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went to the acclaimed 'jazz record center'. they had some decent stuff (overpriced, generally speaking, and i'm not really one to be cheap)... but they had nothing *great*.i went in there willing to drop alot of $$ (i was hoping to see some records i never see) and walked out without spending a dime. the one record i was going to get was still on the pricier side, but it was also scratched.
it seems they put all the great stuff on ebay. guess it's not too terrible living in a remote area, after all. i thought maybe i could get some stuff at 80% of ebay prices -- but there was nothing to be had. then again, i was also told that anything they put out in that category sells in a day (or certainly under a week), so i realize one can get 'lucky' there. if good stuff sells that fast, they should keep more of it for the store so folks aren't disappointed. not sure if i'd go back -- except they did have many great books.
academy was better, but not stellar -- few originals of what i was looking for...mostly 3rd/4th pressings but still not "cheap".
d'oh!
Follow Ups:
The last few times I was JRC I noticed that their prices for premium items were high but fair, and not as high as other sellers.I also chatted with the owner of Academy who essentially admitted that anything worth more than $50 goes on Ebay. He relayed an interesting anecdote: he had brought in a collection of true first pressing Blue Note and Prestige LPs. He put a few of them out in the shop with FMV price tags. They were true 1st pressings, in NM condition. They sat there for a few weeks. Lots of lookers- each one with the potential to degrade the condition through inadvertant handling. He finally put them up on Ebay and received more than what the records were priced at in the store. He had cash in hand within 10 days of putting them up for auction.
He runs a business, can we expect him to also run a charity ?
Best,
i understand the value of ebay. also, i wasn't asking for anyone to run a charity. i was willing to pay high $$ for good stuff.the guy at JRC specifically told me if he has anything that good, it gets sold in 1 day or, at most, 1 week -- so it's not a timing issue. also, ebay & paypal take off a good slice of the transaction (+shipping hassles).
i think that occasionally having some EXCELLENT items in stock at any given moment makes people happy and keep coming back. for me, i know that if i want a 3rd or 4th pressing (in good shape) of a 1960s blue note record for $20-$40, i can go to academy and find it... but i also know that ebay is really the only game in town to see any real originals in a shop.
and i'm OK with that -- disappointed as i was optimistic about coming home with some good stuff and maybe 1 or 2 budget-breaking great items. now that i know what to expect, there's no problem. i no longer feel bad being outside of a major market, though!
I don't think you're going to find that in any stores, not that I'm aware of. If you want an original 10" of Miles Davis on Blue Note for less than market value, you're not going to find it. Last time I was at the Jazz Record Center, there were several 1st pressings of Coltrane on Impulse for $20, I bought a sealed 5-lp box set (reissue) of the complete Charlie Parker studio recordings on Savoy for $30, and a mint unplayed japanese pressing of Booker Little's "Out Front" for $15. I would consider those fair prices of *good* records. That was a few years ago, I can't imagine it's changed that much, but if one is looking for a 1st pressing Hank Mobley Blue Note of course it's not going to be there.I was at Academy on Thursday (did you go to the Manhattan or Williamsburg one, the latter is much better), and they had lots of good stuff as usual. Most of their jazz stuff is not early/rare stuff, that is not what they do. What they do do is sell good stuff in good shape for cheap, most for under $10. Good for listening records, not so good for collecting/selling. For classical stuff they do have some earlier/desireable pressings and I find their prices for those excellent, and almost all of their stuff is near mint condition. Original Archiv's are usually about $4, British Angel's are usually $3, EMI's are between $4 and $8. I don't know of anywhere selling similar stuff in mint condition for cheaper...
If you want rare first pressings, you need to go to Japan. I remember seeing tons of copies of extremely rare stuff, but most of it was more than $200 of course. But I'm also not aware of anyone selling similar stuff for cheaper either...
i was actually at both locations for academy. the one in williamsburg was bigger but not better for jazz, which happened to be what i was looking for at the time.to be honest, i expected at least ONE, for example, first pressing blue note (1500 or 4000) to be at JRC...but they weren't there.
i got a note from a friend in japan saying that stuff that is in awful condition can go for as much as $200-$300 -- insane!
I've been finding the same pattern at formerly productive 2nd hand stores in lots of places. Dealers see stuff like the $5000 Mobley auction and that's the end of putting jazz records into the public bins. I can't blame them, but I sure miss browsing in personWhat kills me though are some stores selling junk at inflated prices, just because some records command high prices at auction. There's a big difference between pristine original Blue Notes and scratched 80s digital remasters, which I see all the time for $20-40
i understand that as the price of "good stuff" rises, so too will the price of "junk", but it is sad nevertheless.then again 80s DMM pressings (in VG condition!) for $30 is silly.
I certainly don't mind buying "common" reissues, either, if they have a sane price sticker. But when the jazz reissue well runs dry for regular poor schmoes like me I'll just buy the damn things on CD, which I frequently have to do anyway thanks to the insanity inspired by fleabay.
I have had similar experiences at the record swap meet here in Minneapolis with some sellers. Just because a clean original Chess record from say Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf is valuable doesn't mean the 1980s digital sourced reissue is worth $10-15.
did you see the Tadd Curson new re-issue The New Thing and the Blue Thing? They had some Andrew Hill, some 10" Miles Davis.Academy had more stuff from the 70's, Bobby Hucherson, and some re-issues.
nothing to be had?!?!?! Wow, that must have been a real bad day.
i think they had a couple 80s andrew hill rekkids.academy had tons of 3rd or later repressings.
i did find more stuff there...but the majority wasn't great.
(i am lucky to have a pretty robust collection, so i'm not looking for just anything, but i still had plenty on my 'want' list.)
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