Catching Up: What’s a Promo Worth?
Here’s an update on some odds and ends we’ve been watching on eBay:
Zoot Sims, Stretching Out, United Artists 4023. This was an original deep groove mono pressing. It was a promo copy, with a promo stamp and the white label and it was in M- condition, for both the record and the cover. The price was $124. What do you think: Does the promo stamp enhance the value of a record for you, or detract, or neither. I recall in the world of rock albums, the promo stamp was always considered a good thing, but I’ve never heard that one way or another in the jazz world. Which leads me to this LP: Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby, Riverside 399. This was an original pressing with the white promo label. The record was
listed in VG condition, although the seller said it played well, and the cover was also VG. The price was $560. I have a sense that this is one of the jazz records that would be enhanced by the promo markings.
We were also watching a couple of interesting, hard-to-find LPs by Thad Jones, including: Thad Jones, Mad Thad, Period 1208. This was an original pressing and it was listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. The price was $525. There there was this: Thad Jones, The Jones Boys, Period 1210. This was an original pressing. The vinyl was M- and the cover was VG+. The price on this was $130.50. Why the price differential between the two Thad Jones LPs? Who knows? This is eBay, after all.
I place more value on a white label. They tend to be rarer, and more difficult to fake, whereas I tend to believe that stamps can be faked rather easily. If the stamp is on the front, I think it devalues the lp more than if it were on the back. And though I tend to look at the lp as whole when buying it (vinyl + cover), I place more value on clean vinyl than a clean cover. After all, I’m not listening to the cover.