Before creating this morning’s post, I want to point you all to the comments on the previous post (From JRC: Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Sonny Rollins): Our friends Rudolf and Michel have begun an interesting discussion on Blue Note versus Prestige. I happen to agree with both of them, but I’ll join the fray by posting a comment. Please take a look, and please express your opinion as well.
We were checking our email and we noticed that the Jazz Record Center is another auction coming up on eBay this week. The check out the link, click here. This one will be quite interesting to watch, since there are at least three records we expect to break the $1,000 barrier, and there are a bunch of other records that will test the softness of the market. When you have a dealer with the sterling reputation of the Jazz Record Center, you are getting the truest sense of market conditions, since bidders don’t have to worry about the veracity and credibility of the seller. In any case, among the top items being auction by Jazz Record center this week are: Lee Morgan, Indeed, Blue Note 1538. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record is M- and the cover is somewhere between VG++ and M-. The current price is $912; Hank Mobley, Soul Station, Blue Note 4031. This one looks M- all the way around and is currently at $777; Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This is a New York pressing in beautiful condition and is currently at $521.
Haven’t done a quiz in awhile and the post on Newk’s Time this morning got me thinking: How did Sonny Rollins get the nickname Newk?
Yes, Rudolf, that is correct. Here’s a picture of Don Newcombe in his Dodgers uniform in the mid-1950s. And below is our Newk in a different kind of uniform.
Here are some items we’ve been watching. I know we’ve been talking about a lull on eBay, but when you look at these prices they seem to be holding pretty steady. All of these will be entered into the Jazz Collector Price Guide as soon as I have time, probably this weekend. By the way, there are no links with these items: Most of the links have appeared somewhere on the site already.
Sonny Rollins, Newk’s Time, Blue Note 4001. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG+ and the cover was VG+. The price was $598.
Jutta Hipp, Jutta, Blue Note 5056. This was an original 10-inch LP in VG+ condition, both record and cover. The price was $330.
Jackie McLean, Capuchin Swing, Blue Note 4038. This seemed to be an original pressing, although the seller didn’t say anything about deep grooves. It was in M- condition, both record and cover, and
We’ve been keeping an eye lately on jazz LPs that sell for more than $1,000, which is particularly interesting in light of some of the softness we’re seeing in other parts of the market. The LP True Blue by Tina Brooks, Blue Note 4041, is one that has broken the $1,000 many times. It is quite rare. In the Jazz Collector Price Guide, we’ve seen a copy go for as much as $2,075. So, we were watching this copy of True Blue this week to see what would happen in a soft market. The record wound up selling for $1,625. What makes this more interesting is that the vinyl was only in VG condition (the cover was VG++). It’s not so unusual these days for rare Blue Notes to top $1,000, but $1,625 for a record in VG condition, is still pretty high. Part of it attests to the rarity of this particular LP, and part, also, to the underlying soundness of the market, at least for the higher-end LPs.
I do have a personal experience with this LP to share:
It’s been two weeks since we posted our latest contest to give away a free collectible, so it is now time to put the eligible names into a hat and round up Mrs. Jazz Collector for our drawing. The traffic has been quite high on the site the past two weeks, and there have been quite a bit of comments, but fewer individuals commenting than we’ve had in the past. Perhaps there’s less interest in this collectible because it is not a record. However, I think these Downbeats are great, and this one, with the Miles Davis Blindfold Test from 1964, is a classic. The eligible names this week are Bethellodge, Dave Sockel, Michel, Rudolf, John, Erich Schultz, Luke and Chris Mitchell. And the names are in the hat (actually they are, as always, strewn across my desk) and Mrs. JC is selecting, and the winner is . . . . .
Here are some of the items we’re watching today on eBay. Things still seem slow, and it will be interesting to keep an eye on the prices of some of these.
Freddie Redd, Shades of Redd, Blue Note 4045. This is an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record and cover are both in VG+ condition. The current price is about $230. In the Jazz Collector Price Guide, we’ve seen this record sell for between $300 and $900 depending upon the condition. It’s a great record if you’re not familiar with it, featuring Tina Brooks and Jackie McLean.
John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074. This is an original New York pressing with the yellow label. The record and cover both look to be in VG+ condition. The current price on this is $74.
Here’s one we’ve been watching with some degree of interest:
Miles Davis All Stars Volume 1, Prestige 196. There’s been a lot of discussion on the site about the level of interest in 10-inch LPs and how it may be waning, even among the most devout collectors. I noticed this one a few weeks ago because it’s a great record with a great cover and the vinyl was in M- condition, perhaps unplayed. The cover looked like something we would rate as VG+, with a partial seam split.
This was first up for auction a couple of weeks ago and received a top bid of $107.50, which failed to reach the seller’s reserve price. The seller put it up again this week and got a top bid of $91.03, also failing to reach the reserve price. So, could we conclude, in today’s market this is now a $100 record?
Things may be slow on eBay this days, but there always seems to be a large appetite for some of the rarest records, and two of the ones we’ve been watching sold for more than $1,000 recently. We haven’t had quite such luck with our own sales although, admittedly, we haven’t been putting up gems. Still, we had more than 50 records up for auction this week and probably sold only about 50 percent. This is highly, highly unusual, since we tend to underprice the records and grade them conservatively. The other thing, and a few readers noted this, is that traffic on eBay seems to be down: Not only are fewer people bidding on the records, fewer people are looking at the records. I think it’s all a temporary lull — a reaction to the economy — and I’m planning to continue posting records on eBay. Whatever doesn’t sell I put into the store inventory, which you can view by clicking the Items For Sale link above, so you may find bargains if you take a look. In the meantime, we continue to track eBay pricing and here are the two records that recently sold for more than $1,000:
Ye ask, and ye shall receive. Bethellodge asks on another post that we start a conversation on the topic: “Why do we collect?”
Here’s my story: I started out, probably like most of us, loving the music for the music’s sake. I remember the sound of jazz in my living room, from my father’s collection, and listening to John Coltrane in between classes at Queens College, and going back and discovering Bird and Dexter and Sonny and Clifford and Ella and so many of my heroes. The albums I found early in my searches are so often among my favorites and the albums I put on the turntable most often. Last night I had a half hour to kill and put on Oscar Peterson, West Side Story. It was like getting together with an old friend. In the beginning it was just about the music: Who cared if a pressing was original, as long as I could listen to the music? At some point, however, it became about more than the music, about finding the original pressing and building a collection. In my case, I know part of it is– and always has been — the thrill
