Two of those Sonny Rollins LPs we were watching passed the $2,000 barrier: Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This was an original pressing in near mint condition from a reputable seller in Italy. The final price tag was $2,850. Also: Sonny Rollins Volume 1, Blue Note 1542. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing, also in near mint condition. This one sold for $2,025.22. Breaking the $1,000 barrier was:
EBay is loaded with nice jazz vinyl this weekend. Some of the top sellers are back in action, it seems. Here are some of the items we’re watching:
Johnny Griffin, A Blowing Session, Blue Note 1559. This is an original West 63rd Street pressing that is listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. When we looked at this item last night the top bid was only $99. We thought we might be able to steal it for a decent price and we put in a Bidnip bid of about $230. Alas, no such luck for Jazz Collector today. The record is closing in a couple of hours and it is currently at about $425.
This seller has been selling some very nice records that seem to be in absolutely beautiful condition, including this: Red Garland, High Pressure, Prestige 7209. This is an original pressing in near mint condition and, from the picture with the listing it looks absolutely pristine, the cover as well. The current
Doesn’t look as if things on eBay slowed down during the Christmas weekend. Here are a few of the items we’ve been watching:
Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, Blue Note 1580. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address and the cover illustration by Andy Warhol. It was listed in M- condition by a very reliable seller. The price was $1,875. The same seller also sold: Here Comes Louis Smith, Blue Note 1584. This also looked to be in nice M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,275.
While we’re updating the $1,000 bin, here’s this one:
Wow, there was a real bidding war for this one: Charlie Parker, Dial 203. This was a 10-inch pressing sold by Euclid Records. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG++. What would you normally expect this to sell for? I’d have said $400, maybe $500. If you look at the Jazz Collector Price Guide the range is $300 to $500 depending on condition, with one previous copy selling for more than $700. The bidding for this one started getting intense between two buyers at somewhere north of $800 and it skyrocketed all the way to a final price of $2,210. Not bad. By contrast, Euclid also sold copies of the following 10-inch Dial records by Bird: Charlie Parker, Dial 207. This one
We spent some time last night perusing today’s activities on eBay, so we figured we’d share some of our findings with you on a bright lovely morning in the New York metro area.
Charlie Parker, The Bird Blows The Blues, Dial 901. This is purported to be the first 12-inch LP ever. It was issued as a promo for Dial. There are reports of only 50 pressings of this record, but, we’re sure that is part of the mythology. We’ve written about it before at Jazz Collector and we’ve also tracked pricing in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Our top price in the past has been $2,850. It certainly does not come up on eBay very often. This one seems to be in pretty nice condition. When we first saw this last night, the price was around a hundred dollars and now it’s around $400 with six hours to go. We’ll see where it ends up. It is quite a rarity and
Here’s an interesting test: With this winnowing down of the jazz vinyl collection, are we still a collector or have we morphed into something else — perhaps a dealer-slash-collector-slash-aficionado or something other equally endearing term? Well, we have two copies of this pretty rare 10-inch record: Jay McShann, Kansas City Memories, Decca 5503. This record is noteworthy because it is the first studio recording of one Charles Christopher Parker Jr. Bird’s solos on The Jumpin’ Blues and (especially) Hootie Blues usher in a new era in jazz. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it? Both of our copies of this record are in pretty nice condition, but one of them has a bonus feature: An autograph on the back by
Here are a few nice 10-inch LPs we’ve been watching.
Gigi Gryce and Clifford Brown Sextet, Blue Note 5048. This was a beautiful copy in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price was $579.
The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 2, Blue Note 5041. This was listed as VG for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. The price was $90.97. As someone said in one of the comments recently, the Bud Powells seem to be in less demand than some of the other Blue Notes.
Elmo Hope Quintet, Blue Note 5044. This was listed in VG++ condition for both the record and cover, which is a classic. The price was $305.
Art Blakey, A Night At Birdland Volume 2, Blue Note 5038. This one was also in nice condition — VG++ for the vinyl and M- for the cover. The price was $305. 03.
And yet another Blue Note:
OK, the summer is over, the living is no longer easy, and it’s time to give away our latest free record: Charlie Parker Memorial Volume 1, Blue Note 12000. This is an original pressing with the deep red label and the deep groove. It’s not in mint condition, but it is quite nice and quite listenable. As we have mentioned many times before, all you have to do to be eligible to win our record contests is to post a comment on the Jazz Collector site — anywhere on the site — from the time the contest begins until it ends. The idea is to encourage visitors to comment on the site. The concept seems to be catching on: This time we have our highest number of eligible contestants, and the amount of commenting on the site is clearly growing (as is the overall traffic, by the way). Anyway, those eligible to win this week’s grand prize are:
Had some time to kill last night so I went through several days’ worth of upcoming eBay listings. There are quite a few interesting items up today. Let’s get to them quickly:
Lots of Bird this week, which seems fitting, since yesterday would have been his 89th birthday (thank you to Colm O’Sullivan for pointing that out). Here’s a beauty: Charlie Parker, Dial 201. This is an original 10-inch pressing listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. The current price is $565, which is higher than we’ve normally seen for these 10-inch LPs in the past. It’s nice to see Bird getting his due again in the collectibles market.
We had all that discussion a couple of weeks ago on J.R. Monterose. Here’s one of his rare records closing today: J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This one is an original Lexington Avenue pressing and is listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. It is currently priced at $300. Here’s an update on those rare J.R. Monterose tapes
When we were updating the $1,000 bin yesterday, we came upon this quite rare collectible: Charlie Parker, The Bird Blows The Blues, Dial LP 1. The seller lists this as the “first 12-inch LP ever” and having been issued in 1948. We have heard before that this was the first 12-inch long-playing record, which we’ve never been able to confirm, but we think the original issue was in 1949. It was issued without a cover. The seller here claims there were only 50 copies originally issued, which, of course, sounds like one of those claims aimed at making the record seem rarer than it actually is, which is quite rare. This copy was listed in “VG to VG+” condition and sold for $2,250.
This also gives me another chance to remind you all that we are still running our contest to give away a free copy of
