This Week on EBay: Some Blue Notes . . . Plus

Got home late yesterday afternoon from Providence, where my son had directed a play (quite well done, I must say) and popped onto eBay to see what was there for my friends at Jazz Collector. As soon as I did my normal search under jazz records, the first two items that popped up were real beauties: Lee Morgan,  Volume 3, Blue Note 1557 and Cliff Jordan/John Gilmore, Blowing in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549. Both of this records are listed in near mint condition and both sellers promise that you will never see a better copy. Digging a little deeper, the seller of the Jordan LP has a bunch of other, similar, high-end beautiful condition jazz collectibles on auction this week. It promises to be an interesting week, with a few more additions to the $1,000 bin. It is my expectation that each of these records will sell for more than $1,000 — in fact,

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No Summer Slump Yet: Lots Of $1,000 Records

We have quite a large number of items to add to the $1,000 and even $2,000 bins on this beautiful Monday morning in sunny New York. If there is a summer lull in prices on eBay, it hasn’t much made a dent in the prices of some of the high-end collectibles, such as these:

Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1550. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing in beautiful M- condition, for both the record and cover. It was also sold by the seller Roverd-90, who had the Johnny Griffin the other day and also had a few others, such as the Lee Morgan Candy I’ll cover below. Quite a nice week for Mr. Roverd-90. This record sold for $1,825.

As mentioned, Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This is one of the rarest of the rare and was in beautiful M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $1,900.

We had pointed out the Jazz Record Center’s auction of Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This one was listed as mint condition — not even mint minus and we had predicted that it would sell for at least $2,000 and perhaps as much as $3,000. We were right the first time: This one fetched a price

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Et Tu, Johnny Griffin?

Here’s an interesting newcomer to the $1,000 bin: Johnny Griffin, Volume One, Blue Note 1559. This is a great record and, as a rare Blue Note with a great roster of artists, it is not surprising that this would sell for a high price tag. This particular copy, in M- condition for both the record and the cover, sold for $1,380. What was interesting to me about this record was the way in which the seller chose to list it. He listed it as “Blue Note 1559 Lee Morgan Hank Mobley.” He also purchased a subhead, which mentioned the presence of John Coltrane as a sideman. Notice how the seller never even mentioned Johnny Griffin, who was the leader on the date.

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Catching Up With Some Nice Savoys

I’ve been a big fan of the Savoy label since I started listening to jazz, perhaps because of the great Charlie Parker records, perhaps because the original Savoys always had the heavy vinyl and nice covers and great artists. I remember discovering the Dexter Gordon Savoy LPs and hunting all over to find copies, which, it turned out, weren’t even original pressings. It didn’t matter, not at that time, because it was only about the music. Anyway, we’ve been watching a couple of nice Savoys this week (one because it was our own record) and it was nice to see that they are among the more cherished collectibles, at least if you go by the prices reflected by the winning bids. Here are a couple of items, both of which will be added in due time to the Jazz Collector Price Guide:

Donald Byrd, Jazz Message #2, Savoy 12092. This was an original pressing with the blood red label. It was

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A Few More (Blue Notes) For the $1,000 Bin

The $1,000 bin keeps getting bigger and bigger. We just did a search on eBay of completed auctions of $1,000 jazz records and it was quite stuffed. Here are some of the items we will be adding to the Jazz Collector Price Guide. 

Louis Smith, Smithville, Blue Note 1594. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address. The record was listed in in “excellent” condition for both the vinyl and the cover. According to the seller’s notes, “excellent” is what we wold normally use for VG+. So, in VG+ condition, this record sold for $1,525.

John Jenkins With Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1573. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address. The record was in M- condition, both vinyl and cover. The price was $1,905.

Lee Morgan Volume Three, Blue Note 1557. This was an original West 63rd Street

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Problems With eBay?

Not sure if anyone else is having problems with eBay, but I am. As a seller, I often use the Featured Plus tool, which normally allows my items to appear on the first page of any search for Jazz records with the subcategory of 33-RPM. I’e been doing this for years and there hasn’t been a problem. Then, this week, eBay changed it’s view and search functions and all of a sudden my items are not appearing on the first pages of searches anymore and, in fact, I can’t find any search where they are being listed. This is one of the items that’s currently listed as Featured Plus: Introducing Lee Morgan, Savoy 12091. It’s a nice item, already over $100 by the way. Anyway, I’m posting this to see if anyone else is having problems with the new version of eBay, either in searching to purchase items or in listing items. I am a Power Seller, not that being a Power Seller carries that much weight, but I am curious if other people are having problems and if anyone is finding solutions. Also, if anyone can find a search where my Lee Morgan record appears as a featured item, please be kind and let me know. I don’t know about you, but I hate it when eBay tries to fix things that aren’t broken and winds up screwing up a perfectly good system.

Some Nice Blue Notes For The Price Guide

We’ve seen several nice Blue Note records break the $1,000 price barrier in the past couple of weeks, including the copy of Cool Struttin’ by Sonny Clark that sold for $3,416. Here are some of the Blue Notes that we will be entering into the Jazz Collector Price Guide this weekend. 

Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG++ and the cover was M-. The price was $1,575.

Lee Morgan, Indeed, Blue Note 1538. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing in VG+ condition, both record and cover. The price was $900.

Thad Jones, The Magnificent Volume 3, Blue Note 1546. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG++ and the cover was M-. The price was $500.

Then there are these records from Sonny Clark:

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Updating the $1,000 Bin

We’ve been updating the Jazz Collector Price Guide this morning and we just added a fairly  large group of records that surpassed the $1,000 price barrier. We’ve mentioned some of these before on Jazz Collector, but it’s interesting to see the group all at once. There are no links attached to these, by the way, so don’t try clicking them. Here goes:

Bent Axen, Let’s Keep the Message, Debut 133. There are actually two copies of this that fit into the category. They were both in M- condition, both cover and record. One sold for $1,790.90 and the other sold for $1,326.

Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. There are two copies of this as well. One was sold by the Jazz Record Center and was in M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $1,492. the other was in VG++/VG+ condition. It sold for $1,575. Go figure.

Here’s the only one on the list that was a bit of a surprise:

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Another for The $1,000 Bin

I was up in Providence this weekend and couldn’t get over to visit Steve over at Round Again Records on Wickenden Street, which I usually try to do when I visit the city. It would have been a good time to go: Round Again had a very nice copy of Lee Morgan Volume 3, Blue Note 1557, which closed yesterday on eBay. The record was in M- condition and the cover looked like a VG++. The record sold for $1,675 and had nearly 300 views. Like many dealers, Steve puts a lot of his best stuff on eBay these days, for good reason: It’s hard to imagine someone walking into a shop and paying $1,675 for a record, although it happens with increasing frequency on eBay. Still, there are always good items to browse at Round Again, so if you’re in Providence, it’s definitely worth the trip. And say hi to Steve for us.

One for the $2,000 (almost $3,000) Bin

Many of you probably saw that the item we were watching yesterday from the Jazz Record Center, Lee Morgan, Indeed, Blue Note 1538, wound up selling for the whopping price if $2,927. That’s great. It’s nice to see the demand high and the price high and a happy customer and (I’m sure) a happy seller. Dave asks in one of the other posts if we have a list of the highest prices on eBay. We don’t have a formal list, but you can go to our Jazz Collector Price Guide and do a search of our 4,000-record database and sort them by highest prices first. The top item we have is a copy of Cool Struttin’ by Sonny Clark that sold for $3,750.

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