Collectibles Anyone? Astaire, Kenny Drew Riverside

There are quite a few interesting items on eBay now. Here are a couple:

Fred Astaire, The Astaire Story, Mercury 1001 1004. Most of you are probably familiar with this set, produced by Norman Granz in the early 1950s.  There were 1,384 copies produced, all autographed by Astaire, and the set came with four LPs, a booklet with exclusive photos and a set of drawings by David Stone Martin. The music is all jazz even though Astaire was not a “jazz singer,” and the sidemen include many of the greats within the Granz stable, such as Oscar Peterson, Flip Phillips, Ray Brown, Barney Kessel, Charlie Shavers. Anyway, it is quite a nice set and used to regularly sell in the $2,000 range. Our top price in the Jazz Collector Price Guide is

$2,025. Anyway, I noticed this one sitting out there on eBay with a start price of $899 and I’ve been watching it. I also noticed that one of the drawings seems to be missing, so that would definitely impact the price, not having the complete set. I do have a nice copy of this set — complete — and would consider selling it for the right price, which would be in the aforementioned $2,000 range. If anyone is interested, just send me an emal, al@jazzcollector.com.

Here’s another one that, surprisingly, has no bids: Kenny Drew, This is New, Riverside 236. This is an original white label pressing and the vinyl is in M- condition. The cover has a few flaws and looks to be at least VG+. The start price is around $150. We’d expect someone to grab it at that price, but you never know — that’s about the price range at which we’ve tracked the record in the past.