[78-L] Price's Price

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Malcolm Smith" <malcolms at redshift.com>
>I started collecting records in New York in the early fifties and the  
> typical price was 2 dollars for single sided records and 4 dollars  
> for double sided records. This was for the records one found in 'the  
> racks'! A typical record that I bought in those days cost between 30  
> dollars and 125 dollars. I didn't buy a lot of records. There were  
> some that went much higher (bought by other collectors). One vocal  
> record sold at that time brought 1,700 dollars and another I'm  
> familiar with was an unpublished Nordica which I wrote about before.  
> It brought 1,300 dollars. Again, these are records I'm familiar with  
> and the prices on auction lists (nearly all from abroad). I collected  
> classical vocal records and an occasional jazz record that I  
> encountered though I was not looking for them and did not receive  
> lists from dealers listing them. I do remember being offered an  
> unpublished Bessie Smith for 250 dollars.
> 
BUT...this seems for the most part to refer to classical vocal records;
these were the first to be seriously collected and documented! Jazz
records seem to have attracted serious interest sometime in the 1930's;
they were (AFAIK) first "collected" by European collectors, who had
never seen the original US issues. This revolved around the "New
Orleans Revival" jazz fans (who had virtually NONE of their favourite
music issued on record?!)...who after c.1940 could buy their chosen
music on a handful of labels!

I have NO idea when the frantic desperation of "blues 78 collectors"
first appeared...that is a world which I have NO interest in exploring!!

Na und...?

...stevenc