Catching Up: Flanagan, Clifford, Jackie’s Bag

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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Putting a Name on the Jazz Vinyl Fraud

As Rudolf pointed out in a comment yesterday, Nautiluso, perpetrator of the Jazz Vinyl Fraud of 2009, is no longer a registered user on eBay, so the public information about him is slowly starting to disappear. There was a point at which he had a My World page, but that is gone. You can still see on eBay that he had been a member since June 8, 2003 — in Germany. Personally, I’m not sure he was ever based in Brazil: It’s likely he had an accomplice mail from a Brazil mailing address because he believed it would provide a safe haven. The thing about this guy is, for several years he was probably a legitimate seller and probably used his real name in communicating with customers. I will tell you the name he used: Thomas Lamprecht. If you had any dealings with him, please let us know. What’s also starting to disappear from eBay are

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Buyers File $30,000 in Fraud Claims Vs. Nautiluso

In the past two days five buyers have filed 21 instances of negative feedback against Nautiluso and have indicated in their feedback posts that they have filed claims with eBay. The actual number of records involved was higher — 24 records in total — because some of the feedback actually registered as positive, accidentally we presume. You can check out the feedback comments here, but here are some samples:

“Buyers be aware! 10/10 jazz auction was a mere fake; you’ll never get your recs!”

“Never received the record. No communication from seller. Claim filed with Paypal”

“Never received the item, filed claim with Ebay and Paypal…”

“Records never delivered. There is not a response at all either.”

If those comments are not bad enough here is the piece de resistance, from a classical buyer:

“The contents are 100% different Useless trash Search with Q123Q word.”

So the assumption on that last buyer is that he received a package from Nautiluso, probably timed to arrive after the 45-day time limit for filing a claim with eBay, and the contents of the package were not relective of those that he had won on the auction. We’ll do more reporting on this later today and tomorrow, but so far the tally is as follows:

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eBay Responds To Nautiluso Questions (Sort Of)

If we’re going to get to the bottom of the Nautiluso case, eBay is probably not going to be all that helpful, based on the initial response from their public relations people to our inquiries. We posed a few questions and actually had hoped to speak to someone directly at eBay, but we wound up talking to a PR person from an outside firm and she relayed the questions and relayed the responses. We’ll follow up again after the Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, this is what eBay has to say about Nautiluso:

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A Winning Nautiluso Bidder: Still No Record

We finally tracked down one of the buyers from the Nautiluso auction. Paul Sagerman is a collector in Tuscon, Ariz. He had purchased the LP: Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington on Riverside. It was an original pressing in near mint condition and the price was between $500 and $600. Sagerman was the one who had original filed the negative feedback on Nautiluso back on October 14 when he suspected that the auction was not legitimate. However, he withdrew the negative feedback after he learned that the seller would accept Pay Pal. So far, Sagerman has not received his record and has filed a dispute with eBay. Originally, Sagerman said he had planned to bid on about 20 records, but was concerned when the seller did not respond to his questions. “I asked for a scan of the label, a scan of the back cover and

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On Ebay: Evaluating and Re-Evaluating

Had an interesting eBay experience today. I’m selling a bunch of records now on eBay. Here’s one, for example: Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland Volume 2, Blue Note 1522. This is a Lexington Avenue pressing if anyone is interested. Anyway, a potential buyer asked about another record I had listed. He wanted to know if there was any surface noise. I had listed the item in VG+ condition. When I listed it last week, I listened to one side and it was clean. When I got the question this morning, I listened to the other side, which did, indeed, have some surface noise. I felt like my original listing was a bit misleading, so I ended the auction early and

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This Weekend on eBay: A Pastiche of Blue Note

Here is some of the jazz vinyl we’re watching on eBay this weekend:

Hank Mobley, Hank, Blue Note 1568. This one of the rare ones. We’ve monitored a bunch of them on the Jazz Collector Price Guide and they’ve sold for as high as $2,600. This one is listed as VG++ for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. The starting price for this one is $2,000 and, as of now, with about 20 hours left in the auction, there are no bidders. Will that continue?

The seller roverd-90 has some really nice 10-inch LPs for sale this weekend, including:

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Jackie: Swing, Swang and Not Swingin’

I found my bid on the Jackie McLean record from the big Nautiluso auction last week: Jackie McLean, Swing, Swang, Swingin’, Blue Note 4024. This looked to be a beautiful original pressing in near mint condition, quite lovely. Anyway, I bid $345, figuring maybe people would get scared off by the magnitude of the auction. It sold for $828. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to stick with my Liberty pressing, electronically re-recorded to simulate stereo. Yuck.

An Avalanche of Thousand-Dollar-Plus Jazz Vinyl

We’ve been off line for a couple of days, just got back, went to My Ebay and noticed that the auctions of the seller Nautiluso are now in the midst of closing. Wow! Wait till you see these prices. Here’s a start:

Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims, Blue Note 1530. Like most of the others in this group, this was listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price was $3,342.99.

J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. Condition: M- for record and cover. Price: $2,247.22

Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. Condition: M-. Price: $1,175

Hank Mobley With Donald Byrd and Lee Morgan, Blue Note 1540. Condition: M-. Price: $1,705.

Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. Condition: M-. Price: $2,247.

Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby, Riverside 399. Condition: M-
Price: $1,500.

As noted, this is just a small sampling. There will be more to come. It would be great if some of the winners of this vinyl will report back to us on the condition and whether these records are, indeed, as pristine as they seem.

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