"the auction" | jazzcollector.com

Bargains? It’s All The Eyes of the Beholder

February 12, 2009 Al 2 comments

Based on a suggestion from one of our readers, we tried to point out a few potential bargains on eBay this week, as we always do. How’d we do? Mixed, I would say. The first one was Phil Woods, Warm Woods, Epic 3436 (you can find the link if you just do a search on the site, which is that little gray bar at the top right). When we spotted this record it was priced at just $30 with only a few hours left in the auction. But, clearly, there were some major bidders waiting in the weeds. The record eventually sold for $434.77. The vinyl was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. Yesterday we pointed out a copy of Count Basie, RCA 1112. This one has a cover by Andy Warhol and has sold for more than $160 in the past. When we spotted this one, it was at $1.99 and sold a few hours later for just $20, so that seems like a bargain in our book. It’s always dangerous for us to go bargain-hunting on the Jazz Collector site: Once we point out the record, it’s no longer a hidden gem but out there for the world to see. So we’ll try our best to be fairly discrete in our pronouncements.

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

October 10, 2008 Al 4 comments

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

Monk’s Music: The $3,000 Question

August 22, 2005 Al 3 comments

In our newsletter last week we re-raised the question about why a copy of Monk’s Music, Riverside 242, recently sold on eBay for more than $3,000. Here are some of the early responses:

“Hi. Great newsletter by the way. I buy a lot of LPs from Atomic and watched that auction in disbelief. I corresponded with the Atomic crew after the auction asking them if there was something special I didn’t know about this particular LP and they said they were blown away at the price and had absolutely no explanation. My explanation is someone’s pocketbook is bigger than their brain Read more

In Search of the Highest Prices

July 29, 2005 Al Leave a comment

I was just tooling around eBay this morning and decided to do a quick search in the Jazz LP category sorted by “Highest Prices First.” I’d never thought to do a search this way and didn’t even realize it was an option. Here are some of the interesting items I found:

Here Comes Louis Smith, Blue Note 1584

Lee Morgan, Indeed, Blue Note 1538

Freddie Redd, Shades of Redd, Blue Note 4045. This is one of my favorite all-time LPs. I only have a Japanese pressing and have never owned the original. Will I bid on this? Perhaps. The price is $150 and the auction closes in nearly four days.

And here’s one you wouldn’t expect to see on a search of highest priced LPs: Louis Armstrong, Hello Dolly. This is from a seller with zero feedback. His asking price is $100. Think he’ll get it? If he does, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’ll be auctioning on eBay next week.

High Prices Rule on eBay

June 29, 2005 Al Leave a comment

Here are the results of the auctions we were watching yesterday.

Curtis Fuller, The Opener, Blue Note 1567. This was an original pressing in VG condition. The price was $190.50, probably a drop lower than I expected. I’ve seen this record sell for $600-plus in near mint condition. Curtis Fuller, New Trombone, Presige 7107. This sold for the same price as the other Fuller: $190.50. However, this one was in worse condition, just VG-. Read more

Billie Record, Warhol Cover

June 15, 2004 Al Leave a comment

More eBay watching today. Here are some of the items and dealers we’re keeping an eye on for you:

Billie Holiday at Jazz At the Philharmonic, Clef 169. This is a 10-inch LP with the beautiful illustration on the cover that is either by David Stone Martin or Andy Warhol. We looked in our price guide for earlier mint copies of this LP and it sold twice recently, for $610 and $325. This copy is also near mint and was only in the $70 range as we posted this.

Our First Newsletter, May 9, 2004

May 9, 2004 Al One comment

Welcome to Jazz Collector. If you’re receiving this, then you’ve been selected for a free subscription to our daily email newsletter. For more information come to our web site at jazzcollector.com. Otherwise, please read on. Woke up in a generous mood this morning, so I delved into the collection and came up with an item to give away to a lucky subscriber. Here it is: Gene Ammons, Live! In Chicago, Prestige 7495. This is an original

« 1 … 37 38 39