Today on Ebay, January 28, 2009

Quite a lot to view today on a snowy day in New York. Here are some of the nicer and more interesting items we are watching at Jazz Collector: This is one of our favorite records from one of our favorite sellers: Art Taylor, AT’s Delight, Blue Note 4047. This is an original West 63rd Street pressing being offered by Euclid Records. The vinyl is in M- condition and the cover is VG++. The current price is about $230. Also from Euclid Records is a beautiful copy of John Coltrane, Blue Train, Blue Note 1577. This one is currently priced at $365. 

This is one of interest to us: Johnny Glasel, Jazz Session, ABC Paramount 165. This is also from one of our favorite sellers, Analogman on Long Island, aka Infinity Records. About 25 years ago we purchased a collection and this record was in there primarily, we think, because of the presence of Dick Garcia on guitar. So it’s one of these records that’s been sitting on the shelf for 25 years and we’ve never played it. We’ve also rarely seen it on eBay, so we’re interested to see what it will sell for. We’ll try to listen to it later today and give you a report.

Today on eBay, January 27, 2009

Here are some interesting items coming up on eBay today. Also, make sure you see the post we did at Jazz Collector earlier on The Blue Note Story and please post a comment on the site so you’re eligible to win the free copy of Hank Mobley, Workout, Blue Note 84080. Now, without further ado, today’s records:

This seller, recordgraveyard1, has a bunch of records up today, most with pretty high start prices. This is one of the ones that started high but has already received several bids: Duke Pearson, Hush, Jazz Line 3302. The record is in VG++ condition, and the cover is VG+. The current price is $339.  Also from this seller, with no bids yet, is Donald Byrd, Byrd’s Eye View, Transition 4. This is an original pressing that looks to be in VG condition, perhaps a little better. There is no booklet. The starting asking from is $349. We’ll see if it sells. 

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The Blue Note Story

So the other day I was reorganizing my records, which I do every couple of months, and I took out an old Sidney Bechet record on Blue Note and inside the sleeve found this great little pamphlet, called The Blue Note Story. It’s a four-pager on a coated paper and it clearly dates from 1955 — it talks about Blue Note starting in 1939 — 16 years ago. It is written by Leonard Feather and measures 8-1/2 inches high by 5-1/2 inches wide, which is basically a standard 8-1/2-by-11 sheet folded in half. I will post the entire contents of this pamphlet momentarily. How this rates as I collectible, I have no idea. I do know that, in my view, it’s a helluva a lot more interesting than the Bechet record. I must have three or four dozen Lexington Avenue Blue Notes in my collection — including 10-inch and 12-inch LPs — and I’ve never found this pamphlet in any of the others.

So here’s what it says:

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Sonny, Jackie, Miles & Bird for the Price Guide

Here are some items we’ll be adding to the Jazz Collector Price Guide today: 

Sonny Rollins With the Modern Jazz Quartet, Prestige 7029. This is an original New York pressing with the original Orange cover and the wrong catalogue number. It’s a very rare piece and this one was in M- condition, both record and cover. Price: $760

Johnny Griffin Sextet, Riverside 264. This was an original blue label pressing. The record was M- and the cover was VG++. Price: $294

Thelonious Monk, The Unique, Riverside 209. This was an original white label pressing. The record was VG+ and the cover was VG. The price was $161.50. Also from Monk: Thelonious Monk With Sonny Rollins, Prestige 7075. This was an original New York pressing. The record was VG++ and the cover was VG++. The price was $180.49.

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Today on Ebay, January 26, 2009

Quite a fair number of nice items on eBay today. At Jazz Collector, we have a few items up there this week, and we’re hoping to post several more. To view our items, you can just click Items For Sale above. We’ve got a couple of decent pieces up there, including Wynton Kelly, Kelly at Midnite, VeeJay 3011. This one is in nice condition and is only priced at about $20 at this point. In the Jazz Collector Price Guide, we’ve seen a promo copy of this record sell for $148. We’re also working on adding an e-commerce module to the Web site, so we can sell collectibles right from here. Stay tuned for an update on that — we should be rolling with it this week.  

Here are a few interesting items for sale today:

Kenny Burrell and Art Blakey, On View at the Five Spot Cafe, Blue Note 4021. This is an original West 63rd Street pressing that looks to be in M- condition, both record and cover. The current price is $280.

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Today on Ebay, January 25, 2009

It’s like a smorgasbord of nice collectible jazz vinyl on eBay today. We’ll try to point to a few of the more interesting items. Here’s one that really caught our eye: Charlie Parker, Bird on 52rd Street, Jazz Workshop 501. This is an original pressing in what the seller describes as M- condition, both vinyl and cover. It’s really rare to see a copy of this record in this condition. The current price is about $160. We’ll see what it goes for. Here’s one going for a high price even though the record is listed in VG condition and the cover is VG-: Helen Merrill, Emarcy 36006. This is the LP with Clifford Brown. The current price is $231.  This seller, Eclecticpicks, has a bunch of nice items, closing pretty soon, including: Miles Davis Volume 2, Blue Note 1502. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing. Both the record and cover are listed in VG+ condition. The current price is $170.

New Items For the Price Guide, January 25, 2009

Catching up on a Sunday morning with some of the items we’ve been watching on eBay. Here’s one that did not sell, as we expected: Jazz At Massey Hall Volume 3, Debut 2. This was an original 10-inch pressing. The record and cover were VG+. The seller put a base price of $200 on it and did not get any bids.  Here’s another that did not sell because it didn’t meet the seller’s reserve price: Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was listed in VG+ condition and the cover was VG. The top bid was $235.49. In the Jazz Collector Price Guide, we’ve seen this record go from around $240 to as much as $650.  This record is a particular favorite of ours — love how he does If I Love Again — and the copy in our collection is a Japanese pressing, and we would love an original pressing, someday, when the price is right. 

One of the ones on which we did bid was this: Jackie McLean, Alto Madness, Prestige 7114. Again, we have this in our personal collection, but our copy is the New Jazz reissue (actually, it’s worse than that — it’s really a Status reissue). The vinyl was in VG condition

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Today on EBay, January 24, 2009

Pretty light day on eBay today, but here are a few items to perk up your Saturday:

There are two copies of Jackie McLean, Alto Madness, Prestige 7114. They are from different sellers and close at different times. This one is listed as VG for the record and VG+ for the cover. The current price is $42 with four bidders. The next one actually closes tomorrow. It is currently at about $100 and is listed in VG condition by the seller. 

Here’s a nice original mono pressing of Donald Byrd, Live at the Half Note Volume One, Blue Note 4060. This has the West 63rd street address. The vinyl looks to be VG++ and the cover VG++ as well. The current price is just $51. 

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How About Another Free Record?

OK, now that we’re back posting regularly again, it’s time to give away another free record. So far we’ve done two giveaways: An OJC copy of The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer, Prestige 7066 and a copy of Wayne Shorter, Adam’s Apple, Blue Note 84232. For the next giveaway we have another Blue Note: Hank Mobley, Workout, Blue Note 84080. This is not an original pressing — we’re generous, but not THAT generous — but, instead, is a 1988 reissue from EMI-Manhattan records. The record and cover include the original packaging, including the liner notes from Leonard Feather. Both the record and cover are in M- condition, very nice. Personnel on this LP includes Mobley, Grant Green on guitar, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. It was originally recorded on March 26, 1961. 

We have one copy of this to give away, so we will conduct a drawing. In order to participate in the drawing all you have to do is comment on the site — you can comment on this post or ANY post — between now and the end of the day on Feb. 4. This gives you more than two weeks to comment anywhere on the site. At the end of the day on Feb. 4 — which happens to be my birthday — we will put all of the names of the participants into a hat and ask our lovely bride, Mrs. Jazz Collector, to pull out one lucky winner. Then we will send the record to that person for no charge at all — we will even pay for the shipping. So good luck to all, and we hope to see some of your comments on the Jazz Collector site.

Upgrading the Jazz Collector Price Guide

We’ve just added a new feature to the Jazz Collector Price Guide that should make it simpler — and more fun — to browse through all of the records. On the main page of the Price Guide, the listings appear as they always have, 50 on a page, more than 75 pages and all of the items searchable. This is fine for what it is, but it makes it very difficult to browse and compare, say, an Eric Dolphy record against a Freddie Hubbard record. What we’ve done now, is created pages where ALL of the records are listed on each page, so you can just go up and down, comparing and contrasting. We’ve also made these pages sortable by Artist, by Label (want to contrast all the Blue Notes?), by Price (so you can look at the highest-priced records all at once) and by Time Entered (so you can browse the most recent additions to the Price Guide).  In order to view the records all at once, just go to the Price Guide page and click on the link: View The Complete List Price Guide. We’re also trying to clean up some other aspects of the Price Guide, so that the listings are less random, but we think this change will add a lot of value and interest to the Price Guide. If you have a moment, please let us know what you think. Thanks.