Vinyl Sadness and Stuff

Once again relying on our friend CeeDee to keep me apprised of jazz vinyl happenings on eBay while my work prevents me from being as active as I would like. The first one is a record I’ve never heard of by an artist that is not familiar to me: Bjarne Rostvold Trio, Tricrotism, RCA Victor 9955. This was an original mono German pressing sold by vinyl-house-uk.The record was listed in EX+ condition and the cover was EX. The final price was $503. Is this a bass, drum, trumpet trio, as it seems on the cover? I’m trying to think of other records with this personnel and I’m coming up empty. There surely must be more out there, but I can’t think of them. Read more

Stitt and Braith and What is Collectible (and Why?)

sonny-stitt-jazz-vinylInteresting discussion on the previous post about buying/selling records on eBay and dealing with returns. I haven’t sold on eBay in about six years, ever since my real business took off, but when I did I offered a full return policy and typically also included postage. I had a couple of people take advantage, but most transactions went very smoothly. Like Bill, I tended to under grade the records a bit just to avoid any problems. If I felt anyone was scamming me, or if they were returning records frivolously, I blocked them so they couldn’t bid on any more of my records. Anyway, back to business: Sonny Stitt, Stitt’s Bits, Prestige 7133. This was an original New York yellow label. It was listed in M- condition for the record and the cover, but it’s clear from the photos that the cover is not M-. This record sold for $405. I don’t recall too many of the Stitt records selling for this amount, and not this one. I’m a Stitt fan, but I know he’s never been popular among collectors, so what is the story here?

This one also fetched a relatively hefty price, all things considered: Read more

Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting, Baltimore Part 6

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailSo now some of the best records from the Uncle Bruce Baltimore collection were in my apartment and it was about 1 in the morning and, of course, I couldn’t sleep knowing the records were sitting there waiting to be perused. I moved the records from boxes to crates and began just looking through them one more time, this time with no hurry, no rush. It was a great moment, a man, a dog and his score. I didn’t listen to any of the records at this point. There was just something about keeping them as a whole and letting the feeling linger that I didn’t want to disturb.

When morning came I had to get ready for the WFMU Record Fair. I already had 14 boxes of other records in my cramped apartment. I started looking through the Baltimore collection to see if there was anything obvious I could pull out and possibly sell at the record show. I found a few items: There were three Sonny Rollins Blue Notes I now had in triplicates; the copy of Mating Call was an upgrade from my copy; I already had two mint copies of Study in Brown, so I could sell a spare. Same with John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, Prestige 7123, and one of the Bud Powell Blue Notes

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24 Hours on Ebay

TatumI spent 24 hours on eBay. Well, not really. What I did was I looked at 24 consecutive hours worth of jazz records listed on eBay. I used to do this every single day, particularly when I was active buying and selling. But it’s not the way I look anymore. It was kind of fun. I put a few records in my watch list, which I will share momentarily, and I even bid on a couple of records, which will be the subject of another post. The thing that was most striking was the staggering percentage of records listed on eBay that just will not sell. This is primarily because there is no market for them, but there are others priced so ridiculously out of sync with the market that the seller is just wasting his time and money listing them. What is it, 90% of the records won’t get any bids? That’s my guess. It would be interesting if someone spent some time and did a study.

Anyway, here are a few that either closed earlier or are closing soon, starting with Art Tatum. Benny Carter, Louis Bellson, Clef 55. This was an original pressing with a nice cover by David Stone Martin. There’s really very little interest in Tatum these days, which I will never understand, so I wanted to watch this and see if it would sell. It did, for $42.12 in Ex condition for the record and the cover, VG+ in my language.

These next two surprised me. They are not records I normally watch because they don’t typically fetch collectible prices. They didn’t here, but they also sold for more money than I would have expected:

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A Potpourri Of Collectible (And Not) Jazz Vinyl

Here are some odds and ends we’ve been watching:

Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1543. This was an original pressing with the Lexington Avenue address, the last of the Lexington Blue Notes. It also has the cover by Andy Warhol. The seller has his own grading system and he labeled the record and cover in the VG++ range, but based on the description of the record and his system, it sounded to me like the record was more like VG and the cover was somewhere between VG and VG+.  It sold for $510.

I’d have thought this would see more action, but it didn’t: Stan Getz, Interpretations, Norgran 1000. This was an original pressing with the deep grooves and yellow label and it was listed in M- condition for the vinyl. The cover looked to be about VG+. The start price for this was $50 and there was only one bid and it sold for $50. Someone got a great record for a nice price.

Here’s another great record often available at a nice price: Sonny Stitt, 37 Minutes and 48 Seconds, Roost 2219. The early Stitt Roost LPS like this and Sonny Stitt and the New Yorkers feature

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10-Inch Mania: Miles, Getz, Savoy, Serge, Prez

Let’s catch up on some 10-inch LPs we’ve been watching. It’s always interesting to keep an eye on the 10-inchers just to see if the market is holding up. So far, it is, based on these records.

Miles Davis, Young Man With a Horn, Blue Note 5013. The vinyl on this one was listed in VG++ condition and the cover was M-. The price was $510.01. This one was sold by the seller herschel78, who has been putting some nice items up over the past few weeks, including some other 10-inch LPs we’ve been  watching.

Miles Davis Volume 3, Blue Note 5040. The vinyl on this one was listed as VG+ and the cover was VG++. The price was $385.

Stan Getz Plays, Clef 137. This was an original pressing with a nice cover by David Stone Martin. The price was $68. This is a great record, one of Getz’s best.

Leo Parker, New Trends of Jazz Volume 5, Savoy 9018. This one was

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Getz & An Autographed Stitt for the Price Guide

Here are some records we’ve been watching at Jazz Collector and which will be entered soon into the Jazz Collector Price Guide. We’re big fans of the Verve label and we believe there are still bargains to be had among Verve, Norgran and Clef LPs. This one, however, usually fetches a pretty collectible price, as it did recently with two separate copies: Stan Getz in Stockholm, Verve 8213. One of these was sold by Euclid Records and went for $210.50 in M- condition, both record and cover. The other copy was sold by a relatively new seller and was in VG++ condition, both record and cover, and it sold for $205.50. 

We often like to watch autographed copies of records signed by our favorite artists. Here’s one: Sonny Stitt, Prestige 7024. This was an original New York pressing signed by Stitt. The record was VG+ and the cover was VG. The price was $133.61. 

Some of the items we watch fail to get any bids. Here’s one: Donald Byrd, Byrd’s Eye View, Transition 4. This was in VG condition, both record and cover, and did not have a booklet. The starting price was $349 and there were no bids. We used to keep track of these in the Jazz Collector Price Guide, but not anymore. Now we track records that actually sell.

Updating the Price Guide, January 18, 2009 (Part 1)

We have a bunch of records we’ve been watching that we’ll be adding today to the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Here are some of them, without links, since many of these have appeared with links in previous posts:

Thad Jones, Detroit-New York Junction, Blue Note 1513. Two copies of this sold recently. One was a Lexington Avenue pressing that was in M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $776. The other copy was also a Lexington Avenue pressing, but it looked to be in VG+ condition. It sold for $423.

The Magnificent Thad Jones Volume 3, Blue Note 1546. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG++ and the cover was VG. Price: $338

Bennie Green, Walking Down, Prestige 7049. This was a yellow label, New York address copy. The record was M- and the cover was VG++. Price: $225.50

Jon Eardley Seven with Zoot Sims, Prestige 7033. This was an original New York pressing. The record and cover were both in VG++ condition. Price: $515

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Latest Additions to Price Guide

Here are updates on some of the records we’ve mentioned here in the past few days. We’re not using links with these, since there are links on these elsewhere on the site. You can just do a search if you want to look at the original. Nothing too crazy here as far as prices, but nothing at all that would lead you to believe there’s any kind of slowdown. These will also be added to the Price Guide, as soon as I finish this post. Here goes: 

Ben Webster, The Consummate Artistry, Norgran 1001. When we first spotted this, it was at about $30 with just a few hours to go. It sold for $203.51. It was an original pressing in M-/VG++ condition.

Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Atlantic 1317. This was with the bulls-eye label in VG++/VG++ condition. It sold for $72.60

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Today on EBAY, October 14, 2008

Another slow day on EBAY. Is there a holiday somewhere? Are sellers afraid to put up their records because of the economy? Is it just the ebb and flow of the market? Whatever the reason, there are not a great deal of high-end items on Ebay today, but there are certainly a few to make things interesting. And here they are:

Sonny Side Up, Dizzy Gillespie with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt, Verve 8262. This is in nice condition and is currently at only $24.50. A nice Verve collectible, which will probably go for a reasonable price. It’s strange: I’ve had this record for maybe 30 years, and I just realized that it’s Sonny, with an “O” and not Sunny with a “U.” Definitely works better with the “O.”

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