Vinyl Me Please Classics

Selaws said:
My personal preference is to seek out second hand early/first pressings when I can. A lot of these are hard to beat in terms of audio quality (no matter what the reissue companies try to tell you
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blue note though is clearly hard to do early pressings with because discogs they costs hundreds or so to get, and yeah they do sound different but thats more because of how rudy mastered them compared to kevin
 
duke86fan said:
blue note though is clearly hard to do early pressings with because discogs they costs hundreds or so to get, and yeah they do sound different but thats more because of how rudy mastered them compared to kevin
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With some research you can still get RVG stamped pressings that sound quite good for less than hundreds. Don’t always need to buy a first press. Liberty pressings sound great. Most of my Blue Notes cost well under $50 for early pressings.
 
duke86fan said:
blue note though is clearly hard to do early pressings with because discogs they costs hundreds or so to get, and yeah they do sound different but thats more because of how rudy mastered them compared to kevin
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True but with patience and luck it's still possible. I have first pressings of a lot of the 'big ticket' Blue Notes and have paid a fraction of their discogs prices. In fact, with a few I have paid less than their lowest Discogs prices. Ebay is becoming more difficult nowadays with Blue Notes (especially if they have the words in the listing title) but its certainly still possible. Just looking at my past blue note ebay wins we have:

McCoy Tyner - Extensions. First Pressing, £16 inc postage - average discogs £28
Lee Morgan - Caramba. First Pressing. £18 inc postage - average discogs £38
Miles Davis - Volume 1. First Pressing. £19 inc postage - average discogs £27
Lee Morgan - Search For The New Land. First Pressing. £17 inc postage - average discogs £54
The Horace Silver Quintet - Song For My Father. First Pressing. £14 inc postage. average discogs £50

Worth noting that I bid on TONS of records (i have 20 active now and will likely not win any of them) that I don't win but it's worth doing because I end up getting the few that slip past people for very good prices.
 
Selaws said:
True but with patience and luck it's still possible. I have first pressings of a lot of the 'big ticket' Blue Notes and have paid a fraction of their discogs prices. In fact, with a few I have paid less than their lowest Discogs prices. Ebay is becoming more difficult nowadays with Blue Notes (especially if they have the words in the listing title) but its certainly still possible. Just looking at my past blue note ebay wins we have:

McCoy Tyner - Extensions. First Pressing, £16 inc postage - average discogs £28
Lee Morgan - Caramba. First Pressing. £18 inc postage - average discogs £38
Miles Davis - Volume 1. First Pressing. £19 inc postage - average discogs £27
Lee Morgan - Search For The New Land. First Pressing. £17 inc postage - average discogs £54
The Horace Silver Quintet - Song For My Father. First Pressing. £14 inc postage. average discogs £50

Worth noting that I bid on TONS of records (i have 20 active now and will likely not win any of them) that I don't win but it's worth doing because I end up getting the few that slip past people for very good prices.
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I don't have experience with blue note first pressings personally, but I concur that this is the way to get best/first pressings on a budget.

Some times you can get really awesome deals from people who are bad at writing listings, but a few messages sent asking if there are any feelable scratches or what the deadwax says has gotten me a bunch of steals (relative to the going rate). I just set up saved searches and check them a couple times a day. At one point I had a hundred saved searches going, but I have broken the habit lately to save money.

I find that bidding early often drives up the price higher than bidding at the last second. But, I've forgotten to bid while watching the last few minutes count down and missed some really great deals, so it's risky!
 
dhodo said:
I don't have experience with blue note first pressings personally, but I concur that this is the way to get best/first pressings on a budget.

Some times you can get really awesome deals from people who are bad at writing listings, but a few messages sent asking if there are any feelable scratches or what the deadwax says has gotten me a bunch of steals (relative to the going rate). I just set up saved searches and check them a couple times a day. At one point I had a hundred saved searches going, but I have broken the habit lately to save money.

I find that bidding early often drives up the price higher than bidding at the last second. But, I've forgotten to bid while watching the last few minutes count down and missed some really great deals, so it's risky!
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Yea. I have a very specific way of bidding that tends to work for me very well...I only place an early bid if there are no bids on an item yet. Otherwise I wait for the last minute of an auction like you do. I’ve gotten lots of great deals on eBay because often times there are things where the only bid is the starting price and you can get it for $1 more.
 
dhodo said:
I don't have experience with blue note first pressings personally, but I concur that this is the way to get best/first pressings on a budget.

Some times you can get really awesome deals from people who are bad at writing listings, but a few messages sent asking if there are any feelable scratches or what the deadwax says has gotten me a bunch of steals (relative to the going rate). I just set up saved searches and check them a couple times a day. At one point I had a hundred saved searches going, but I have broken the habit lately to save money.

I find that bidding early often drives up the price higher than bidding at the last second. But, I've forgotten to bid while watching the last few minutes count down and missed some really great deals, so it's risky!
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I also use the saved searches method and get an influx of emails daily around midday. Its all about having the self-control to only bid what you are comfortable with and, like you said, last-minute bidding. I've also scored some killer deals by messaging people direct to ask if they have any more they will be planning on listing. A few times I have used this to buy a few more in order to save the seller the need to post individually, plus I get a good deal in the process.

A couple of years ago I bought a first pressing of Lee Morgan - Vol 3. for next to nothing after the seller did not state which pressing it was and posted a single blurry photo. When it arrived it was a first pressing and I messaged him to let him know (as this seriously would have been a daylight robbery) but he was fine with it and said he was happy it was going to a good home. He was a polish chap who somehow got around having to charge postage and over the months after that he sold me a fair few amazing records for a fraction of the price just by emailing me directly.
 
Selaws said:
I also use the saved searches method and get an influx of emails daily around midday. Its all about having the self-control to only bid what you are comfortable with and, like you said, last-minute bidding. I've also scored some killer deals by messaging people direct to ask if they have any more they will be planning on listing. A few times I have used this to buy a few more in order to save the seller the need to post individually, plus I get a good deal in the process.

A couple of years ago I bought a first pressing of Lee Morgan - Vol 3. for next to nothing after the seller did not state which pressing it was and posted a single blurry photo. When it arrived it was a first pressing and I messaged him to let him know (as this seriously would have been a daylight robbery) but he was fine with it and said he was happy it was going to a good home. He was a polish chap who somehow got around having to charge postage and over the months after that he sold me a fair few amazing records for a fraction of the price just by emailing me directly.
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Wow, that's awesome. I haven't been quite that lucky!
 
duke86fan said:
Mid Level - BN80 (which though has some classic titles doesn't have the mode for joe's or the blue trains or the out to lunches people praise the most, more the B tier like una mas)
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The BN75 releases are still widely available at major retailers for low to standard prices. For most non-audiophiles, the quality of these will be sufficient.

I don't buy into the conflict between Music Matters being the reason for not reissuing these bigger titles. MM had the rights and even released many of these titles back in '14 when the 75 series were issuing the same titles so there clearly wasn't a conflict then, I don't believe there is one now. I just think that BN has a load of these 75s left in warehouses so they don't need to reissue at the moment.

If you can look more into the used market, I personally think Japanese presses are hard to beat on a quality of press and packaging to money spent ratio. They were pressed in large quantities so they're plentiful, cheap (especially if you don't feel like you need an OBI strip or Japanese insert), and are typically well cared for so are still in excellent condition.
 
Mr Moore said:
The BN75 releases are still widely available at major retailers for low to standard prices. For most non-audiophiles, the quality of these will be sufficient.
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AVOID BLUE NOTE 75

In my experience, BlueNote75 has been easily the worst series/worst anything when it comes to pressing quality ❌❌❌

I purchased more than 10 records which were part of the 75 series and all of them ended up in the bin because they were all severely warped and scratched. Absolutely disgusting quality control on the BN75 🤦‍♂️

I highly recommend staying away from any release that was part of the BN75. Absolutely terrible! 😡

Thankfully, the Blue Note80 and Blue Note Tone Poet series have been magnificent. Amazing sound, and most of them have been flat without any scratches! 💎✅👌
 
Ponman2003 said:
The Tone Poets are excellent, but the editor of these back cover notes makes Storf look like a genius. Just brutal.
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This reminds me of the Willie Colón "The Hustler" reissue that VMP did last year. The back cover had notes both in English and Spanish, but the latter was filled with typos and misspellings. I don't own an OG copy, but I assume the text is the same, and if that is the case, I'm glad they kept it that way. A bunch of the artists who were involved in the Salsa boom of the 70's were latinos born in the US, so many of them didn't speak Spanish, and if they did, it was far from perfect, and I think the text on "The Hustler" is a great example of that.
 
Mr Moore said:
The BN75 releases are still widely available at major retailers for low to standard prices. For most non-audiophiles, the quality of these will be sufficient.

I don't buy into the conflict between Music Matters being the reason for not reissuing these bigger titles. MM had the rights and even released many of these titles back in '14 when the 75 series were issuing the same titles so there clearly wasn't a conflict then, I don't believe there is one now. I just think that BN has a load of these 75s left in warehouses so they don't need to reissue at the moment.

If you can look more into the used market, I personally think Japanese presses are hard to beat on a quality of press and packaging to money spent ratio. They were pressed in large quantities so they're plentiful, cheap (especially if you don't feel like you need an OBI strip or Japanese insert), and are typically well cared for so are still in excellent condition.
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I think the conflict is that if you're pressing Tone Poet quality for $35, why would somebody buy the MM for $75-$100? With BN75, the gap between MM and BN75 was huge. Pricing was different at the time too--most people were not play with dropping $40 for a single LP.

I agree with you on the japanese pressings. The only issue is that they are a bit harder to find for cheap in the US once you factor shipping in. I've gotten some from local shops or US sellers on discogs but they are few and far between at least for the titles I have looked at.
 
Selaws said:
A couple of years ago I bought a first pressing of Lee Morgan - Vol 3. for next to nothing after the seller did not state which pressing it was and posted a single blurry photo. When it arrived it was a first pressing and I messaged him to let him know (as this seriously would have been a daylight robbery) but he was fine with it and said he was happy it was going to a good home. He was a polish chap who somehow got around having to charge postage and over the months after that he sold me a fair few amazing records for a fraction of the price just by emailing me directly.
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This is the most difficult but most rewarding way to find things online in my opinion. I have gotten some huge steals from listings that are just really vague. You often have to spend a ton of time browsing and being able to spot albums in blurry pictures and sometimes take gambles. I just grabbed two sealed MM 45s yesterday for $30 shipped a piece because they weren't listed as MM. I got two copies of A Love Supreme in a bundle--a His Master's Voice pressing that was NM and a VG+ early Impulse pressing--for $15 shipped because it was listed as "John Coltrain". This doesn't happen as much as it used to as people are becoming wise to discogs pricing and how much records can sell for, but those listings do still exist.
 
MikeH said:
I think the conflict is that if you're pressing Tone Poet quality for $35, why would somebody buy the MM for $75-$100? With BN75, the gap between MM and BN75 was huge. Pricing was different at the time too--most people were not play with dropping $40 for a single LP.

I agree with you on the japanese pressings. The only issue is that they are a bit harder to find for cheap in the US once you factor shipping in. I've gotten some from local shops or US sellers on discogs but they are few and far between at least for the titles I have looked at.
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Luckily shipping from the US to Canada is almost the same as shipping for Japan to Canada so I have bought several Toshiba/King presses of BN titles that came out to be a few dollars cheaper shipped and ordered from Japan.
 
MikeH said:
I think the conflict is that if you're pressing Tone Poet quality for $35, why would somebody buy the MM for $75-$100? With BN75, the gap between MM and BN75 was huge. Pricing was different at the time too--most people were not play with dropping $40 for a single LP.
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I was referring to adding these titles to the BN80 campaign (or whatever, the basic, no frills presses). No conflict 5 years ago, no conflict now. And honestly, I'm not sure I get your point about pricing, most people aren't prepared to pay 75-100 bucks that MM are asking for a record now.
 
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