Record Stores, A Birthday, And Some Nostalgia

I miss record stores. There was a time, living here in the New York area, I could sneak out of my office at lunchtime and visit a different record store every day of the week, for several weeks without repeating myself. Just in my area of Long Island and Queens, there was Titus Oaks in Hicksville and Huntington and, if I wanted to be adventurous, Brooklyn; and Radio City in Hempstead, and later another one in Hempstead; and Infinity in Wantaugh; and several Mr. Cheapos; and a guy named Kenny who had one on Union Turnpike in Fresh Meadows and another on Hillside Avenue in Jamaica; and one on Northern Boulevard in Little Neck, and several more, whose names and locations are all muddled together in my memory. Read more

Today on EBay, October 13, 2008

It’s so slow on Ebay today that I couldn’t even find any decent Blue Note or Prestige records to highlight. This is all I could come up with: Zoot Sims, The Modern Art of Jazz, Dawn 1102. This is a nice record, although this one has some condition issues. I mentioned recently that some of the nice Verve records can be had for a decent price. Here’s a record with some nice Stan Getz from the late 1950s: Stan Getz, Award Winner, Verve 8296. This has an original trumpeter label and is in M-/VG++ condition. Current price is around $50, which isn’t too bad. Finally, there’s this one, which generally sells in the $100 or so range: Bill Berry, For Duke, RealTime 101. This is a sealed copy. If you happen to miss and want another sealed copy, there’s another one a few hours later. Click here for a peek. 

Prices: Sonny’s Crib, House of Blue Lights and More

Working today to update the Price Guide, and here are a bunch of the items I’m putting it. I’m not attaching links to any of these because they’ve all already appeared on the site. If you want to look at the record, just do a search and find the original post.

This one had the highest price of all the ones we’re entering: Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This was an original pressing in VG++/VG+ condition. Price: $1,524.99

Eddie Costa, House of Blue Lights, Dot 3206. This was an original pressing in VG++/VG++ condition. Price: $355 Read more

Keeping Track of Some High-End Blue Notes

 

Another Warhol Cover

Another Warhol Cover

As we’re updating the Price Guide, we’ve been inputting some very nice Blue Note LPs from the past few weeks, so here are a few highlights to whet your appetite. When you do look at the Price Guide and want to see the most recent items, click the Timestamp button on the far right and have it sort the items by those most recently entered. Remember, you can sort by artist (last name, first name), label, condition, price and time posted. Anyway, here are some of the Blue Notes going into the Price Guide this weekend:  We’ve been writing a bit lately on Andy Warhol covers. Here’s one that’s familiar to most collectors: Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, Blue Note 1580. This was an original pressing in very nice condition. Price: $1,225 Read more

From the Archives: A $38,000 Bill Evans Letter: A $129,000 Trane Manuscript

Here at Jazz Collector, we usually focus on jazz records, mostly what’s bought and sold on eBay. There are lots of reasons for that but, fundamentally, the reason is that we believe eBay sets the market’s prices. What’s more it’s a public market, so everyone can see it and monitor it and decide if he or she wants to participate. And finally, it’s a true worldwide market. Check out The Great eBay Debate for other opinions. But there are, we recognize, other places for jazz collectibles, and other objects d’jazz than vinyl. We were reminded of this as we were going through our archives and came across this article from 2005 referencing a huge sale of jazz collectibles by the auction house Guernsey’s. I’ll repost the whole item below, but note just a couple of items: The Bill Evans letter to John Coltrane that sold for more than $38,000 and the original manuscript and text for Trane’s A Love Supreme, which sold for more than $129,000.   Read more

Today on Ebay, Oct. 10, 2008

OK, I’ve fallen a bit behind on posting. Here are a few items to keep an eye on today. I’m also going to update the Price Guide with a bunch of new items, and clean out all of the items I’ve been watching, so stay tuned for some new posts and observations.

Charlie Rouse, Yeah!, Epic 16012. This is an original pressing with the yellow label. It is in M-/VG++ condition and is currently at a price of $355.

Lou Donaldson, Sunnyside Up, Blue Note 4036. This is an original pressing, with the original cover, in VG+ condition. Current price: $76

Read more

Today on EBay, October 9, 2008

Quite a slow day on eBay today — tomorrow as well — but we’ve been able to find some interesting items worth watching. Here goes:

The seller Stereojacks has some nice items up today, including: Sonny Rollins, Way Out West, Contemporary 3530. 

The seller goodrecordsnyc has several Mosaic boxed sets, including: The Complete 1959 CBS Charles Mingus Sessions, Mosaic MQ4-143. This includes Mingus’ Columbia LPs, with classic tracks such as Goodbye Porkpie Hat, Better Git It in Your Soul and Fables of Faubus. Read more

Today on eBay, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008

Finally, as promised, here are some of the nice jazz vinyl collectibles for sale on eBay today:

Barry Harris, Live at the Jazz Workshop, Riverside 326. This is an original pressing in nice condition. The current price is more than $190 and, frankly, I didn’t realize this record was in that price range. We’ll keep an eye on this as well as other copies when the come onto the market.

There are a few nice Jackie McLean records on sale today, including: Jackie McLean, Bluesnik, Blue Note 4067. This is an original pressing in nice condition, currently in the $140 price range. And this from Jackie:

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Pres’ Last Recording

 

The Last of Pres

The Last of Pres

Before I get to my post about what’s good on eBay today — and there’s plenty of good stuff — I wanted to single out this LP: Lester Young, Le Dernier Message De Lester Young, Barclay 84 069. This is a first-edition, French pressing and, frankly, I’ve never seen a copy of this in person. It is billed as Lester’s final recording and it has a great Herman Leonard picture of Pres on the cover. If any of our readers can comment on this record, I’d be very curious about some of the details. Thanks.

Monk’s Music, Again, But Not For $3,000

I was starting to scan eBay to do a post on new items, when I came across this record: Thelonious Monk, Monk’s Music, Riverside 242. This is an original white label pressing in decent, but certainly not mint condition. The current price is $47. It’s an interesting one because it is an album that once — one-time-only — actually sold for more than $3,000 on eBay, three-plus years ago. At the time there was considerable discussion and consternation about it, since this had usually been at most a $300-$400 record before that, even in near mint condition. In light of the discussions about eBay (The Great eBay Debate), it’s worth noting that sometimes two people can drive the price of a record way, way beyond prior limits. Having said that, I’m also looking at some of the prices of records we were watching this weekend and, honestly, you’d never expect that there was any kind of global financial crisis going on. I’ll do a follow-up post later today to show you what I mean.

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