Top Prices Are Not Limited To Blue Note

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Sometimes you think it’s only — or mostly — the Blue Notes that are going up in value, but it’s quite a bit broader than that. Here are a few cases in point of jazz vinyl for sale on eBay now:

Eric Dolphy, Far Cry, New Jazz 8270. This is an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It is quite a lovely record, and rare, and the condition is great, and the picture with the add is quite nice as well. Still, the highest price we’ve ever recorded for this record in the Jazz Collector Price Guide is around $230. This will sell for quite a lot more than that. The current price is $515 and there’s nearly a day to go.

Blue Mitchell, Blue’s Moods, Riverside 336. This is also an original pressing, with the blue label and the deep grooves. The record is in VG++ condition and the cover is VG+. The current price is around $400 and there are still four days to go before the auction closes.  This one will also set a new record for the Jazz Collector Price Guide. 

And here are a couple of nice Prestiges:

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Listening is Part of Collecting Too, Isn’t It?

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Here’s some jazz vinyl we’re watching on eBay:

Gigi Gryce and the Jazz Lab Quintet, Riverside 229. This is an original white pressing that is in what looks like M- condition for the record and probably VG++ for the cover. I’ve had this record for about 25 years and it’s always had a prominent place in my collection, but I can’t recall listening to it more than once, probably 25 years ago. I know one of our readers had commented earlier that it wasn’t all that great. Perhaps today is the day to finally put it on the turntable and judge for myself. It’s not just me, right? We all have nice collectible records that we’ve either never listened to or listened to just once? This one closes in a few hours and is in the $350 price range.

Dizzy Reece, Star Bright, Blue Note 4023. This looks to be an original deep groove pressing with the West 63rd Street address. The seller has created his own grading schema. If I were to judge the descriptions based on the grading system used by most of us, and certainly used by us here at Jazz Collector, I would guess that this one is in VG+ condition. It closes in a couple of days and is already at around $400.

Here’s a seller offering some nice 10-inch LPs, including:

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No Economic Crisis In Collectible Jazz Vinyl Market

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Now that I have that Bird article out of my system, it’s time to get back to the task at hand, watching rare jazz vinyl on eBay. Here are some of the items we’ve been watching:

Phil Woods, Woodlore, Prestige 7018. As you may recall, this one was sitting at $200 with no bids and I was considering taking the plunge myself. Glad I didn’t. The record wound up selling for $527 — way beyond my comfort level — and, to make it worse, there is now a dispute about the sale, as you can see on the Jazz Collector site under the earlier post. From the same seller was: Charlie Rouse, Yeah!, Epic 16012. If you look at the listing, you’ll have a hard time figuring out the record’s condition. It says both ex+ and ex- and it talks about light scratches that will sound on both sides. Hmm. Someone paid $538 for this record. We’ll see if there’s a dispute about this one as well.

Wow — didn’t expect this record to reach the $1,000 bin: Hank Mobley, Workout, Blue Note 4080. This was an original New York USA pressing, with the RVG and ear in the deadwax. It was in beautiful M- condition for the record and cover and sold for $1,009.99.

This one also entered the $1,000 bin, but not all that suprisingly:

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An Old Jazz Collector Tribute To Charlie Parker

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This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. When I was breaking in as a journalist my first job was as the jazz critic for the Syracuse New Times, an alternative newspaper in Syracuse, NY. I did a bunch of interviews — Charles Mingus, Chick Corea, Larry Coryell, among others — record and concert reviews and other features. I once posted my Mingus Interview here at Jazz Collector. Most of the articles are long gone, not in my files, certainly not saved in any digital format — this was the early 1970s, nothing was digital then. However, I did save a copy of an article I wrote about Charlie Parker, which was timed to coincide with the 2oth anniversary of Bird’s death in 1975. I recently dug up the article and painstakingly retyped it into my computer and now it will be saved digitally forever and ever. And now, when people do a search of Charlie Parker and Al Perlman, I will forever be associated with Bird. It’s enough to put a big smile on my face, that thought. Me and Bird. I like it. Anyway, it’s a pretty well written article, if I must say so myself, but there are clearly youthful indiscretions and probably a little too much borrowing from Ross Russell’s Bird Lives, including the opening scene and some idle speculation that Bird got his nickname because he loved fried chicken. There are many stories to go with this article and how it got published — and how I got away with using the word “motherfucker.” But those are for another day. Oh, and I didn’t put that stupid headline on the article nor did I get to approve it. I’ve attached the article as a PDF to download for simple viewing. Here it is: Charlie Parker Article. I’m also going to see if I can post it below here without screwing up Jazz Collector and, to prove there really was an article to begin with, we have a picture of the original, from April 13, 1975. If you are going to comment, please be kind. I was only 22 years old at the time. Read more

A Pair of Jazz Vinyl For This Jazz Collector

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Here is one of the conundrums of doing the Jazz Collector Web site. I still collect records and occasionally buy them on eBay. So, when I spot a record that interests me, do I dare share it with the world? I usually do. Case in point: Phil Woods, Woodlore, Prestige 7018. This is an original New York yellow label pressing. The record looks to be in M- condition and the cover looks around VG+. This is a nice early Prestige I’ve only owned as a Japanese pressing. The auction closes tomorrow and there are no bidders at a $200 start price. I would pay $200 for this record. I could just lurk in the background, put in a snipe and hope no body else is interested, which I may, indeed, do. But I’d certainly have a better chance for success without blabbing about my interest to the whole Jazz Collector world out there, wouldn’t you say? Actually, I’m surprised there are no bidders yet for this one and there’s only one bidder for this record from the same seller: Lucky Thompson, Lucky Strikes!, Transition 21. This is an original pressing with the booklet. The record is in M- condition and the cover is probably VG++.There’s only one bid at $200 for this. To be fair, the highest price we’ve seen for this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide has been a little more than $300, so perhaps the $200 is not so unreasonable. It just looks like a record that should sell for more, at least it does to this collector.

Watching Some Stereo Jazz Vinyl Sell (and Not Sell)

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I was just going through some old listings as I attempt to clean up my files so I can (finally) update the Jazz Collector Price Guide and noticed that eBay took the liberty of erasing all of my files that were more than six weeks old. This is a new thing they have done and I’d rather they didn’t, but I wasn’t given a choice. Anyway. Before they disappear into oblivion here are some items I had saved with the idea of either writing about them or adding them to the Price Guide:

Johnny Griffin, Studio Jazz Party, Riverside 9338. This was an original stereo pressing with the deep grooves and black label. The seller had a start price of $150 for this record, which was in VG++ condition and probably VG+ for the vinyl. I was watching it to see if it would sell and at what price. The mono pressings tend to be much more desired and desirable, right? This one did not sell. A mono pressing in that condition, at that start price likely would have sold. I always liked this record — it has the real feel of a party. Along the same lines and from the same seller was a stereo pressing of Johnny Griffin, The Little Giant, Riverside 1149. This one was in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover and it too had a start price of $150. Alas, there were also no bidders for this one.

This was a stereo pressing that did sell, and for a decent price:

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Rare Jazz Vinyl, Some With Autographs

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Sorry for taking such a long break over the Memorial Day weekend. But we are back to our post at Jazz Collector and ready to begin posting regularly again, starting with a catch-up of items we were watching last week on eBay.

First there was that copy of Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants, Prestige 7150, that was autographed by Miles, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. It was offered by the Jazz Record Center so there was some level of credibility attached to the autographs, although the listing didn’t say anything about independent verification. The price for this was $4,305. It’s certainly a one-of-a-kind item, so there is probably no price too high to have surprised us. This seems pretty reasonable for such a rare item. Here are a couple more from the same auction: Art Pepper, Intensity, Contemporary 3607. This was not only signed by Art Pepper, he also put the date and his home address with the signature. The record and cover both looked to be in M- condition. This one sold for $150.27. This one was not signed: Johnny Hodges, In a Tender Mood, Norgran 1059. This was an original yellow label pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $161.50. I was watching this because I like to keep an eye on the original Norgrans, just to see that there is still a collector’s market for them, since they really reflect artists mostly from the pre-bop era, with a few exceptions, of course. This one also has that weird kind of cover from the era, with a picture of a white woman as the sole image on the picture of an album by a black male artists. Is it really possible that

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Tracking an Autographed Blue Note

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Still have my eye on that Miles LP autographed by Miles, Trane and Monk being offered on eBay by the Jazz Record Center. Not that I’m going to spend more than $2,500 on it. My interest is more as an interested observer, as it usually is when the prices get that high. Here’s another one  I’m watching from the same auction, closing in around three hours. It’s another autograph, but the packaging is a little odd: Finger Poppin’ With the Horace Silver Quintet, Blue Note 4008. This is an original stereo pressing with the original cover, which is not autographed. The record looks to be in M- condition and the cover  is probably M- as well. In addition to this, the Jazz Record Center is including a Liberty cover with Horace Silver’s autograph on the back. One cover for the record, I guess, another, with the autograph for framing — although, for me, having the autograph sitting right below the Liberty logo is more of a turn off than a turn on. Now, if the autograph were on the original cover, that would be much more enticing. Anyway, the start price for this is $100 and there is already a bidder so it looks like it will sell.

 

 

One For the Price Guide (We Hope)

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One of our readers sent me an email and asked me to include this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide: Art Pepper, Modern Art, Intro 606. This was an original pressing in VG+ condition for the record and VG- condition for the cover. It sold for $730. In the headline the seller mentions that this is a 1951 pressing, but that cannot be possible. They weren’t even pressing 12-inch records in 1951, were they? It was during that time that the 10-inch LP was the “standard.”

Anyway, I will add this to the Price Guide, although I have to admit I’ve been quite remiss in doing regular updates. I know I used to use the Price Guide all the time when I was selling records on eBay. I found it very helpful. And I know that people are using it now and referring to it fairly often, because I see the analytics from Google. It seems to be particularly popular in Japan. Really. So I will slog along, put aside a day or a half day somewhere in the next couple of weeks, and make sure I plug in all of the records I’ve been promising to plug in since I last did a major update about four months ago. It would certainly help the motivation if there were a few kind words about the Price Guide as well. 🙂

Lee Morgan, Hal McKusick and Sonny Clarke (sic)

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Here are some jazz vinyl auctions we’ve been watching on eBay:

Sonny Clark, Leapin’ and Lopin’, Blue Note 4091. What caught my eye about this one is that the seller kept referring to him as “Sonny Clarke” in the headline and in the text.  I mean, can you look at the album cover? If potential buyers have alerts for Sonny Clark or if they are doing searches, would they not find this LP? Interesting question. This one was in VG condition for the record and M- for the cover. It was an original mono pressing. It sold for $289. My bet is that the misspelling did not impact the final price.

Hal McKusick, Bethlehem 16. This was an original pressing with the deep red label and deep grooves. The record was VG+ or perhaps a little better and the cover was VG++. The start price was $275 and when I looked at this there was one bidder. I was a bit surprised anyone was interested at that price so I kept an eye on it to see if the bidding would go higher. It didn’t.

Lee Morgan, Lee-Way, Blue Note 4034. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing that was in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. As I’ve watched this record through the years, it’s typically topped out in the $500 range, although we’ve seen one in the Jazz Collector Price Guide sell for $847. I expect someday we’ll see this regularly in the $1,000 bin given the quality of the recording, vintage, personnel, etc. Not yet. This one sold for $757.

 

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