Top Prices for Jazz Vinyl Rarities
Back to the real world after a lovely Thanksgiving break, which means it’s time to look at auctions of rare jazz vinyl on eBay, starting with Jerome Richardson, Roamin’ With Richardson, New Jazz 8226. This was an original deep-groove purple label pressing listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,575, in what looked like a bidding war between two buyers who must have really wanted this record. Taking a quick look at Popsike, the previous high price for this record was in the $640 range. I owned a copy for about two weeks after I purchased a small collection back in 2009, which I wrote about here at Jazz Collector. I wanted to sell a few of the records in order to make my money back quickly, and this was one of the ones I sold, probably for about $250 or so, back when I was still selling records on eBay and trying to get traffic to the Jazz Collector web site. There are very few records with Richardson as the leader, so I guess it has some cachet for that and for the fact that it is an original New Jazz. But nearly $1,600 for a VG+ copy seems like a bit of a stretch.
This was another one that seemed like a stretch: Dizzy Gillespie, Afro, Norgran 1003. This was an original yellow label that was listed in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $182.50, and I’m not accustomed to seeing any Dizzy records selling for collectible prices, with a few exceptions such as Bird and Diz as well as the two on Verve with Sonny Rollins and Sonny State. Back to Popsike, and it turns out that Afro is another Dizzy that has sold for more than $100 in the past, which makes me curious what it is about this particular record that makes it appealing to collectors, versus dozens of others by Dizzy.
Let’s close today’s post with good old reliable Freddie Redd, Shades of Redd, Blue Note 4045. This looks to be an original West 63rd Street pressing, although it is hard to tell from the pictures. The record is listed in VG+ condition and the cover is listed in VG+ condition. However, it is clear from the picture, that the cover is no better than VG, which makes me question the condition of the record as well. No matter. The seller is asking for at least $1,500, which puts it way out of my reach and, I would guess, out of the reach of anyone else, given the condition. We’ll see when the auction closes in four days. I guess if a Jerome Richardson record can sell for nearly $1,600, who’s to guess what an original Blue Note could sell for, even in less-than-pristine condition. Perhaps if the seller can sell this for $1,500 he can afford to purchase a new camera.
I think a lot of the draw for Norgran 1003 is the David Stone Martin cover art.
I’ve had two copies of this richardson. I sold both because they were not NM. Cover were the same condition as this one. Can’t understand 1500 + for this one. I think many unknowledgeable millenial hipsters are on the market now.
there’s not a single millenial hipster paying that kind of money for any record under any circumstances. they don’t have even close to that sort of disposable income or knowledge of the less-known names in jazz.
i’d be interested for $250, but that’s about it.
and as good as dizzy is, i have to think that cover art plays a role.
Most millennial “hipsters” I know aren’t into physical ownership of music in record playback form.
I am noticing high (record?) prices for virtually all jazz “rarities” these days on ebay, whether NM or VG. I know this is not exactly an insightful comment brimming with evidence, but it seems like every other article on Jazz Collector expresses “surprise” at this development. It does raise the question of exactly who is buying these. It’s certainly not the audiophile crowd.
yeah, the market is getting (or has gotten) quite nutty.
as for millennial hipsters, I can’t get them to spend $26 on a reissue that I worked on, so I highly doubt they are the ones going toe to toe for a $1600 Jerome Richardson.
lennib,
When I have attended record shows or dropped into better New England record shops in the past two years fully 70% of the buyers were over 20 under 40. I sold several hundred jazz lps a year ago to a great small store run by “millennial hipsters” in Maine and they were super-happy to snag the lot, skimming off the cream of course. (Aylers, AEC, Hemphill, BN’s, Actuels, etc). They have great energy, endless curiosity and…cash.
I agree that the most excitement was due to the cover. The condition of the Afro cover is almost amazing. The early Norgran covers are notorious for being prone to damage. Besides typically having ring wear, the paper stock used to wrap the cardboard easily wears out on the seams. Finding such a fresh looking cover is super tough. Too bad that even this great looking copy did not avoid some seam splits.
I pulled out the Richardson yesterday and gave it a spin.
The album is a gem, superb baritone on 2 or 3 tracks. And only one track with flute on it.
This album was soon deleted from the N.J. catalogue. Only first pressings exist. It was never reissued. These were Prestige’s heydays, courtesy A&R director Esmond Edwards.
It is at par with Blue Notes from the same period, so I am not surprised by the price it fetched. Some people finally come to understand the basics.
just because millennial hipsters exist that meet the criteria does mean they are the ones buying too many of these records at huge 1k+ prices. tons of millennial hipsters buy records. very few spend real cash on them. when i have records to sell, i sell the ones in the $10-$50 range very fast, mostly to the younger crowd, my age and below. the more expensive records almost ALWAYS sell to people 10+ years older than me. very few of my friends, even the ones that also buy and collect records, have ever spent or would ever want to spend any real cash on a single record.
The Richardson was re-issued on vinyl in Japan around 1991 and currently sells around $50 It also had a number of issues on CD for those that do not $1,600 in loose change .
A millennial would have been a child when the Internet came into popular use, so say born in 1988 at the oldest and around 30 years of age. Of course some of those people have serious disposable income, but the quotient is a lot smaller than those 40 and up. Millennials also came of age in the file-sharing era and many are, as noted above, not particularly into music by way of physical objects.
I think I know the Maine shop you are talking about and they are probably around my age (I’m 42).
Anyway, blaming one age group for price jumps is a bit absurd. The market is not being driven by 28 year olds, it’s being driven by wealthy people in general.
I did not blame them as a group. I just wrote “many unknowledgeable millenial hipsters are on the market now”. “Many” does not refer to a whole age group. I did not write they drive the market. I wrote “are on the market”. And by unknwoledgeable i was refering to the condition of the record. One can not agree that some millenials are buying high price. It is also absurd to state not a single of them can do that.
This conversation makes me curious about what the ages are of frequent visitors to this site/fellow jazz collectors. I myself am 43.
@Aaron. I am 52, but only started collecting about a year ago.
RE: Freddie Redd Cover is VG ? Yes there is some discoloration on the, and the sticker of course. But everything else looks clean. Seams intact, very little or maybe -0- ring wear or scuffs on the laminate cover etc. Why would this cover rate at VG rather than VG+ ? Thanks.
@rl856 Probably a cumulative grade because of the spine fading (and lower right corner), sticker and splotches on the back. As a buyer, I’d prefer a conservative VG grading and be pleasantly surprised vs. a generous VG+ grading and be disappointed.
PS – It looks like the seller has the cover graded VG+ now.
Aaron: I have got nothing to hide, my age is 77. There is an advantage I have over you, youngsters. I started collecting when the transition from 10″ to 12″ took place. So I saw it all happen, but I could never have foreseen the rise in value of my cherished albums, which I only bought for their artistic value.
Dang! Looks like I might need to list my NM-/NM- Richardson. Daddy needs to buy some Christmas presents! For myself. More records.
Speaking of New Jazz titles, I was recently doing my near-daily flip through the junk at Goodwill when there, nestled between all the Mitch Miller, Barbra Steisand and Ray Conniff, was a NM first press of Charlie Rouse + Herbie Mann “Just Wailin’.” Not a holy grail by any stretch, but for 50 cents I walked out a happy man.
@Aaron: I’m 30 so I’d guess I’m one of the youngest around here, heh. I do some record dealing on the side so I buy quite a bit, exactly because I’d never be able to afford buying $100+ records for myself otherwise – this hobby is way out of my regular income bracket. Even then I try to buy (and sell) as cheaply as possible. I used to buy via eBay a fair bit up to about half a year ago but nowadays I don’t check it that regularly anymore, prices there have gotten WAY out of control.
I just turned 45
Jimrjim: I prefaced my remark on ‘MH’s’ by stating “most MH’s I know..” indicating this was a personal observation and in no way meant to be an overall proclamation/judgement. I’m sure large pocket MHers exist.
Aaron: I’m boxcars ( a craps term) in age.
never seen the richardson before
Blame the central bankers and money printing for the rising prices of jazz vinyl. All asset classes have risen dramatically since the recession.
lennib, I’ll turn boxcars in a couple of months. Until 2016 I had about 2,500 jazz lps, the vast majority in VG+ or better shape. I wasn’t listening to 2,200 of them and once I committed to a major cull…well that was it. The recent Mingus “Jazz In Detroit” release has dropped me into a Don Pullen bender and I admit to momentarily regretting that gigantic purge. Then again I’ve discovered one 1986 appearance on youtube that rivals anything the pianist ever put on vinyl. Had I simply slipped a record off the shelf I would have missed this performance for another twenty years, or possible forever. Boxcars isn’t old…but it isn’t young either.
First time poster, long time reader. I am 35. Definitely cannot even come close to affording a $1600 dollar record. I think I have paid over $100 for an individual release 3 times. It is getting harder and harder to find steals, but the hunt is part of the fun for me.
Jimrjim, about 3 moves had 7000 or so lps,78’s, turn into close to your # of 2500. Past few years have had been eliminating more. Don’t know how close I’ll get to your # of 300, but I might. Some regrets; yet this past week or so realized I can stop acqusitioning and continue eliminating and in doing so, enjoying it. For me it was deciding I didn’t want to be a “record boy” anymore. As you said the music is either available somewhere or it’s in your head.