Teasing the Korean Posted May 10, 2009 Report Posted May 10, 2009 ...But he went a little overboard stamping his name and address ALL OVER the front and back covers of his records. Quote
Stereojack Posted May 10, 2009 Report Posted May 10, 2009 ...But he went a little overboard stamping his name and address ALL OVER the front and back covers of his records. Tell me about it!!!! Quote
Teasing the Korean Posted May 10, 2009 Author Report Posted May 10, 2009 Tell me about it!!!! Did you ever have the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gordon and ask him what the hell he was thinking? Quote
7/4 Posted May 10, 2009 Report Posted May 10, 2009 I've seen that kind of shit at the Princeton Record Exchange. They buy a collection and you it in the 99 cent bins. Quote
Stereojack Posted May 10, 2009 Report Posted May 10, 2009 Tell me about it!!!! Did you ever have the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gordon and ask him what the hell he was thinking? No, I never met him. Not that I know of, anyway. It's entirely possible that he may have been a customer years ago when he was younger. His collection was sold to me over a period of a year or two by a friend of his. His friend told me that Arthur was a serious jazz fan who was personal friends with many jazzmen, and Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, & others would stay at Arthur's house whenever they were in town. By the early 90's, Arthur was getting on in years and decided to sell off his collection. We were happy to get them, as they were usually good straight ahead jazz titles in good condition, but he had stamped his name & address all over the covers. It was a running joke with us and many of our customers for years. Arthur died sometime within the past five years. I believe he may have been close to 90. The records keep reappearing! Quote
AllenLowe Posted May 10, 2009 Report Posted May 10, 2009 I gotta start doing that - but I think I'll do it directly on the vinyl - maybe carve my initials with a hunting knife - on cut three of every record - Quote
rostasi Posted May 10, 2009 Report Posted May 10, 2009 "Cover is 6 (clean front with minor wear, minor wear upper corners; original owner-- one Arthur C. Gordon of Saugus,MA--went overboard with his small stamp, using it 11 times on back, the primary defect and the reason the cover isn’t a strong 7 / soft 8. What was he thinking?)..." Quote
Big Wheel Posted May 10, 2009 Report Posted May 10, 2009 Maybe he stamped it every time he played the record, just so he'd know how much wear and tear it had gotten? Does there seem to be any rhyme or reason to the number of stamps? Quote
Stereojack Posted May 11, 2009 Report Posted May 11, 2009 Maybe he stamped it every time he played the record, just so he'd know how much wear and tear it had gotten? Does there seem to be any rhyme or reason to the number of stamps? No rhyme or reason that I can see. Just seemed to want to make sure that nobody missed that it belonged to him! Quote
Big Beat Steve Posted May 12, 2009 Report Posted May 12, 2009 (edited) A bit like the collection of one Robert Nieus of Namur (Belgium) that found its way here through a wholesale jazz store purchase by a local secondhand shop a couple of years ago. As quite a lot of them ended up in the Special Offers bin they now are in the hands of several collectors around here (including mine ) plus probably a lot more casual buyers. Not that he stamped them as brutally as this Mr Gordon but he used an glued-on sticker with his name and address stamped on PLUS another sticker with a (file) number on them that are quite impossible to remove (the stickers, that is), at least not without leaving traces. Though I can sympathize with the idea of marking one's records; ever since starting buying vinyl in the mid-70s I've marked my LPs with my name at the upper edge of the back cover, probably spurred by the fact that I'd often witnessed my schoolmates' LPs borrowed by somebody else somehow never made it back to their actual owners (not me ). So I wanted to make sure that if that fate ever befell one of my LPs at least the ball pen indents would still be indelible even after the culprit had tried to erase my name. And somehow the habit has stuck ... No doubt this might reduce the value of my collection when my heirs dispose of it one day but what the h.... ? At least I've refrained from doing it the way it seems to have been a habit with U.S. owners, in particular (judging from the number of LPs like that I've come across through the years), i.e. the owners scribbling their names with a FAT felt tip pen right into the LINER NOTES on the back! Edited May 12, 2009 by Big Beat Steve Quote
sidewinder Posted May 12, 2009 Report Posted May 12, 2009 i.e. the owners scribbling their names with a FAT felt tip pen right into the LINER NOTES on the back! Like one chap called 'Schmidt' whose Blue Note LPs pop up on occasion over here, especially London. Not too intrusive though, usually quite neat. Quote
Teasing the Korean Posted May 12, 2009 Author Report Posted May 12, 2009 Years ago I got a huge haul of soul-jazz and groove LPs from Goosby Jones, who was a DJ on Tampa R&B station WTMP. He always wrote his name in felt tip in large letters in the margins on the back. Always happy to find his records - If I never heard the title, seeing his name on it guaranteed that it was good! Quote
dsockel Posted May 13, 2009 Report Posted May 13, 2009 Another guy here in Atlanta wrote "NURSE" in large letters in permanent marker across the back of all his records. Great stuff but really ruins the collectibility. Probably have picked up 10-20 of records over the years. Quote
kh1958 Posted May 13, 2009 Report Posted May 13, 2009 I just bought a couple of dozen excellent early '60s jazz records which belonged to someone who wrote what at first glance appeared to be "Jug" on the back (Gene Ammons' record collection!), but on closer inspection I think it was "Greg". Quote
kh1958 Posted May 13, 2009 Report Posted May 13, 2009 Then there was a group of classical records (in very good shape) that I found recently, which had a series of dates written on the back, ranging from the 1960s to the 1990s--I assume this person felt compelled to write down every date on which he listened to the record on the back. Quote
clifford_thornton Posted May 13, 2009 Report Posted May 13, 2009 My copy of Don Wilkinson's Preach, Brother! (NY stereo) has the name "John Patton" written in marker on the back. I doubt it's the same one, but still... Quote
Hot Ptah Posted May 13, 2009 Report Posted May 13, 2009 (edited) Kansas City's Music Exchange reportedly had about a million vinyl albums in stock when it closed. After its owner died, several hundred thousand albums were sold very inexpensively in a warehouse sale last year. At the end, the albums were going for about 10 cents each, then for a few cents each if you bought entire pallets of boxes of albums. In the hundreds of albums I purchased, there were several of these stamped names on many album covers. In fact, I see the Music Exchange inventory reappearing in Kansas City's other used music stores now, and one of the tell tale signs is to see the frequent appearance of the stamped on names. Edited May 13, 2009 by Hot Ptah Quote
Chalupa Posted May 13, 2009 Report Posted May 13, 2009 About 10 years ago I ran across a beat up copy of Houston Person's Goodness! that had Rashied Ali's name and a West Philly address written on the back. They wanted $25 bucks for it which was about $24 dollars more then it was worth. I passed on it. Quote
Hot Ptah Posted May 13, 2009 Report Posted May 13, 2009 Also in the Music Exchange sale--the same person wrote little notes about each song on his or her albums, in neat cursive writing, very faintly, in black ink, next to the song titles on the back covers. This person's handwriting is distinctive. No name was ever written or stamped on the covers. Typical notes by this person, written next to every song title, would be "quiet", "Bossa", "nice instrumental", "saxophone", "swinging". Quote
Teasing the Korean Posted May 14, 2009 Author Report Posted May 14, 2009 Typical notes by this person, written next to every song title, would be "quiet", "Bossa", "nice instrumental", "saxophone", "swinging". Collectibility be damned, I LOVE these kind of things! I have some Pete Rugolo albums on which the space-age bachelor owner wrote in the margins the proper bass and treble setting. Quote
Dan Gould Posted May 14, 2009 Report Posted May 14, 2009 About 10 years ago I ran across a beat up copy of Houston Person's Goodness! that had Rashied Ali's name and a West Philly address written on the back. They wanted $25 bucks for it which was about $24 dollars more then it was worth. I passed on it. I bet you wouldn't buy Jon Voight's car, either. Quote
Free For All Posted May 14, 2009 Report Posted May 14, 2009 I bet you wouldn't buy Jon Voight's car, either. Quote
clifford_thornton Posted May 14, 2009 Report Posted May 14, 2009 I remember when Juma's record collection was up on eBay. Everything was water-damaged and totally annihilated, but to some people I suppose "provenance" is a big deal. Evan Parker's collection was also for sale piecemeal, but it was in very good shape. I think I got a couple of things from there. Quote
Free For All Posted May 14, 2009 Report Posted May 14, 2009 I have some used vinyl that apparently once belonged to "Brutus". Looks like he was a DJ. I always wonder why these specific folks sold their collections- could be for a variety of reasons. It's all great stuff, so if you're out there, Brutus, thanks. Your records went to a good home. Speaking of the DJ thing, I envy the guys here who have radio shows. I always wanted to have a jazz radio show. My dad had one for awhile in the late 60s. That's actually where my interest in jazz began, I liked it even though I didn't have any idea of what was going on. A couple times he let me announce the time and temperature on-air, I remember that was such a cool thing. Quote
Hot Ptah Posted May 14, 2009 Report Posted May 14, 2009 (edited) Looking quickly through my Music Exchange sale purchases of last year, I see that on many albums, the following ink stamp appears on either the front or back cover: Jerome R. Duff, Sr. 1215 Park Ave. Kansas City, MO 64127 Jerome R. Duff, Sr., you had a great music collection! Unlike Arthur C. Gordon, Jerome R. Duff, Sr. only stamped his name and address on each album cover once. However, on one album which I picked up at the sale, Jerome R. Duff, Sr. went wild. This appears to be a unique aberration for him. On his copy of Buddy Rich's "Big Band Machine", on the Groove Merchant label, in addition to stamping his name and address on the cover, he cut out three large pre-printed individual letters on very sticky white plastic. The letters are in caps, bright blue, one per sticky cutout. He stuck them across the front cover: J R D I cannot begin to pull off these sticky plastic letters. They are stuck on there real good. What got into you that day, Jerome R. Duff, Sr.? Edited May 14, 2009 by Hot Ptah Quote
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