This week’s theme: Celebrating the New Year with jazz vinyl featuring the number 26 in the catalog number. Featured artists include Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Jack Sheldon, Herb Geller, Loraine Geller, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Tommy Flanagan, George Morrow, Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce, Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Joe Morello, Eugene Wright, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, Nelson Riddle, Sonny Stitt, Kenny Drew, Lawrence Marable, Curtis Counce, Harold Land, Jack Sheldon, Billie Holiday, Benny Carter, Sweets Edison, Count Basie, Buddy DeFranco, and more.

Let’s start again with Sonny Clark: Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This pressing has the New York 23 label on side one and a different West 63rd Street label on side two. Does that make it an original? I don’t have my Fred Cohen book here to corroborate. Anyway, this copy is M- for the record and VG+ or better for the cover. The start price — start price — is about $1,500 and there are no bidders with nearly two days left on the auction.

Looks like a lot of Sonny Clark today, as he is also featured on Lawrence Marable, Tenorman, East West 8. The seller chooses to emphasis the presence of Mr. Clark, listing the record as the Lawrence Marable Sonny Clark Quartet, which is not the case. Not only that, but the back cover lists the pianist as “Sonny Clarke.” I guess the seller was looking at the $7,300 Leapin’ and Lopin’ and looking for a bigger payday. Not that the Marable record on its own merits is not a gem: It has sold for more than $3,000 in the past and is a long-time member of the Jazz Collector $1,000 bin. Anyway, this copy won’t approach $3,000 and probably not $1,000. The cover is VG- and the record itself has a lot of condition issues, as acknowledged by the seller. He has put a start price of about $760 on the record and a buy-it-now price nearly $1,000 and, so far, there are no bidders.

That’s it for now. Hope to see be back posting again soon. Really.

The price, I kid you not, was $1,623. I checked in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. I had never even followed this record before. The bidding went from $157 to $1,598 to $1,623 in the final seconds. I figured the $1,598 may have been a mistake, someone just trying to top the $157. But the $1,623 had to be real. This is not Coltrane, Mobley, Morgan, Miles or Monk. This is The 3 Sounds. I hope whoever purchased this record, really, really, really enjoys it.

Ceedee mentioned that the seller in question probably made enough with all of his listings to buy a used Porsche, which I considered to be somewhat hyperbolic until I actually took the time to review some of the other items and realized that CeeDee was actually understating it: Seems he made enough to buy a NEW Porsche. Here’s a sampling:

Hank Mobley Quartet, Blue Note 5066. This was an original 10-inch pressing that looked to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $1,547.

Lawrence Marable Quartet, Tenorman, Jazz West 8. This was an original pressing that looked to be in M- condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. This one sold for $2,280.55.

Curtis Fuller, Bone & Bari, Blue Note 1572. This was an original pressing that looked to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $2,550.

I could go on and on and on. Check it out for yourself, I provided a link up above.

From CeeDee, this comes out of his “priced out again” department: Herbie Hancock, Inventions and Dimensions, Blue Note 4147. This looked to be an original New York USA pressing in VG++ condition for the record and just VG for the cover. There were more than 20 bids and the price ended up at $449.

Another reader sent this link: Wayne Shorter, Speak No Evil, Blue Note 4194. His object was that this was described as an original pressing, and sold as if it was an original pressing — yet, despite the presence of the New York USA labels and the Van Gelder, there were no Plastylite ears. This one was in probably VG++ condition for the record, with no discernible description of the cover. It sold for about 323 euros, or nearly $450.

This one is linked an an earlier post:

Lawrence Marable, Tenorman, Jazz West 8. This was an original pressing that looked to be in probably VG+ or VG++ condition for the record and M- for the cover. It sold for $2,045.

We were somewhat surprised to see this one in the $1,000 bin, considering that the market seems a bit down these days: Sonny Criss, Go Man, Imperial 9020. There were 28 bids, which is a lot. It was a very reputable seller, the record was in M- condition, and the cover was VG+. The price was $1,259.

This one was only in VG condition for the record and the cover, yet is still nearly made the $1,000 bin: Lawrence Marable, Tenorman, Jazz West 8. This one even had audible scuffs. Nevertheless, it sold for $909.99.

One of my all-time favorite records, in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover: John Coltrane, Soultrane, Prestige 7142. This one sold for $338.99

This one had that very high start price: Lawrence Marable, Tenorman, Jazz West 8. It was listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. Not only did it sell, it made it all the way to the $2,000 bin. The price was $2,175.

This one didn’t quite make the $2,000 bin, but it did all right for the buyer and seller: Donald Byrd, Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill, Transition 17. This was an original pressing sold by Euclid Records and it included the original booklet. The record was VG++ and the cover was VG+. The labels, as they do with all Transitions, had fallen off. The price was $1,691.88. Euclid also did well on this one: Benny Golson, Gone with Golson, New Jazz 8235. This was an original purple label pressing with the deep grooves. It was listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $355, quite a nice price for an LP with Golson as the leader.  Our previous high in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was $335.

This next one was described as an “original” pressing, but upon further detailed reading of the listing, it clearly was not — unless, that is, you consider an “original” Blue Note anything that was issued prior to the purchase by Liberty:

Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. If you read the listing carefully, you would see that one label was West 47th and the other was New York USA. It had the deep grooves and RVG in the dead wax so it was an early pressing, before Liberty acquired Blue Note, but it was definitely not a first pressing. It sold for $460.50, definitely far lower than a first pressing would fetch in VG+ condition, so perhaps we have helped to make sure people read these listings carefully. I give the seller the benefit of the doubt on this one: He does mention that it is “W. 47 w/NY”  in the headline.

This is another one where the seller is starting with a very high price: Lawrence Marable, Tenorman, Jazz West 8. This is an original pressing that looks to be in superb condition, at least VG++ for the record and the cover. The starting price is $1,800 and there are no bidders.

This is a pretty hefty price for one of the Benny Golson New Jazz LPs: Benny Golson, Gone With Golson, New Jazz 8235. This is an original deep groove pressing and it is in M- condition. It is also being offered by Euclid Records, one of the better known brands in our community. There are already eight bids on this LP and the price is close to $200. Note that the pianist on this date is Ray Bryant who passed away on Thursday.

I have to say, I’m tempted on this one: Elmo Hope, Informal Jazz, Prestige 7043. This looks to be an original New York pressing, although the listing is definitely lacking in details. The condition looks excellent and the price is only $135 and it is ending today. This may call for a visit to my sniping software. Will keep you posted. Of course, publishing my intent on Jazz Collector may not be the wisest strategy, huh?

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?

Let’s start with a couple more Prestiges. Frank Foster, Hope Meets Foster, Prestige 7021. This looks to be an original pressing with the New York address and the deep groove. It was listed in M- condition for the record and the cover looked to be VG+ or VG++. The price was $548.78, which is a nice price but in this market I would have thought it might have sold for even more. If that Prestige sold for less than expected, this one got top dollar, based on what we’ve previously seen for this record in the Jazz Collector Price Guide:

Booker Ervin, The Song Book, Prestige 7318. This was an original yellow-label pressing. Mike asks in a previous post if this is original and it is. He also asks when Prestige stopped using deep grooves, and I don’t know the answer. Anyone? I’ve seen yellow labels on Prestiges into the mid-7220s, so this was the tail end of the yellow label series. Anyway, this one was in M- condition for the record and cover and sold for $696. Some of our readers theorize that when we call attention to a record, it can inflate the price. Seeing this and seeing how the traffic to Jazz Collector has been growing so quickly, I’m tending to see the logic.

Finally, here’s another for the $1,000 bin: Lawrence Marable, Tenorman, Jazz West 8. A little surprising that this got such a high price, only because of the condition: The record was VG+, the cover was just VG. The price was $1,238.02.