Day One At the WFMU Record Fair

So yesterday was Day One of the WFMU Record Fair in New York City and I purchased a dealer table to sell of duplicates from my collection and other odds and ends and this was my experience.

There was a time, when I was an compulsive buyer of records – as opposed to now, when I am merely an obsessive buyer of records – when I would purchase a dealer’s table at a record show just so that I could show up early and look at the other dealers’ records before anyone else. I’d get there and hover while dealers of jazz records would be unpacking their wares and I could get first shot at their offerings. Don’t laugh – I got some mighty nice records this way.

Now, however, I am more serene about it. I didn’t get there yesterday until 3:30 and the show opened at four to early arrivals so I barely had time to even look. In fact, I convinced myself that the only reason I was looking at all was so that I could write about it here at Jazz Collector. I even made certain that I would not be buying either compulsively or obsessively or both: I only brought $100.

So at 3:30 I began roaming the floor with my $100. What struck me was that just about every table had jazz records: Some a box or two, some had many, many boxes. And it was a lot of the stuff

I was selling as well: Pressings from the 1970s and 1980s on Concord Jazz and Pablo, Japanese Verve and Blue Note Reissues, lots of mid-range collectibles. The high-end stuff that I did see – a couple of Horace Silver 10-inch Blue Notes, for example – had extremely high prices, way beyond my level of interest.

None of this, of course, stopped me from spending my $100 on stuff I didn’t really want or need, although I was happy to purchase an original purple-label New Jazz Roland Alexander record for $30 and a Buddy DeFranco trumpet-label Verve with Sonny Clark and Tal Farlow for $20. It was a good start and I was quite pleased with myself for only bringing $100. It showed a certain level of maturity and restraint, wouldn’t you say.

Anyway, I went back to my table and awaited the throngs. In addition to the ilk of records I mentioned before, I also brought a few nice records: A Lexington Avenue Sonny Rollins Volume One on Blue Note in VG condition; a VG copy of Dexter Gordon Blows Hot And Cool (not red vinyl); a few Miles Davis Prestiges; a New Jersey Sonny Rollins plays Bird, and a few more.

As I was unpacking my records a dealer from Japan came by and each box I would open, he would peruse. In the end he purchased a VG stereo copy of Waltz For Debby for more than $100, and $300 records in all. Within the first two hours I had sold about $1,200 worth of records and the Rollins and Gordon were both gone, as well as a New Jersey copy of Miles Davis Relaxin’. Every single one of those records was sold to a dealer from Japan, not the same one but several. However, I got fair prices for each of them and I was quite pleased.

When they opened the doors for the general public at 7, I expected another onslaught – which never happened. My table is all the way, all the way, in the back and a lot of people simply never made it back there. And if they did, they had already seen so many jazz records and/or spent so much money, there wasn’t as much interest in my stuff.

Nonetheless it was quite fun just being there and I was quite pleased that several people who came by the table were fans of Jazz Collector. The last time I did the show two years ago, nobody had heard of the site, so this was a big improvement. Everyone wanted to talk about the big Nautiluso Record Fraud of last year and whatever happened with that, so I was reminded that I needed to do a follow up.

I was also joined at one point by my daughter, the lovely Ms. JC, and at 9 p.m., an hour before close, she took over the booth and I was free to roam the floor, this time with my wallet bulging with $1,400 in cash. Quite a dangerous combination, I would say. But, once again, I was able to show remarkable restraint. I stopped by the booth of Euclid Records, had a nice chat with Joe, and purchased from him a mint copy of the 10-inch Howard McGhee record Jazz Goes to the Battlefront Volume 1 for the very fair price of $60. This is the record with the infamous Filipino bass player “Chris” and if you want to read the story about this record, just check this out: Jazz in Korea: A Story Goes With It.

Anyway, I bought a couple of other inexpensive records, fought the massive crowds on the other side of the room, and realized that I probably hadn’t missed any great scores this year by not showing up at noon and obsessively, compulsively hovering over every dealer as he was arriving to set up his table.

But today’s another day, and there will be new dealers, and new records, and new opportunities for the old Jazz Collector habit to kick in once again. Let’s see what happens.