[78-L] Record Pricing Guides: not a new story

[Cary Ginell]

Found this while doing research:

 

"Let us consider the several record price guides. The extraordinary ambition of such guides is nothing less than to be accepted as a final authority on the value of out-of-print jazz records. Anyone with the slightest experience in record collecting is well aware of the innumerable difficulties of establishing even an approximately fair price on a rare record. But when someone publishes a book that is supposed to contain the precise value of several thousand hard-to-get records, such an attempt, no matter what the qualifications of the author may be, is bound to create general confusion. On what basis do these people arrive at their prices? What kind of wishful thinking gives them the illusion that they can take upon themselves the role of Final Arbiter in such a delicate and essentially subjective matter? Every experienced collector has his own opinion about record values and will naturally ignore such misdirected efforts. But here is where such a book causes much harm: it fall sinto the hands of a new collector who takes the listed prices seriously and follows them in his tradings. Thus he has started his collection with an entirely wrong perspective, and it will be a painful awakening for him when he realizes how mistaken he has been about the worth of his collection. I ahve been told of dealers who follow the prices of such guides to the letter, asking preposterously high prices, just because it says so in The Book, for records that are in terrible condition. I am also told that the author of one of these booklets does not follow the prices shown in his guide in his own record dealings. Record values are in a constant state of fluctuation. Even if some of the prices quoted in such a book would be accurate at the time of publication, after a certain period they would lose their relevance. In my opinion, the majority of the prices listed in such books range from inaccurate to fantastic. I protest against all of them and advise you to avoid them."

 

Nesuhi Ertegun

The Record Changer

September 1947

 

 

Cary Ginell

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