Category: $1000 Records

Jazz Vinyl to Ring in 2019: Happy New Year

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Happy New Year jazz lovers. Of course we will ring in 2019 with some rare jazz vinyl on eBay, starting with Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington, Riverside 201. This was an original white label pressing with the original cover. When we first looked at this a couple of weeks ago it was sitting in the $250 range. It wound up selling for $1,730.55, which is the highest price, by far, yet recorded by Popsike for this record.

Curtis Fuller, Blues-ette, Savoy 12141. This is an original red label pressing. The record is listed in VG++ condition and the cover is VG. The auction closes in a couple of days and the bidding is in the $380 range. I had a sealed copy of this record in perfect condition. I opened the seal and, surprise, it was an original pressing. For some reason I sold it and the price was less than the $380 that’s already bid on this copy.

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Bird, Dial, Blue Note And Fillers for the $1,000 Bin

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I have a lot of records stacked in my eBay watch list, some from a few weeks ago, so I am going to use this post to clear things out, starting with some 10-inch records: Charlie Parker, Dial 207. This was an original 10-inch pressing. The record was only in VG condition and the cover was VG++. It sold for $1,075. Not sure why. We’ve seen this record in much stronger condition sell for a lot less. The seller took a great picture of the cover, so maybe that helped.

This seller had some nice 10-inch LPs a few weeks ago, including Clifford Brown Quartet, Blue Note 5047. This one looked to be in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover, perhaps a little better for the record. The final price was $565. Also, Lou Donaldson Sextet, Volume 2, Blue Note 5055. This one was graded M-, but the seller’s description made it sound more like VG++. The cover was VG++. The final price was $350. Read more

True Blue, Sonny’s Crib and More

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Let’s catch up on a few other rare jazz records we were watching on eBay and, without expressing inordinate surprise, we will start with Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The seller did not follow established norms in his description, basically saying “amazing sound and few imperfections.” Imperfections, it seems, would be in the eye or ears of the beholder. The beholder, in this case, is the person who bid $2,025 for this record. As a point of observation, there were definitely imperfections in the cover, including a tape repair, that would probably put it in the VG category, maybe VG+ on a good day. Read more

Tracking Rare Vinyl From the Jazz Record Center

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Whilst we were away our friends at the Jazz Record Center had an interesting auction loaded with Blue Notes, including this one straight from my wish list: Sonny Red, Out of the Blue, Blue Note 4032. This was not only an original West 63rdStreet pressing, but it had a stamp on the label that read: PROPERTY OF DONALD BYRD, which you would assume would make it straight from Donald Byrd’s personal collection, unless you are a conspiracy theorist and believe someone nefarious would go to the trouble of creating a PROPERTY OF DONALD BYRD stamp and press it on an original Blue Note record to try to hike the value. As for me, I would trust the provenance of this record and would probably pay more for an LP with this stamp, because it’s kind of cool knowing that Donald Byrd owned the record. In any case, however, I would not pay the $1,600 price that this one sold for, albeit in M- condition for both the record and the cover. I did own an M- copy of this record once, which I purchased for $5 at the old Titus Oaks record store in a former Wetson’s fast-food hamburger joint in Hicksville. But, alas, I traded it for a few records of far less value more than 30 years ago, and have never been able to replace Out of the Blue  at a price I was comfortable paying. Read more

Top Prices for Jazz Vinyl Rarities

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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.

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Of Market Value and Music Value

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Back on eBay and wanted to first catch up on some of the items we were watching last time, starting with George Wallington, New York Scene, New Jazz 8207. This was the one from the Jazz Record Center and the bidding was at close to $800 when we wrote about it. The record wound up selling for $2,000, well surpassing the previous top price paid for this record, according to Popsike. I still find it fascinating that certain records have a strong appeal to collectors, i.e., value, while other records of the same era, perhaps by more prominent artists, have less of an appeal. Off the top of my head, I’ll use Sonny Rollins Plus Four as an example. This is a great record, featuring ground-breaking artists in their prime, on Prestige, yet it has never come close to the $1,000 mark, let alone $2,000. I’m sure I can come up with other examples, but you get the drift. I’m sure it has to do with supply and demand and all of that and perceptions of what is “rare” and what isn’t, which, I guess, is one of the nice things about having sites like eBay and Popsike to monitor the market and see on a daily basis what actual market value looks like. Back in the dark ages before the Internet, most of us were probably operating in the dark, not quite understanding the market value of what we were collecting. I guess we were focusing on the music that we loved.

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Rare Jazz Vinyl, For Thousands of $$$ or, Perhaps, 25 Cents

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I have more stories to tell, including a return engagement at Spike’s Record Rack in Catskill, but I feel I must get back to the business of looking at collectible vinyl on eBay before I do so. Nothing too exciting — no new collections — just some random stuff. So let’s get on with some eBay watching first and do the story-telling later in the week. If it’s eBay, there must be an expensive Sonny Clark record selling for thousands of dollars somewhere. This week it is Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588, courtesy of our friends at the Jazz Record Center in New York. This looks to be in really nice condition. Based on the description, my grade would be M- for the record and VG++ for the cover. There are nearly two days left on this auction and the bidding is now in the $1,100 range. We have consistently seen this record in the $3,000 bin and, at least once in the rarified $5,000 bin. I’m setting the over/under on this copy arbitrarily at $4,100.

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A Day for Sonny Clark (Not to Mention Sonny Clarke)

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I’m back. The good news is the major book project I’ve been working on is finally complete and the book will be published in the next few weeks. That should free up more time for me to spend on Jazz Collector. The bad news is I’ve made promises like this before and failed to keep them. We’ll see how it goes. It’s only been in the last few months or so that I’ve really slacked off, so perhaps I just need a little inspiration, like buying a collection, maybe?  Also, I’m wide open to other people writing for the site, as Clifford has done in the past, so if you’re interested you can just drop me an email, alatjazzcollector.com. In the meantime, I want to thank our loyal reader Japhy for reminding me to get back into the fray by sending me a link to the $7,300 Sonny Clark Leapin’ and Lopin’, which has already been the subject of a post here, but which made me realize how long it has been between posts for me. Anyway, on to rare collectible jazz vinyl on eBay.

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Leapin’, Lopin’ and Lunacy

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After last week’s diversion, I see I am being prodded to get back to the regular business of tracking the market for rare jazz vinyl, and so I will start with a note and link from our friend Clifford, subject: Sonny Clark WTF. Clifford writes, “Hey, Al. Here’s one for the ages (maybe). I’d gladly let my copy go for just $5000!” And the link is Sonny Clark, Leapin’ and Lopin’, Blue Note 4091. This was an original mono pressing with the New York USA address. The record and the cover were in just VG+ condition. The final price was $7,300. As Clifford so eloquently put it: WTF! There were 21 bidders and 44 bids and the price went from a reasonable $563 to a ridiculous $7,300 in the last moments. I would guess that two bidders both had a strategy of putting in humongous bids just to assure that they would get the record and, voila, they ran up against one another. How else could we explain a VG+ copy of this record selling for that price? Read more

Hype, Hyperbole and High Prices; Just Another Day on eBay

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Back on eBay again for the first time in weeks and was greeted to this: John Coltrane, Coltrane, Prestige 7105. What caught my eye about this listing was this line: “Awesome red cover of one of the rarest jazz albums.” Then I saw that the bidding had already reached more than $510 for this second pressing with the New Jersey label. The combination of high hyperbole and high price, could only mean one seller and, of course, I was right. You can click the link and guess yourself, but for regular readers here it won’t be much of stumper. The record and cover are graded as VG++. I kind of like the red cover, but prefer the original green. Does anyone know why Prestige did this, not just with this record, but with others? Did they think people would want to buy the same record twice? Rudolf?

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