I’ve been off eBay for a few days and I would once again thank Clifford for filling in. It’s always great to see so much interest in his posts, particularly since he covers an area of the jazz collector world that is pretty foreign to me. Anyway, before I left I had a watch list on eBay, and here are some of the items I was watching, starting with: Herbie Hancock, Takin’ Off, Blue Note 4109. This one had a comment in the listing that caught my eye. It looks like an original pressing with the New York USA label, ears, Van Gelder in the deadwax, et al. The seller says that there is a deep groove on side 2. I had thought the pressings after around this era no longer had deep grooves, but apparently I was mistaken. I looked at my copy and there seems to be some kind of groove, although not nearly as pronounced as the one in the picture on this listing. I looked it up in Fred Cohen’s book and it does seem that an original pressing of Takin’ Off does have a deep groove on side 2. Anyway, it’s very hard to get all of the DGs straight, even, apparently, when you’ve been blogging about this stuff for nearly 10 years. Anyway, this one was probably in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $521.
Eric Dolphy in Europe, Volume 1, Prestige 7304. This was an original pressing with the yellow label and New Jersey address. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover looked to be about VG+, based on the picture, with some ring wear and fraying at the bottom. The record sold for $344, about what you would expect, right? Read more