What Was That About Condition?
Been way behind on my posting and even my eBay watching. Lots of stuff going on here. When I left off, these were some of the jazz records I was watching on eBay, starting with: Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was in VG+ condition and the cover was only VG, with tape, writing, a sticker and shelf wear. The record sold for $2,324. Yes, that is not a typographical error. I was thinking of making a pithy comment, but I seem to be out of pith this morning. I will leave the pith to you, dear readers.
J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This looked to be an original Lexington Avenue pressing as well. The record and cover were in VG condition, and the seller mentioned the word “scratches” so that would definitely be a red flag. This one sold for $323.80, reasonable, I would say, but still $2,000 less than the Morgan record.
While we’re on Blue Notes, here’s another that fetched quite a nice price:
Dexter Gordon, One Flight Up, Blue Note 4176. This looked to be an original New York USA pressing with the ear and the Van Gelder and it was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $421.
Finally, what do you make of this one: John Coltrane, Coltrane Jazz, Atlantic 1354. This one purports to have original signatures of John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, signed during a tour of Milan in 1963. There are two other signatures, but the names are not clear to me or to the seller. You would think Jimmy Garrison would be one, but it’s not obvious. That’s if the signatures are even legitimate. Don Lucky — are you out there? Buyers seem to be dubious so far: The start price is around $250 and so far there are no bidders. The auction closes in two days.
What is funny about Blue Note is that you can almost buy the entire catalogue in one or two weeks on Ebay. What is sad is that money is far more rare.
Would they be signing a US pressing of that album in Italy?
Beautiful World gets some crazy prices that is for sure…
That is a Coltrane autograph, or a pretty damn good forgery.
I took a look at that signed copy of John Coltrane’s Coltrane Jazz, and here’s my take:
– According to the John Coltrane Reference…The date someone wrote on the lp coincides with their concert at the Teatro Dell’Arte in Milan…
– The Elvin Jones signature looks ok, but the rest seem a bit questionable…
– I agree with Al, typically we would see a Jimmy Garrison signature along with the others, but that is not a deal breaker.
– The two un-identified autographs are still a mystery, (I searched all likely candidates in my database… No luck sadly…)
In my opinion, the Coltrane & McCoy signatures are off enough to make me think twice about this one, especially the oversized autographs, which are “irregular” at best, and the choice of medium… (Most “magic markers” used back then had a tendancy to fade and yellow with age…) Nevertheless, like all autographs, you just never know for sure, this one just has a few too many question marks for me…
Ded they really have Magic Markers (whatever that is?)in 1963. Were not most autographs made with ballpoint pens around this time?
I would have thought the same thing.
…You gents of a certain age might recall using those large aluminum “felt-tipped” markers (aka Magic Marker) back in the day as they were characteristic of having that strong odor (now known to have been toxic) and always made that squeegee sound when they were used.
Here’s a clip from Wilkipedia:
“Markers of this sort began to be popularized with the sale of Sidney Rosenthal’s Magic Marker (1953) which consisted of a glass tube of ink with a felt wick. By 1958 use of felt-tipped markers was commonplace for a variety of applications…”
They were the precursor to today’s Sharpie… Sadly if you used one back then it, most of the pigments have probably turned yellow or disappeared completely by now… Especially if the paper wasn’t acid free.
@shaft:
As per Wikipedia they came into common use by the end of the fifties.
This one got out of hand (The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Vol. 1 for more than $1,200)…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271484593823?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
Not a bad price for a 2nd Press of the JJ. Mixed Lex/23 labels.
1505 is a great album. But $1252, for a mixed label, VG+/++ vinyl (not play tested) and VG+ cover? (Can’t tell if it’s Frame) WOW! Should we all be heading to Europe to sell?
Al, you still managed to take the pith out of that sale.
The other signature looks like it reads Art… though Art Davis wasn’t playing with Coltrane in ’63.
I don’t believe that that “signed Coltrane” is legit, however.
Also, I am told that Beautiful World Records does a lot of buying off of eBay and Discogs and flips those records via auction. So they may have done a $400 BIN on that Lee Morgan LP and then sold it for much higher. Furthermore, their grade of VG+ has, in my experience, been a little “generous.” Meaning that that record probably isn’t very crisp.
You can not make a living flipping records from discogs or eBay. They buy very large collections. They are one of the biggest sellers on discogs.
Starsailor/Antiquarium did that in the nascent days of eBay and were able to do it for a while as a way to draw traffic. My source for this information is close to the buyers at Beautiful World Records. It’s not out of the question that they do both tactics.
I’ve never seen a Coltrane signature without the fancy loop in the “C”. I’ve only seen 6 or 7 though, but they all had the loop.
I wouldn’t buy it.
How does Djukic get away with calling this original?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/STAN-GETZ-COOL-VELVET-VERY-RARE-STILL-SEALED-ORIGINAL1960-VERVE-MONO-LP-DG-/351073916623?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item51bda2d6cf&nma=true&si=Pd8P%252B7FFBLNvRcxcdeDNcZHsfAk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Original has the Trumpet label
^ I’m amazed he even tried to auction that. Although he did get more than the $9.99 price that it should be sold for…
Earl: I am not sure that the first pressing had a trumpeter label. This a twilight period for Verve. My last trumpeter label is 8388.
Hi Rudolf,
Earl is right, the original is a trumpeter label:
http://www.popsike.com/50s-Verve-Jazz-STAN-GETZ-Cool-Velvet-NM/280019280865.html
The highest trumpeter label in my collection is 8430.
Aaron: I am learning every day. Thank you.