Early Transition label is up there with the most expensive. The most frequently mentioned are first pressings of early Blue Note titles of Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley and Sonny Clark, which come in at the $5,000 mark. To bring some facts to bear on the subject, I have compiled some data from auction results, to identify the most expensive jazz records at auction, and how often they appear at auction, which are shown in the charts below. Among truly rare items are original pressings in near-mint condition, of which perhaps no more than fifty to a hundred copies exist of some titles. Early pressings of Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” is often described as rare but there are hundreds of thousands of copies out there.
Records that are not at all rare are often described as rare! to boost auction prices. The word rare is also overused in selling records. It is a mild version of the art collector, who enjoys being only person in the world to own that painting, (or the number of a limited edition.} To the collector, scarcity has a value all of its own, and exclusivity, being one of the few or only people in the world who owns it. There is often a reason why something is rare – possibly it didn’t sell, because it wasn’t very good. You have to bear in mind, scarcity is not the same as quality. Possession of truly rare records comes at a price, in the case of jazz, somewhere between $3,000 and $8,000, though not as high as the very rarest punk or reggae singles.
It’s only a record, for heaven’s sake, must have it!! The word “ rare” must trigger the release of chemicals in the collector’s brain which suspend rational thought.
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