Monk’s Music, Again, But Not For $3,000
I was starting to scan eBay to do a post on new items, when I came across this record: Thelonious Monk, Monk’s Music, Riverside 242. This is an original white label pressing in decent, but certainly not mint condition. The current price is $47. It’s an interesting one because it is an album that once — one-time-only — actually sold for more than $3,000 on eBay, three-plus years ago. At the time there was considerable discussion and consternation about it, since this had usually been at most a $300-$400 record before that, even in near mint condition. In light of the discussions about eBay (The Great eBay Debate), it’s worth noting that sometimes two people can drive the price of a record way, way beyond prior limits. Having said that, I’m also looking at some of the prices of records we were watching this weekend and, honestly, you’d never expect that there was any kind of global financial crisis going on. I’ll do a follow-up post later today to show you what I mean.
I was looking up my original post on the $3,000 copy of this LP and found it, from August 2005. Here it is:
Speaking of Monk and Trane, here’s one that really caught my eye: A copy of Monk’s Music, Riverside 342, that sold on eBay recently for $3,061.50. That’s right – more than $3,000 for Monk’s Music on Riverside. It looked like a bidding war among four buyers. This record was viewed 1,215 times, which is more than I recall for any other jazz record. I did a quick search of the price guide at https://www.jazzcollector.com. We had one copy listed with the white label. It was in VG++/VG+ condition and sold for $366 in March. Inflation? Rising prices? Condition? Is there any rational reason why this record would sell for more than $3,000? If you have an explanation, send a note to us. We’ll explore this one in greater detail next newsletter. We’ll also hear once again from Larry Cohn on aberrant prices – I’m sure this one will make his list of Greatest Hits.