On eBay: A Rare Rollins Prestige Plus Two

If you think the Monk Prestige cover was great, check out this one: Sonny Rollins Quintet, Prestige 186. This is an original 10-inch pressing. I’m a huge Rollins fan and I’ve been collecting for more than 40 years and not only do I not own a copy of this record, I’ve never seen it. It must be quite rare. I would love to have it, yet the price is already more than $400 and I can’t bring myself to spend what it would take to win this. It’s more the principle than the money: Too many years of hunting for bargains, I guess. Anyway, I will be jealous of the winner at whatever price.

There’s a bunch of other interesting jazz vinyl on eBay now as well, including: Rocky Boyd, Ease It, Jazztime JT001. This is a among a nice collection listed by Round Again Records up in Providence, which I have mentioned here before as

a store definitely worth visiting. I guess the owner, Steve, must have bought a jazz collection, so congratulations. This one is M- for the record and VG+ or the cover and is already at more than $660. Like the Rollins 10-incher, it also features Kenny Dorham on trumpet. When you look at this one, you should probably look at other listings from the seller because there are a few nice collectibles.

I’ll file this one under a category of “records I’m tempted to purchase because it looks so nice even though I already have a copy in nice condition:” Stan Getz Plays, Clef 137. This is the 10-inch version with the David Stone Martin cover and it is in VG++ condition for the record and M- for the cover and the picture of the cover accompanying the record looks absolutely pristine. When I first saw this last night, it was at about $30 and I was thinking I should bid because when will I see this record in this condition again. But I looked at my copy and it’s certainly good enough. This one is still only $41 and there’s less than two hours to go and if it goes for less than $100 it will be quite a steal. Not only a great cover, but great music as well.

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30 comments

  • Hi Al, the Rollins 10inch is really a beauty! Maybe you should buy the record and promise to sell dublicates with an equivalent sum? From a business point you are just swapping…the banc account will look the same after this procedure 🙂

  • Yes, GW, as I said it’s the principle not the money. Perhaps I’ll bend, but I still dream of the day when I will see this record somewhere for $20 . . .

  • WHAT A LUCKY GUY I AM, HAVING BOUGHT THESE GOODIES WHEN NOBODY WANTED EVEN TO LOOK AT A 10″ RECORD SINCE IT WAS ALL READILY AVAILABLE ON 12″.
    MY 10″ CONTEMPORARY, BLUE NOTE, PRESTIGE AND PACIFIC JAZZ ARE AMONGST THE MOST PRIZED OBJECTS IN MY COLLECTION.

  • To Al: Good luck finding it for 20 USD!
    To Rudolf: When I was about 15 years of age the industry changed from Vinyl to CDs…I grabbed as many Vinyls as my poor earnings from some holiday jobs allowed…but the 10inchers had long be gone then.

  • GW: unfortunately, I am not as young as you. When I was 15 years old, the industry changed from 10″ to 12″ and me too, I worked wednesdays afternoons, saturdays and holidays, to buy 10″ leftovers at sales prices.

  • This Rocky Boyd album, has got more value with the years. i’d like to own more Jazzline records, espacially, Hush, by Duke Pearson.

  • Rudolf, as a long term collector of 10″s do you find that they’ve always been very undervalued relative to 12″s. I think that up until this year, I could always find 10″s at good prices. I started collected them a few years ago when a lot of the Blue Notes I’m missing started being priced extremely high. Outside of the Charlie Parker dials and a handful of others I’ve been able to come across 10″s with great lineups in NM for like $30. But recently the prices have been jumping too. I guess with the high prices of other collectible records people are reevaluating them.

  • Mike: I noticed that 10″ LP’s are coming down a bit. It is very much artist related. I think the most expensive 10″ is the Mobley quartet on Blue Note, which was never on 12″. The two Herbie Nichols 10inchers are rare too, since never on 12″. But H. Nichols is not a “popular” artist. The Dials are high priced, but I don’t like the label for its artistic presentation. I have the Dial masters on Vogue and Baronet and that is fine with me.
    The time of finding valuable items for $ 30 may come back, esp. for West Coast labels.
    Do you know the two 10″ West Coast records on Blue Note? Not on 12″.

  • The Rollins sold for $510. I thought it would get more. In retrospect, if I’d bid and won this at $510, or something in that ranged, I’d have been quite pleased.

  • I recently purchased a prestige Rollins 10 inch and was amazing by the sound quality. even better than the west 50th 12inch prestige lps. wow!

  • I agree with Rudolf: some of my favorite albums are the 10″ from Pacific Jazz, Contemporary and Prestige. My favorite 10″ sets are George Wallington and Teddy Charles. While I am writing this, I am listening to Kai Winding’s 1963 album of the same title on Verve. I purchased the record for 69 cents at a thrift ship in Los Angeles, while visiting my 2 kids. Also, you would not believe how many 10″ jazz records I have picked up in LA thrift stores for $1.00… They remain one of the great treasures of Jazz. Now I just switched records, and I am listening to the 10″ Claude Thornhill record that has some Gill Evans arrangements, incuding Snowfall…..another thrift store buy…

  • Erich, the lowest I got them was 8 francs at the Paris flea market for the Monk solo album on the(French)Swing label. There was a whole stack of them, brand new. The Norgrans and Clefs are gems too. The Getz Al spotted yesterday, what a beauty!

  • To Rudolf: When buying the leftover LPs i was not very aware of labels and pressings due to my age and knowledge – so e.g. a range of mid 80s Riverside represses found a new home… for sure no collectables, but they offered me the possibility to explore this music – and the price was only about 1 USD each. Luckily at least some Bergenfield Prestiges also found their way back then at my shelf for the same price.

  • guys,can u please tell me why 10% of records I’m looking for is 150-500 $ and 90% over 500 $ ?
    10″ to 12″,just the same thing.
    ok I’m collecting since late 60’s but today is really hard to complete a nice collection even for not rookies.
    and a cat starting today ?

  • Quote : “guys,can u please tell me why 10% of records I’m looking for is 150-500 $ and 90% over 500 $ ?”

    Because 90 % of the collectors are looking for the same record as you (and me) :-/

  • And since I’m a true rookie, moving from seventies funk to original 1st jazz pressings, I can assure you, dottorjazz: there’s a whole lot of fat pocketed buyers out there that buy up all the good material, just in order to resell it at mind boggling prices later on. It’s kinda like an original Van Gogh painting that never hung over someone’s fireplace, no: it just moved year after year from one buyer to the other, each of them making more dough with every transaction, before it finally ended up in a museum after the last owner died, leaving family behind that didn’t know what to do with the gem. Isn’t it startling to think about the possibility that maybe all of the current sold items are not going to end up in anyone’s cabinet, but that they’re just being moved to and fro from one seller to the other to the Nth power?
    Mattyman

  • Its a “more newbie than you” moment. I didn’t start listening to or buying jazz until eighteen months ago. I never listened to it before, I can listen to nothing else since. I can attest to the claim that it is very expensive building a collection from a zero base today. Certainly, impossible if you set your standard as originals and first pressings. You buy whatever comes your way at a near sensible price. I figure I haven’t had a lifetime to build a collection, so I accept that I need to buy more quickly, have some less good reissues, and try to get used to tics and the odd scratch. For big-ticket ebay auctions, its just fun to watch the closing ten seconds. Its like spending other people’s money. Very cheap.

  • that’s maybe true:I never bought a record to resell.yesterday,70’s to 90’s I could buy 2-3 hundred records per year.in the last decade the number is sunk.this year 3 (three) and now I can afford much more than when I was younger.As Rudolf has said,we should have purchased much more in the past.but believe me,today’s difficulty in bringin’ some “new” gem home,is really wellcome by me.
    what could I do,in terms of research,time and passion,if I should complete my collection ?
    I don’t wanna do it:I want to get on searchin’,biddin’,loosin’,seldon winnin’.and remember,you and all the readers in this community younger or older:that single record exists out there and if you are patient enough you’ll bring it on home someday.

  • dottorjazz: thanks for supporting the ones with a smaller collection…I still have quite a lot to bring home. For me it is the same like for London Calling. Though I always bought some jazz lps i was really hooked only 2 years ago. Before I was listeing to a wider spread field of music…but a lot of it sounds now really limited compared to the great compositions from the 60s Jazz-musicians. I am glad I am on the way and I am exited what beauties are still waiting to discover!

  • One question besides: Has anyone a copy of Bill Evan’s “Portrait in Jazz” on Riverside to spare? I am looking for it for quite a while…

  • I have a blue label one I could part with

  • What a relief to read that some of the ‘regulars’ here deal with the same thing! 🙂 Although I started collecting jazz in the early nineties on CD (just wait for my guest column) and built quite a stash since, it wasn’t until last year that I began looking for the vinyl originals; hence my frustration sometimes. But since more of us are dealing with the sky rocketing prices I now know I shouldn’t let it get to me too much. And dottorjazz had the nicest pay-off for this discussion: “That single record exists out there and if you are patient enough you’ll bring it on home someday”. 😉
    Mattyman

  • Dear All,

    Just a side question regarding rare vinyl: Is there any way to find out if Blue Note plans to re-issue the two albums of Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House?. In Amazon.com they are listed as “currently unavailable” and/or as expensive Japanese imports.

    Thank you,

    Paul

  • Paul I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting. I foolishly bought a Blue Note Treasures 2009 reissue (EMI Special Markets) of Joe Hendersons “Page One” It was anodyne, bland, pointless. Blue Note management simply do not understand how to make records that match up to original pressings. They think “make it thick vinyl” job done. Fail.

    If you want it badly enough, there is one out there, fight for it.

  • Paul, You looking for CD or Vinyl? I don’t know if they ever re-issued on CD. I guess only in Japan.

  • Paul, I bought the two Jutta Hipp Hickory House volumes on two Japanese CD re-issues a while ago on Amazon, but then through the always present “available from these sellers” option. I paid less then 20 US dollars for each of them and they were still sealed in their original cellophane wrappers, complete with the “obi” and all. In my eyes a true bargain!
    Mattyman

  • Happy Sunday everybody! Yesterday I was at the KZSC Record Swap at the University of Calif. Santa Cruz campus. Every jazz album I purchased was from 25 cents to $2. I got 20+ CTI’s from the 1970’s, some 1960’s World Pacific (including some Chet Baker’s), some 1960-1970’s Miles Davis’, two Gabor Szabo’s on Impulse, and other things. Obviously no blue notes or pacific jazz, but if you were looking for good 1960-1970’s jazz it was great. Most of the dealers selling in bulk had purchased the records from estate sales, and were just trying to blow them out. There is also a twice yearly record show at the University of San Francisco where I have seen similar prices. These sales work for me when I want to survey an artist across several decades, as I am doing right now with Miles Davis, Paul Desmond, and others.

  • Well, Erich, I have to say I’m jealous. 20+ CTI records from the 1970s… I hope you also found the David Matthews “Dune” release, ’cause that one truly is a collector’s item, as are many others. I found many CTI pressings during my seventies funk collector’s years 😉
    Mattyman

  • To Jack: I have been away over the weekend, therefore the late answer re “Portrait in Jazz” – which sounds nice. Can you send some details?
    Regards, Gunter

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