Collectibles Anyone? Astaire, Kenny Drew Riverside

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There are quite a few interesting items on eBay now. Here are a couple:

Fred Astaire, The Astaire Story, Mercury 1001 1004. Most of you are probably familiar with this set, produced by Norman Granz in the early 1950s.  There were 1,384 copies produced, all autographed by Astaire, and the set came with four LPs, a booklet with exclusive photos and a set of drawings by David Stone Martin. The music is all jazz even though Astaire was not a “jazz singer,” and the sidemen include many of the greats within the Granz stable, such as Oscar Peterson, Flip Phillips, Ray Brown, Barney Kessel, Charlie Shavers. Anyway, it is quite a nice set and used to regularly sell in the $2,000 range. Our top price in the Jazz Collector Price Guide is

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Monterose For the $2,000 Bin

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Here’s a nice one coming up from Euclid Records: J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record is VG++ and the cover is VG+. The current price is about $530. Speaking of J.R., one of his albums recently sold for more than $2,000: J.R. Monterose In Action, Studio 4 SS 100. This was an original pressing that looked to be M- for the record and VG++ for the cover. The price was $2,025, either enhanced or depressed by the signature of a local disk jockey on the back. Signatures can be tricky, especially if it’s not the signature of one of the artists. By the

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Catching Up: Flanagan, Clifford, Jackie’s Bag

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Some of the auctions we’ve been watching just closed, so here’s an update:

Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. This was an original New York pressing sold by Euclid Records. It was in VG+ condition for both the cover and the vinyl. It sold for $722.02. This is a bit less than we might have anticipated, although condition was a factor. We’ve found things a little slow on eBay this week — we had a bunch of reasonably priced records that didn’t sell at all, which was quite unusual. Perhaps there’s a pre-Christmas lull?

That Blue Note vs. French Vogue competition we were watching from Jazz Record Center? As we expected, the Blue Note commanded the higher price: $430 for Blue Note 5048 versus $256.36 for the French Vogue. You can look at our previous posts for more details on the records, as well as links. The more interesting one out of that group was: Clifford Brown Quartet, Blue Note 5047. This seems to be harder

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On eBay Now: Some Nice 10-Inchers, Trane, Evans

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Some of the heavy-duty jazz vinyl sellers have auctions closing in the next couple of days, so let’s see what’s coming up. We had mentioned Jazz Record Center and some of the 10-inch LPs. So far, the American 10-inch Blue Note is beating out the original French Vogue: The Gigi Gryce and Clifford Brown Sextet, Blue Note 5048, is currently at $107 with two bidders (it should sell for a lot more), while the original French Vogue, Gigi Gryce and his Orchestra Featuring Clifford Brown, Vogue 173 is at $100 with one bidder (it too should sell for a lot more). Jazz Record Center also has a few nice 12-inch LPs we are watching, including this one: Wheelin’ and Dealin’, Prestige 7131. This is an original New York pressing in near mint condition. It features an all-star sax lineup of John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette and Frank Wess. It is currently in the $300 price range.

Our friends at Euclid Records also have some nice items this week, including:

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A Tale of Two Covers

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I’ve never been one to collect European pressings of original American LPs but I have to admit my heart fluttered a bit when I was browsing eBay this morning and came upon this: Sonny Rollins, Worktime, Esquire 32-308. Now this is an awesome cover. The drawing is reminiscent of David Stone Martin. I, frankly, hadn’t seen this cover before so I’m hoping someone out there has more knowledge about it and can share it. I just think it’s a terrific cover all the way around, and clearly some bidders on eBay agree with me: The record and cover are in about VG condition and the price is already more than $300 with 10 bids. It will be interesting to see what this goes for, and to learn more about it as well. I did a quick Google search and didn’t find anything, but I’ll take a longer look later if no one in the audience has the info.

Another record with a very interesting cover closing today is:

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Price Guide Update: Some More Blue Notes

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Here are some of the items we’ll be entering into the Jazz Collector Price Guide:

Ike Quebec, It Might As Well Be Spring, Blue Note 4105. This was an original New York USA mono pressing. The record looked to be in VG++ condition and the cover was VG+. The price was $387, which sets a new high not only for this LP but for any of the Ike Quebec Blue Notes. It’s a bit of a surprise to us, frankly, but a clear indication of the power of the Blue Note market.

Although . . . you look at this record and are a bit surprised it sold for so much less than the Quebec record: Jackie McLean, New Soil, Blue Note 4013. This was an original West 63rd mono pressing and it was listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $192.28. I have a weird explanation for this as a longtime observer of eBay auctions: On the Jackie record, instead of listing the record as VG+, the seller listed it as VG plus. I’m not sure some people may have just looked at it as VG. Normally, you’d expect this record to sell for at least $300 or so, even in VG+ condition. Sometimes little subtleties in the listings can make a difference.

Here’s another Blue Note:

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New JRC Auction: Nice 10-Inch Blue Notes

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Jazz Record Center sent us an email with a new auction on eBay. It’s always interesting to watch their auctions, since they tend to get top dollar because of their strong and well-deserved reputation. One thing I’m noticing with this auction is that some of the starting prices seem a bit lower than usual. Here’s an example: Gigi Gryce and Clifford Brown Sextet, Blue Note 5048. This is an original 10-inch pressing that looks to be in either near mint or VG++ condition. The start price is $100. My sense is, a couple of years ago, JRC would have started this more in the range of $250. I personally think a relatively lower start price is a better way to go for most records, since it gets more bidders involved in the process. In the end, I’ll bet this record sells for at least $300-$400, if not higher. There are some other nice records on this list as well, including Clifford Brown Quartet, Blue Note 5047. I’ve rarely seen that one either on eBay or live and up close. The price on that is also at $100 and we’ll expect it to fetch quite a bit more.

Updates: Overseas, Hipp & Zoot, Shades of Redd

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The seller bluenipper had some nice items close yesterday, including:

Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. This was an original New York pressing. The record was VG++ (or better) and the cover was M-. The price was $2,126.33. Our top for this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide is around $2,400, so this is certainly within the range.

Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims, Blue Note 1530. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was listed as VG++ and the cover as somewhere between VG+ and VG++. The price was $1311. The most recent copy we’ve seen of this in near mint condition sold for $3,343, but that was from Nautiluso, the Jazz Vinyl Fraud perpetrator, so we’re not sure how to count that. It’s legitimate in that the bidding got it to that price, but were there tricks that spiked

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: For Love or Money

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I’m still doing my Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Selling more records, writing about them a bit less. However, I did make a couple of interesting decisions in the past couple of weeks I’d like to share. In the course of doing the Jazz Collector Price Guide I logged a copy of this record: Zoot Sims and Joe Newman, Lockin’ Horns, Rama 1003. It sold for $260 in near mint condition and had sold for more than $400 in the past. I happened to know I had a nice copy of this record, a promo, and I happened to know that I had not listened to it in 25 years, since I bought it. So the question was: Keep it or sell if for the bread. I listened to the record and it’s actually very nice. But, I thought to myself, would I ever listen to it again: Not likely. I have a lot of Zoot records that I prefer, so this one probably wouldn’t make it off the shelves. So I put it up on eBay with a start price of around $50, no reserve, and it sold for about $215. That was fine by me. The second recent incident involved a rare Blue Note and a higher price tag:

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