[78-L] "Value" of 78s

[Taylor Bowie]

> When we refer to "crap" are we talking about the contents or commonness
> of them? As far as jazz 78s are concerned, many of the best ones are the
> commonest. It's only things like Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Clarence
> Williams's Blue Five etc. that command high prices. Other high price
> items are not necessarily of great musical merit.
>
>      Julian Vein


Good question,  Julian.  My view of "crap" is material where the supply 
nearly always exceeds the demand...and of course there are plenty of good 
and enjoyable records which don't fetch any money.

I'm not sure what the general perception is about a "high price"  but there 
are plenty of dance band items for which I've paid a lot of money on actual 
auctions,  such as Nauck and some of the better eBay sellers.  By "lot of 
money" I mean $35 or more...sometimes over a hundred and once in a great 
while over two hundred.  I wish they had been cheaper but I wasn't about to 
let some of them go,  since I'd not come across a chance to buy them in 
forty years of collecting.

This does not explain the occasional bursts of insanity I've seen where 
fairly common 24000 Victor dance bands were fetching 200 -  300 each for no 
apparent reason.

So there is a lot of room between "78s are mostly worth a buck each" and 
what someone might pay for a pristine Oliver Okeh.

Taylor