[78-L] Chet Baker Photo on E-Bay

[Geoffrey Wheeler]

My jaw dropped this morning when I checked the winning bid in a John 
Tefteller auction for an autographed publicity photo of a young Chet 
Baker: $1030! When last I looked, the high bid was $440. An E+ copy of 
OKeh 8772 J. C. Higginbotham and His Six Hicks: Give Me Your Telephone 
Number/Higginbotham Blues garnered 18 bids and sold for $532! These two 
original masters were reissued on the HRS label in December 1938 (No. 
14) and command the highest price of any HRS reissue! A laminated 
pressing, it is like having the original. At a record meet last 
January, a friend bought an E+ copy for $2.00. Without explaining why, 
I told him he was a very lucky man! An E+ copy of Vocalion 2539 with 
Joseph Robechaux and His New Orleans Rhythm Boys doing St. Louis 
Blues/King Kong Stomp garnered 14 bids and went for $293.65. If both of 
these records were rare 1950s R&B 45s, imagine what they might sell 
for! An N copy of Aladdin 128 Lester Young: Lover Come Back to 
Me/Jammin’ with Lester went for a surprising $46.50. I have a copy of 
the Philo issue and this is the last catalog number issued under the 
Philo imprint before the imprint became Aladdin. Interestingly, an E 
copy of Decca 7235 The Original St. Louis Crackerjacks doing Good Old 
Bosom Bread/Swing Jackson did not sell. I have a copy and these are 
decent sides.