny Dorham, Four Records: Blue Note 1524, 1535, 4063, New Jazz 8225

Sonny Clark, Four Records: Blue Note 1570, 1576, 1579, 1588

Anybody out there have all of these records, original pressings?

I regret to say I don’t have as many as I would like and, in fact, I’ve sold at least three of these for far less than $1,000, pre-eBay. My total count for these 28 records is eight in my own collection, original pressings. Whatever I don’t have as an original pressing, I have as a reissue, other than the Lee Morgan Mosaic, which I sold and which probably shouldn’t even count on this list, although I did enter it in the Jazz Collector Price Guide at more than $1,000 at one time.

I’m sure for those of you who venture over to other sites such as Popsike, you can find many more $1,000 records and I welcome you to add them to the list and see if you can discover artists with even more records selling for $1,000 or more. I have a feeling next time I update the list a couple more artists may make the four-or-more club, specifically John Coltrane and perhaps Miles Davis. But we’ll see.