Basically, Dan said he’s had it with sniping software. In his humble opinion, it doesn’t work so well anymore and cannot be relied upon if there is anything that you really want. I’m curious if any of you buyers out there have had a similar experience and/or if there is a particular sniping solution that you would recommend. In any case, since the auction was closing at 8:24 p.m. my time, it would be no problem for me to be on line live so I could place a bid manually.

The next question was, how much to bid. The start price was $449. When I first wrote the post yesterday there were no bidders, but by the afternoon there was one bid at the start price. Perhaps if I had known I was going want to bid on the record/autograph, I wouldn’t have written about it, but by now it was too late. With just a single bidder and only 10 people watching the record, I figured I might be able to get it for $600 or so, which would have been acceptable to me. So Dan and I strategized. What would I be comfortable paying, and what would be over the limit?

I came down to about $750. Wouldn’t really want to pay more than that for a record signed to a guy named Morrie, but would feel OK paying that much as a birthday present to myself. So we came up with a number a little higher than that, lucky sevens: $777.77. I set the alarm on my iPad for 8:15 so I wouldn’t forget and by 8:17 I was sitting at the computer watching the countdown. There were no other bidders, just the one at $449, and still only 10 watchers. There was no action as the countdown continued. Four minutes, three minutes, two minutes, one minute. Still no action. I was feeling pretty confident, to be honest. I put in the bid and with 10 seconds left, I clicked “place bid.”

A few seconds later the answer arrived. I had been outbid. The initial bidder with the $449 bid had put in a reserve that was higher than my $777.77. The record/autograph sold for $787.77. As Dan said after the auction closed, I should get a commission for putting an extra $300 in the seller’s pocket. I don’t think there were any other bidders and, of course, I have no idea what the winning bidder’s top bid would have been.

In any case, I have no problems losing out on the record and I hope the winning bidder gets a lot of joy out of owning it. It was kind of exciting getting into the action again and not doing it with sniping software. Sitting at the computer, watching the action, waiting for the results. I can see how easily I could get hooked on doing this more frequently. Not sure if that is a good thing, or a bad thing or just a thing. I’ll keep you posted if/when it happens again.

This one surprises me:

Paul Chambers, A Jazz Delegation from the East, Score 4033. This is a red label pressing, probably from 1958, and it features a young John Coltrane, among others. The record is listed in Ex condition and the cover as Ex- or Ex. There is one bid at $400. My problem with this one is that it’s not an original pressing. The original pressing was on Jazz West and this is on Score. I don’t know what relationship there was between the labels, and if Score was even a legitimate label, but I know that if I were to own a copy of this record at $400 or more it would be the Jazz West version and not the Score. Unfortunately, the one I actually do own is the Score. You can’t have everything.

How about this one: Sonny Rollins on Impulse, Impulse 91. This looks to be an original stereo pressing with the orange label. It is signed by Sonny and, having other Rollins autographs, I can pretty much vow that this is authentic. Maybe Don Lucky can also weigh in. The seller doesn’t give much detail on the condition, other than to say it is excellent, and it certainly looks so from the pictures. The starting bid is at $300 and there is no action yet. I imagine Rollins autographs are not all that rare, seeing as how he is relatively accessible, but I will leave it to Don Lucky and others to take my imagination out of it and put in a dose of reality.

Chet Baker Quartet, Jazz at Ann Arbor, Pacific Jazz 1203. This was an original pressing with a Chet Baker autograph on the cover, signed and dated from 1973. The record looked to be in M- condition and the cover was probably VG+. The price was $461.

There were several LPs autographed by Miles Davis in the auction, including: Miles Davis, In Person, Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, Columbia 8470. This was an original stereo pressing with the six-eye logo and it was in M- condition all around: In fact, it was described as being in “amazing” condition. It was signed on the back by Miles in red ink. It sold for $566. Also, Miles Davis, Bags Groove, Prestige 7109. This was a later pressing with the blue labels. This one was signed not just by Miles, but by Sonny Rollins as well. It looked to be in VG++ or M- condition and it sold for $195.50. If I had this cover, I’d get rid of the blue-label record and replace it with one with yellow labels, even a New Jersey yellow label. It would just feel better to look at the cover knowing there was a yellow-label pressing inside. Just part of my own insanity, I guess.

Bill Evans, Trio 65, Verve 8613. We mentioned this one last week: A second pressing signed by Evans and Chuck Israels. It definitely caught by eye, and the eyes of others as well. This one was in M- condition and sold for $365.

John Coltrane and Milt Jackson, Bags and Trane, Atlantic 1368. This one, which me mentioned the other day, was signed by Coltrane, Jackson and Hank Jones. It sold for $758. Others: Miles Davis, Early Miles, Prestige 7168. This record is an early reissue, with a yellow label. This also has autographs By Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. It sold for $377. 89. This is not a record we track often in the Jazz Collector Price Guide because it is not an original but, suffice to say, it would not normally  sell for that amount sans autographs. One more: Duke Ellington, Such Sweet Thunder, Columbia 1033. This was an original pressing signed by Ellington. It sold for $191.38. Under normal circumstances, no autograph, this is really like a $10 or $20 record.