For Sale: Louis Armstrong Autograph

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I just posted an interesting item on The Jazz Collector Store on eBay: A copy of the Louis Armstrong autobiography Satchmo, My Life In New Orleans, which is autographed by Louis Armstrong. It is signed in large print on the title page: “To Joel From Satchmo Louis Armstrong.” The Satchmo is underlined. I have a receipt stating that I paid $270 for this item nearly 10 years ago, but I just posted it for $200. I did a quick search on eBay and there are not that many Armstrong autographs available and none quite as strong as this one, since it is an inscribed autobiography. Since the item is in the store and not up on auction, it could go fast, so I wanted to make sure I gave a heads-up to all of you who read Jazz Collector in case you wanted to grab it. If you buy it and tell me you read about it at Jazz Collector, I’ll give you an additional $10 discount. Can’t beat that.

Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 4

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So I finally got home on Monday after my trip to Trenton and massive traffic on the Belt Parkway through Brooklyn and Queens. I started unloading the records, My nosy neighbor was watching. I smiled. “Records,” I said. I’m not sure she knew what I was talking about. The records filled the front foyer of my house. There were seven crates altogether. I had decided to just take everything that Rob had. This included Christmas records, and Aretha Franklin, and some pretty well damaged jazz records. The first two crates I looked through had nothing. Was it all an illusion? In my rush of adrenaline and musk and mold and dust, did I imagine that there were collectible jazz records in this batch? I went searching for the Tina Brooks record. This I knew was a collectible. I grabbed it. The moldy flakes from the cover fell off in my hands. I grabbed the vinyl, went upstairs and put it on my VPI record cleaner. The dust and dirt and grime and mold came off, but the record was in only VG condition. And the cover? It was pretty bad, and it reeked of mold and musk. I threw it in the garbage. Not a good start.

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Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 3

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OK, so I let the nice collection in Hartford slip through my fingers. But I knew there was another option: Trenton, New Jersey. For the past couple of weeks I’d been dealing on line and on the phone with a guy named Rob in Trenton. Rob said his father had a friend who passed away and left his records to Rob’s dad, who had also passed away. Rob had been holding on to the records for years and was now ready to get rid of them. He’d come across Jazz Collector on line and saw some of the prices in the Price Guide and figured maybe they were worth something. We chatted and he sent me a bunch of pictures of records. There were definitely some nice ones in there, but there was no way for me to tell if they were originals or if they were in good condition. So I didn’t get too excited. Besides, I wasn’t sure what Rob wanted to do. At first I thought he might be interested in selling the records himself on eBay, and I told him that, in my opinion, that would be the way to get the best value for the records.

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Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 2

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A couple of months ago my wife, the lovely Mrs. Jazz Collector, wrote a short article about me dragging her and my kids all over the place in my never-ending search for the perfect record score. But lately I’ve been trying to sell records rather than accumulate more, so it hasn’t happened. Then I started Jazz Collector and now, thanks to the Internet, I get at least one or two emails a week from someone looking to sell a jazz collection. I haven’t been tempted. Until last week. On Friday I spoke to a woman in Hartford, Connecticut. She had 2,800 records that had belonged to her late husband. They were sitting in storage. She had no idea what they were worth. There were a lot of Blue Notes and Prestiges and other records she had seen in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. She said she’d been offered $5,000 for the records, but thought they might be worth more. I told her I’d drive up from New York and would see her in a few hours. I dragged along Mrs JC as well as Marty, our dog. We went to the bank and pulled out $7,500 in cash.

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Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 1

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I’ve had a very interesting couple of days. In my life I’ve bought one complete jazz collection, from my best friend Dan Axelrod more than 20 years ago. It was a transaction of convenience: I got to keep the records, and he kept them in the family and could visit them whenever he wants. Since then, I’ve seen collections but either didn’t have the money or the inclination to buy them. Then I started doing Jazz Collector and a few weeks ago I put a little advertisement on the site that states: We BUY Collections. Ever since I put up that ad, I’ve been getting at least one or two inquiries a week and then, on Friday and again yesterday, I looked at two jazz collections. I will write in more detail by the end of the day, so stay tuned, but here’s the bottom line: After driving up and down the New York metro area and up to New England, I am looking across a sprawl of records in my music room that includes nice original pressings of Capuchin Swing, Gil’s Guests, Sonny Rollins Movin’ Out, most of the Coltrane Prestige and Impulse albums, and many, many more. And, of course, I had a blast doing it.

For the Price Guide: Benny Green, Gil Melle, Bill Evans

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Here are a few more items for the Jazz Collector Price Guide. By the time you read this we may have surpassed more than 4,000 records listed in the guide. Not bad. Please take a look.

Bennie Green with Art Farmer, Prestige 7041. This was an original New York pressing. The record was in VG+ condition and the cover was VG+. The price was $131.50. I have a small affinity for this record: I was browsing the $25 cent bin at one of the local record stores on Long Island, and an original copy of this was sitting in there. Clearly the guy who priced jazz records was out ill the day this one arrived in the store. 

Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby, Riverside 399. This was an original blue label mono pressing. The record was VG+ and the cover was VG++. The price was $365. 

Lou Donaldson, Lou Takes Off, Blue Note 1591. This was an original West 63rd Street Read more

Updating the $1,000 Bin

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We’ve been updating the Jazz Collector Price Guide this morning and we just added a fairly  large group of records that surpassed the $1,000 price barrier. We’ve mentioned some of these before on Jazz Collector, but it’s interesting to see the group all at once. There are no links attached to these, by the way, so don’t try clicking them. Here goes:

Bent Axen, Let’s Keep the Message, Debut 133. There are actually two copies of this that fit into the category. They were both in M- condition, both cover and record. One sold for $1,790.90 and the other sold for $1,326.

Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. There are two copies of this as well. One was sold by the Jazz Record Center and was in M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $1,492. the other was in VG++/VG+ condition. It sold for $1,575. Go figure.

Here’s the only one on the list that was a bit of a surprise:

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New Auction from JRC: Have a Cigarette, Please

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We received an email from our friends at Jazz Record Center that they have another eBay auction this week. We’re always interested in what they post. There are a few nice records for sale in this auction, including: Sonny Rollins, Volume 2, Blue Note 1558.  This record looks to be in VG++/VG++ condition, although Jazz Record Center tends to describe their records as opposed to ascribing a rating to them. Anyway, this is already priced a about $150 with nearly five days to go. One of the more interesting items that caught our eye is listed as: Gene Krupa Cigarette Premiums. We’ve never seen these before. Apparently, these were part of a series of cards, like we have baseball cards in the U.S., given away to help promote cigarette brands in Europe. Pretty interesting. We’ve included the picture.

On eBay: Jackie’s Bag, Gil Melle

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I’ve been putting some decent records on eBay in the past few weeks. This week I have a nice copy of Jackie McLean, Jackie’s Bag, Blue Note 4051, that’s already selling for more than $100. and has already been viewed more than 100 times. It will be closing tomorrow. Another interesting item is this one: Gil Melle, Primitive Modern, Prestige 7040.  This is an original New York pressing in very nice condition. The current price is only $49, which is a bit of a surprise. Last week a copy in M-/VG++ condition sold for nearly $200. While this copy is not M-, it sounds quite nice. Sometimes I wonder of I grade too conservatively, but I hate it when customers are not happy, having been on that end of the transaction too many times myself. Anyway, it’s probably worth taking a look at some of the items we’re selling these days. A few weeks ago we decided that we wouldn’t just sell doubles anymore and that we would delve into the collection. Our goal is to put out at least one really nice collectible on eBay every single week. So, please, stay tuned.

Another for The $1,000 Bin

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I was up in Providence this weekend and couldn’t get over to visit Steve over at Round Again Records on Wickenden Street, which I usually try to do when I visit the city. It would have been a good time to go: Round Again had a very nice copy of Lee Morgan Volume 3, Blue Note 1557, which closed yesterday on eBay. The record was in M- condition and the cover looked like a VG++. The record sold for $1,675 and had nearly 300 views. Like many dealers, Steve puts a lot of his best stuff on eBay these days, for good reason: It’s hard to imagine someone walking into a shop and paying $1,675 for a record, although it happens with increasing frequency on eBay. Still, there are always good items to browse at Round Again, so if you’re in Providence, it’s definitely worth the trip. And say hi to Steve for us.

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