You don’t see too many jazz records selling for more than $1,000. Here’s a recent Gil Melle, Patterns in Jazz, Blue Note 1517, that sold for $1,225. It helped that the record was in mint condition, was an original and was being sold by a highly reputable dealer. Back when I was doing the site regularly, there was huge discussion when a copy of Monk’s Music, Riverside 342, sold eBay for $3,061.50. Here’s what I wrote at the time: Read more
I was away with hardly any access to the Internet and I wasn’t on eBay all of last week. Just for the fun of it, and to see if I missed anything significant, this morning I did a search through completed jazz auctions for all items that sold for more than $1,000. To my surprise, there wasn’t that much. Here’s what I found:
Tina Brooks, Blue Note 4041. This was an original pressing in what looked like very nice condition. Price: $1,703.30
Fred Astaire, The Astaire Story, Clef 1001. This is the complete boxed set, signed and autographed by Astaire. Price: $1,826. It so happens, I also have a copy of this, in comparable condition. If anyone is interested I’d sell it for $1,750. Contact me alperlman@hotmail.com.
The final $1,000-plus item was this: The Jacques Pelzer Quartet in Italy, on the Italian Centra label. I had never seen or heard of this record and, according to the dealer, there were only 200 or so copies pressed. This one received a top bid of $1,226, but still failed to meet the seller’s reserve price. Perhaps it will appear again.
Jazz Collector Newsletter, July 2005
Welcome to Jazz Collector. We’ve been very good about updating the web site every day, so if you haven’t been visiting, please take a look: There’s been some interesting discussion and we’ve been watching some nice items on eBay. Speaking of eBay, as we often do, we start this newsletter with advice to sellers, which we hope will generate some reader response. We also have our usual assortment of upcoming items, some new LPs in our Price Guides and an all-time favorite music clip.
I was recently talking to a subscriber who is interested in selling his collection on eBay as a retirement business. Here’s the main advice I gave him:
Jazz Collector Newsletter, June 2002
We have some positive changes coming at Jazz Collector. We’re updating the Jazzcollector.com Web site and starting Monday we’ll be posting new items each weekday. Plus, we’ll be giving away free collectibles from the site periodically. Finally, we’re going to post more articles and commentaries from readers and increase activity on the site’s Forum. The hope is to create a hub for the Jazz Collector community, so please use the site and offer up any suggestions. The site upgrade won’t affect the newsletter, which will still come out once a month. We have more than 800 subscribers now and the roster keeps growing. Obviously, jazz vinyl is alive and well.
Back watching eBay today and we’re pleased to see that the seller JBLD44000 is back with two of the rarest of the rare jazz LPs. We expect both of these to net prices near or above $1,000. We’ll watch and let you know tomorrow: Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1685. This is an original pressing in nice condition. As of the time we posted today the price was $685. Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This is an original pressing in what appears to be decent condition. As of the time we posted today the price was $618.
In addition to these items, this seller has several others closing today, tomorrow and later in the week. Interesting, he sold a copy of the Art Pepper LP Modern Art, Intro 606, for more than $2,000 last week, but it’s up on eBay again for a start price of $1,500. We assume something happened to prevent the other sale from going through. Here are some of the other items we’re watching:
Sonny Rollins Volume 1, Blue Note 1542. This is an original pressing with the Lexington Avenue address on the label. At one point there was a question in our Forums whether this LP was issued with that address. Here’s definitive proof.
Sonny Rollins, Moving Out, Prestige 7058. This is an original pressing with the New York address on the label. It’s not in great shape but, for those who are not sticklers for condition, it’s an opportunity to add a rare record to the collection at, perhaps, a reasonable price. We’ll see: Sometimes even records in not-so-great condition fetch hefty price tags on eBay.
The seller Atomic_records is also back on eBay with some nice items. Take a look at this one and click “View Seller’s Other Items” for a complete list. Donald Byrd at the Half Note, Volume 1, Blue Note 4060Another dealer with some interesting records is sadg. He is selling several later Blue Notes and Prestiges. Check this one out and look at the others. John Patton, Let ‘Em Roll, Blue Note 4239
Finally, the seller bullsite2000 has this item and several others in very nice condition. Take a look: Sonny Rollins Plus Four, Prestige 7038
That’s it for today. See you at Jazzcollector.com tomorrow. — Al
Back home after a weekend away. Let’s see what happened on eBay the past few days.
The seller JBLD44000 out of Seattle, who has been selling some nice records the past few weeks, had a bunch of items up this weekend, with mixed results. A few of the records sold for high prices, including:
Hank Mobley, Soul Station, Blue Note 4031, for $1,337.28
Kenny Drew, Walkin’ and Talkin’, Jazz West 4, for $532
This dealer also had several high-ticket items that didn’t get bids at all. Based on our previous experience watching his auctions, we anticipate that these records will be back on eBay in the near future with somewhat lower start prices and, perhaps, Buy-It-Now prices. Among those records are: Read more
Jazz vinyl dealers at the WFMU Record Convention in New York last November were concerned. Traffic at the show was down and, worse, volume on E-Bay had declined fairly dramatically in the fall. A few dealers were anticipating the beginning of the end of the LP market, finally done in by CDs and other digital technologies. It turns out the pessimism was misguided. The market picked up shortly thereafter, hit another dip again in February and early March, Read more
