Here’s another that will end up on the $1,000 bin: Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This is an original West 63^rdStreet pressing that looks to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover.  There’s more than a day left on the auction and the bidding is in the $930 range. Whilst on Mr. Morgan, there is also Lee Morgan, Lee-Way, Blue Note 4034. This is an original West 63^rd Street pressing from the seller Carolina Soul, who has quite a large number of nice records on eBay this week. Lee-Way is in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover and the bidding is in the $340 range with more than four days left on the auction.

Whilst perusing the Carolina Soul auction list, I also made note of Lee Morgan, Indeed!, Blue Note 1538. This is a United Artists pressing from the 1980s and it has a cut corner on the cover. There was a time when I owned virtually all of these United Artists pressings and, indeed, I still own my UA copy of Indeed!. However, as the years unfolded and I was able to slowly accumulate original pressings of some of these great records, I would shed the UA pressings, usually for no more than $10 or $20, even on eBay back about 15 years ago, when I was in selling mode. It has been interesting to watch the prices of these records go up as a nice alternative to spending thousands of dollars for original pressings. This one is in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover because of the cut corner. The bidding is at $76 with four days left.

Clifford mentioned this one already, but if you missed it Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225, sold for $4,500. This was an original pressing listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. When we first spotted the record in our previous post, Old Jazz Vinyl and a Young Jazz Singer, the bidding was at around $100. Things changed. We were also watching Art Taylor, Taylor’s Wailers, Prestige 7117. This was the one in VG+ condition with the “minimal noise” comment from the seller, which could be taken as either a good or bad thing. The final price was $562. I would guess the bidders were also ambivalent about the language, but that’s just a guess.

BTW, in case anyone is interested, I am still not active on Instagram with my records, but I’ve been posting nice pictures from my house in the country. My handle is ajdoctor. I’ll keep you posted with I start with the records, which will likely be next week when I am back in the country.

I was not disappointed on any level. It was a sunny day, late afternoon, and the scenery was absolutely spectacular, particularly going over the bridge, where you could see the fall colors in all of their brilliance for miles and miles up and down the river. Then I crossed the bridge and made my way to Catskill, just a couple of miles south. I remember Catskill from about 25 or 30 years ago as a really depressed, downtrodden, sleepy town that seemed to be headed toward oblivion. I had known that Hudson, NY, had undergone a gentrification transformation over the past dozen years or so, but I had not realized that Catskill fell into a similar category, starting a bit more recently. What had been a really rundown town is now quite vibrant with nice restaurants, artsy shops, a bookstore, even a theater. And, of course, it’s very own record store. Again, referring to Chronogram, Catskill is becoming to Hudson, what Brooklyn is to Manhattan. That is, a bit cooler and a bit hipper, still on the rise, not quite settled yet, but brimming with potential.

Anyway, I was able to park across the street from Spike’s and walked into a small but very neat, tidy and well-organized shop. I noticed the jazz right away towards the back on my left. There, above the several rows of records, was a wall display that was quite impressive: Max Roach and Clifford Brown at Basin Street; a nice Stan Getz on Norgran, and a few others. To be honest, I didn’t make more than a mental note of the wall display because they were all records I already own. But, the fact that each one on the wall was a true original collectible gave me cause for encouragement. No Blue Notes, but, nobody’s perfect, right?

I started going through the bins, the “New Arrivals” first and I was amazed at how many original pressings were in the lot, one after another, a bunch of Cannonball Adderley’s on Riverside and Mercury, some Gene Ammons. Again, I didn’t take much note of specific records because I had them. But then I started coming upon a few records I didn’t have. I checked out the prices on the back, and, they were actually quite fair. Not cheap, but not outrageous the way you see in some stores, where the owner has no idea what he is doing with jazz and just takes the older volumes of the Goldmine Price Guide or the highest prices on Popsike and tries to milk each record for all it’s worth.

At this point, I decided it was time to introduce myself to the owner and mention, casually, that I happen to do a Web site focused on jazz records. The owner’s name, you guessed it, is Spike, and we got along quite well. Of course, he was there to sell records and I was there to buy records, so we had a bit of a shared mutual interest from the outset. But he seems like a very nice, self-effacing guy, excited to finally have his own store after years of selling records on eBay and other online venues. You can see that he has put a lot of care into the store and, in chatting, we realized we had at least one mutual acquaintance, Joe Schwab of Euclid Records in St. Louis and New Orleans.

Anyway, Spike and I were chatting as I was sifting through the bins, and he mentioned that he had purchased a big jazz collection earlier this year, including a bunch of beautiful, mint Blue Notes that he had already sold, some in the store, some on eBay. He said the owner of that collection stored the records on shelves that were protected by Plexiglass doors, so they were pristine, including the covers. It was obvious in going through the bins, that many of the records from the collection were still in the shop, judging by the condition of the original pressings. I mentioned to Spike that I thought his pricing was fair, not underselling, but not trying to oversell. He said he generally goes by Discogs, but sticks to the more conservative end. To me, this makes sense because it keeps potential buyers coming back to the store, knowing they can do better at the location than they can do on eBay. Of course, not everyone has easy access to Catskill, NY, so there is downside to that approach as well. But, I suppose, if I had a brick-and-mortar store, I would do the same, trying to build a base of loyal customers and becoming a bit of a destination for collectors who may be in Albany, The Berkshires or even New York City.

As we were talking and I was pulling records from the pins and starting to pile them up, Spike mentioned that he also had 10-inch LPs from the same collection, but he doesn’t put them out on the shelves because no one is really interested. Now, of course, this was music to my ears, so I asked if they were in the store and he reached under the counter and pulled out a pile of very nice, 10-inch records in excellent condition, Pacific Jazz, Clef, Norgran. There was even a James Moody 10-inch Blue Note, which I already own.

As I continued piling up records, I asked Spike if we could do some kind of package price and he seemed amenable, which sparked me to add a couple of records I might not have put into the pile. In going through this process, I realized that I still have something of a jones for some of the old Norgrans and Clefs. It’s not necessarily the artists, but the packaging, the heavy vinyl, the Stone Martin covers. I’d pick them up and think about putting them back, but then I’d look at the price and it was too tempting, so I’d just put them in the pile, Louis Bellson, Flip Phillips, Charile Ventura. Records that would be of little interest to me musically, but would give me great satisfaction, looking at the covers as I peruse my collection. I guess I’m a sucker. There were some nice Clef and Norgran records, including a 10-inch Stan Getz Plays, but the price was too much to spend just to have a duplicate copy, so I left it behind for someone else. No Lester Youngs, Birds or Billie Holidays to my recollection, for those I might have gobbled up, even to have duplicates.

In the end, I wound up with a pile of 15 records, many of which I just don’t have, including a couple of Gerry Mulligan 10-inchers, as well as the afore-mentioned Bellson and Phillips LPs. There was also an absolutely pristine copy of Mulligan Plays Mulligan on Prestige, and the price was right, so that also ended up in the pile, upgrading the copy in my collection. The 15 records are pictured at the beginning and end of this post and I thought I did well for myself and by Spike, paying an average of about $25 per record. He started off with fair prices and was very easy to deal with. I left behind a few records that I would have liked, but by this time it was getting late to pick up The Lovely Mrs. JC and, having spent nearly $400 on records, keeping her waiting was not a good idea.

Back home, I’ve listened to a few of the records at this point, about what would be expected. I put on the Flip Phillips Clef record and was kind of amazed at how poorly recorded it sounded. It was as if the musicians were in a room with the door closed and someone was taping it from outside the room. Certainly not a Van Gelder, but also not up to the standard I would normally expect from this label. By contrast, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the Ammons record on Moodsville. He was never a favorite of mine, but this album is all ballads and he certainly knows his way around a ballad. Not quite Dexter, but quite capable and listenable.

I am looking forward to listening to all of the records, and also to visiting again with my new friend Spike. I just found out that The Lovely Mrs. JC has a train ticket for two weeks from Friday so, if you want to beat me to the punch, you have two weeks to make your way to Catskill, New York.

Someone please explain this one to me: Clifford Brown Memorial Album, Blue Note 1526. This is a New York USA pressing, with a West 61st Street address on the cover. In other words, nothing about this record is close to an original first pressing and, at best, the vinyl was issued, when, in the early 1960s? Not to mention the vinyl is in VG condition. The cover is VG+. Somehow, there have been four bids on this record and the price is close to $200. Explanations please?

Our friends at Euclid Records seem to have made a nice discovery/score:

They have a bunch of records listed as coming from the stock of a record store that closed in 1971 and whose records haven’t been touched since then. Here’s an example: The Unique Thelonious Monk, Riverside 209. I do have a question about these that I would need answered before bidding, and that is this: How does Euclid know if these are original pressings? Have they actually broken the seal and looked at them? I was buying jazz records in 1971 and, at best, a record on the shelf in those days, with a factory seal, would have been no better than a blue label,  certainly not a white label. This Monk record is in the $135, so it would be an important question to have answered, don’t you think?

Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This was an original New York pressing. The record was described as M- condition and the cover looked to be at least VG++, perhaps M- depending upon your grading system. This one sold for $1,536. We’ve seen this one sell for more than $2,000 several times in the Jazz Collector Price Guide, and once approach $3,000. So perhaps this is a bargain, or perhaps it’s just where the market was on this particular day. The item did have more than 400 page views, which is a significant amount.

Here’s a Riverside that did quite well for the seller, which was Euclid Records: Wynton Kelly Piano. Riverside 254. This was an original Blue label pressing with the deep grooves. It was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price was $710. Nice cover on this record, right? Straight from the ’50s.

So this next one made the $1,000 bin after all:

Art Pepper, Modern Art, Intro 606. This was an original pressing in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,515.

Surprised this one didn’t sell for more: Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, Blue Note 1580. This looked to be an original pressing and it has the Andy Warhol cover. The record was listed in VG condition and the cover was VG+. It sold for $681.02, which, on second thought, is not a bad price for the seller, even with the Warhol cover.

This one has been mentioned several times in the comments, so here it is with picture for the record: Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This was in VG+ condition for the vinyl and VG++ for the cover and it was sold by Euclid Records. The price was $1,944. This one also came from Euclid Records: Lawrence Marable, Tenorman, Jazz West 8. This was an original pressing. The record was M- and the cover was VG+. The price was $1,711.11.

Lee Morgan Volume 3, Blue Note 1557. This was an original pressing. The record looked to be VG++ and the cover looked to be somewhere between VG and VG+. The price was $1,075.

These next few seemed to reach new heights while we were absent:

Wayne Shorter, Night Dreamer, Blue Note 4173. This was a New York USA pressing. The record was M- and the cover was probably around VG++. The price, get ready for this, was $896. Joe Henderson, In ‘N Out, Blue Note 4166. This was similar: M- on the vinyl and VG++ on the cover, from the same seller. The price was also $896. Here’s a third from the same seller going for the same price: Grachan Moncur III, Some Other Stuff, Blue Note 4177. This was M- all the way around and sold for $896. We had sold a copy of this last year for more than $500, which was a record high at the time, which has now been surpassed. Is this the new pricing paradigm for this generation of Blue Notes?

label pressing of Hank Mobley, Roll, Call, Blue Note 4058. This was listed as VG++ for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. It sold for $11.53. Clearly some of these later pressings are not doing it even as fill-ins for collectors. However, this one is a bit more interesting: Lou Donaldson, Here ‘Tis, Blue Note 4066. This was not an original pressing, but it was an earlier pressing than Liberty, we presume: It had one label West 63rd, the other label NY USA, it had no deep grooves and it had an ear in the deadwax. Probably a second press, wouldn’t you guess? This one was in M- condition and it was sold by Euclid Records. The price: $161. Not bad for a non-original pressing.

Kenny Dorham, Afro-Cuban, Blue Note 5065. A beauty, no? This one is in M- condition for the record and what looks to be VG+ for the cover. The current price is around $225 and there are three days to go.

Here’s the next one up in the 10-inch Blue Note catalogue: Hank Mobley Quartet, Blue Note 5066. This is an original pressing, of course,and the vinyl looks to be M- and the cover somewhat close to M-. The current price is $338 and there are also three days to go.

Another 10-inch Blue Note? Why not. Here’s The Amazing Bud Powell, Blue Note 5003. This is an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It is being offered by Euclid Records and is currently at about $115.

Here’s the one on the list that will probably sell for the highest price:

Charlie Parker, Dial 203. This is part of that auction closing tomorrow from the Jazz Record Center. It is listed in “virtually mint” condition, which is saying a lot. This one is in the $350 range for now.

Here’s one on the Imperial label — don’t see too many of those, do you? Charlie Mariano With his Jazz Group, Imperial 3006. This is an original pressing in Ex condition. In classic Goldmine grading, what is Ex equivalent to  — VG+ or perhaps a little better than VG+. It would be nice if grading were standard.

If you’ve been watching eBay the past few days, you’ve probably seen the extremely nice group of records by the seller roverd-90, including: Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This is an original pressing and it looks to be in quite pristine, near mint condition. The current price is nearly $800 and we would expect this to sell for more than $2,000 and perhaps even more than $3,000. From the same seller is this:

Hutta Hipp at the Hickory House Volume 1, Blue Note 1515. This is an original flat-edge Lexington Avenue pressing. The vinyl is M- and the cover is VG+. The current price is about $163, but it won’t stay in that range for very long.

Not sure why, but I always like the Jazzland label. Perhaps it was because my father was always looking for bargains and Jazzland tended to be in the bargain bins. Anyway, they usually sell for reasonable prices and we have our eye on this one: Charles Rouse, Takin’ Care of Business, Jazzland 19. This is an original orange label pressing and is being offered by Euclid Records. The record and cover are in M- condition. It is currently less than $70 and may not sell for much more than that.

Finally, there is this frequent denizen of the $1,000 bin: Dexter Gordon, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone 207. This is an original red vinyl pressing. The record is listed as VG++ an the cover is VG+. The current price is about $400 and it has not yet met the seller’s reserve.

This one seemed to get top dollar: Serge Chaloff, Blue Serge, Capitol 742. It was an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover and it was sold by Euclid Records. The price was $364.88. Finding these records in such

mint condition is such a rarity, you wouldn’t be surprised by any price, right? I mean, if this sold for $1,364.88 in this condition no one would be shocked.

This next one sold for nearly the same amount in VG+ condition but, of course, it is a Blue Note: Sonny Rollins, Volume 2, Blue Note 1558. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The price was $360.55.

One more. We’ll catch up on that copy of Phil Woods, Woodlore, Prestige 7018. You may recall that we had our eye on that one and debated whether to write about it on Jazz Collector. It was in VG+ condition and it was only around $40 when we did our previous post. We tried to sneak off with it with a snipe bid of about $140. Hah! The record sold for $338.88. Did we bring defeat upon ourself? Highly doubtful. It was merely wishful thinking to suppose that a record such as this would not sell at its fair market price, which it probably did.

Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This is the original, quite rare. The seller lists it in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. The price is a little over $200 but there are a few more days to go before it closes.

This one is already more than $100 with several days to go. Perhaps it will set a new high for this LP: Art Farmer Quintet, Prestige 7017. This one appears to be in M- condition, although the seller does make it complicated in his listing. We’ve watched this record several times in the Jazz Collector Price Guide and the previous high price was $204. We’ll see if that changes.

My experience with James Moody LPs is that they sometimes don’t get the prices of other original Blue Notes and Prestiges by other artists. Anyway, this one may buck that trend:

James Moody With Strings, Blue Note 5005. The 10-inch record is in M- condition and the cover is VG++ and the seller is Euclid Records, which helps the price. This one is around $100 with a couple more days before it closes.