Milford Graves | jazzcollector.com

Watching High-Ticket Jazz Vinyl on eBay

Al — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 21:40:51 +0000

I hopped on eBay last week and put a few rare items in my queue, starting with this one: Don Pullen and Milford Graves in Concert at Yale University. This one doesn’t have a label and has a hand painted jacket. The seller was our friends at Carolina Soul and they graded the vinyl in VG+ condition and the cover in VG++ condition. The main reason I put the record on my watch list was the price, which was already above $6,000 at the time. I wasn’t the only one to notice, obviously, but I did get the following note from our friend Daryl, who wrote the following: “Carolina Soul – what is this album? Will it fetch this dollars from a music (plus cover) perspective? Will it top the $9,000-plus sale from December 2022 as found at Gripsweat? We’ve written about that one before, Free Jazz (And More) at a Price. Per Clifford on that earlier post, no more than 100 copies of this record were produced. Anyway, based on the picture, this doesn’t look like the same record that got the $9,000-plus price. This one sold for “only” $6,100.

I was watching another high-ticket item and wondering if it would sell. That would be The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album on Fantasy with autographs by Evans and Bennett on the inner sleeve. The seller had it priced at $3,600 and I was wondering if there would be any takers following the death of Tony Bennett. There wasn’t, and the seller has it relisted at the same price. What do you think? Overpriced by about $3K or so?

Finally, there was John Coltrane, Coltrane, Prestige 7105. This is a sealed copy. When the album was originally issued in 1957, they weren’t using vacuum seals. Would anybody be surprised if they opened this and the label was blue instead of yellow? The seller had a start price of about $2,000 and didn’t get any bids. If it were me, I’d unseal the record. If it was an original New York yellow, I’d keep it, play it and cherish it. But that’s just me.

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Free Jazz (And More) At a Price

Al — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 18:51:20 +0000

Like many of you, I was closely watching the auction last week from the seller Carolina Soul. There were some items in my wheelhouse, such as Lee Morgan Indeed and Tommy Flanagan The Cats, but what caught my attention were the free jazz and other jazz records that were outside my normal area of interest and expertise. I will leave it to others to flesh out more detail – thank you, Clifford, in advance – so I will just share some of the highlights, starting with Don Pullen/Milford Graves in Concert at Yale University. This copy had a hand-painted jacket, the likes of which was unfamiliar to me. The final price was $9,515.

This is one with hand-drawn shower curtain labels: Sun Ra & His Arkestra Featuring Pharaoh Sanders and Black Harold. Yes, the likes of the shower-curtain labels are unfamiliar to me as well. This one sold for $6,089.98.

There were dozens of records getting really really high prices, many of which remain out of my interest or expertise, including the two above. I’ll offer one more, but it’s worth going to the site to see for yourself: Infinite Spirit Music, Live Without Fear, Ancient Afrika Records. The record was listed in VG++ condition and the cover was VG+, with no hand painting or shower curtains (to my knowledge). The final price was $2,025.

Among the jazz vinyl we watch more regularly here at Jazz Collector, there was Lee Morgan Indeed, Blue Note 1538. This looked to be an original Lexington Avenue pressing in VG condition for the record and VG- for the cover. Despite the less-than-stellar condition, this copy sold for $1,828. And there was Curtis Fuller Volume 3, Blue Note 1583. This was an original deep groove West 63^rd Street pressing listed in VG condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $1,113.55. And Tommy Flanagan, The Cats, New Jazz 8217. This was an original purple label pressing that looked to be in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $810.

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