What is the most valuable Mosaic box release?

[Ken Dryden]

The Nat King Cole definitely has an inflated price compared to its Discogs sale history. Mosaic was authorized to press 10,000 copies.

The Mosaic boxed set market is like other collectables, many of them are thinly traded so if you want to sell them quickly, as when liquidating an estate, you might not even get what they have sold for on average.

That said, the Maynard Ferguson has been selling for $400 to $500 and more for some time. I get the idea that Mosaic didn't come close to selling their allotment before their license deal expired.

Years ago I was in Jazz Record Center in NYC and Fred Cohen had all three volumes of the Commodore Recordings priced as a set for $2400. Since then I've seen both the Cole and a single volume of the Commodore set sell for under $200 on ebay. Anytime I have anything to auction, I feel that I need to set a floor price to protect my investment. I bought a long out of print Japan-only Clark Terry LP  for $1.99 plus shipping from Japan, there were no other bids. It easily should have fetched $20 or more.

 

Edited June 12 by Ken Dryden
Typos fixed

[T.D.]

11 minutes ago, medjuck said:

How do you find the prices paid?

If you log into discogs, price history w. graph is available.

Not sure about eBay...I think some price info might have been available years ago, but the multitude of ridiculously high eBay offers has reduced the signal/noise ratio to such an extent that I pay almost no attention to the site.

[JSngry]

Maynard's fan base is different than that of most subjects of Mosaic sets.

[BFrank]

I remember the "old days" (10-20 years ago) when sets by Andrew Hill and Larry Young were going for $300-400 

[Stompin at the Savoy]

The lower prices in the last few years have enabled me to go on a big spree of buying many of the Mosaics I missed along the way.  The prices have varied and a few were quite dear but on average I've been paying approximately the same as the original prices of the sets.

[Brad]

6 hours ago, medjuck said:

How do you find the prices paid?

On eBay, it’s an option in the filters. You can see completed items (which includes unsold) and sold items. The info on sold items doesn’t stay there forever, maybe three months.

 

6 hours ago, T.D. said:

If you log into discogs, price history w. graph is available.

Not sure about eBay...I think some price info might have been available years ago, but the multitude of ridiculously high eBay offers has reduced the signal/noise ratio to such an extent that I pay almost no attention to the site.

If you don’t keep an eye on it you can miss deals. Not that long ago I purchased the Woody Shaw for $50. 

Edited June 12 by Brad

[rostasi]

I keep seeing mentions of the Ferguson set as being sooo expensive, but is an average of $275 - $350 that expensive for a 14LP or 10CD set that's a thirty-year old Mosaic?

Edited June 12 by rostasi

[Brad]

13 minutes ago, rostasi said:

I keep seeing mentions of the Ferguson set as being sooo expensive, but is an average of $275 - $350 that expensive for a 14LP or 10CD set that's a thirty-year old Mosaic?

One sold on eBay in April for $150 so go figure. 

[mikeweil]

5 hours ago, BFrank said:

I remember the "old days" (10-20 years ago) when sets by Andrew Hill and Larry Young were going for $300-400 

I bought my copy of the Larry Young box used, soon after it went oop, for less than the original price. 

Sometimes I think I should have kept some Japanese pressings, as I could sell them now at much higher prices. You never know.

[T.D.]

5 hours ago, Brad said:

On eBay,...

If you don’t keep an eye on it [eBay] you can miss deals. Not that long ago I purchased the Woody Shaw for $50. 

Yeah, I know, but it got to be too time-consuming. And my recent collecting interests are practically disjoint from the Mosaic catalog.

But with these price trends I'll have to start making occasional surveys. 🤔

Edited June 12 by T.D.

[JSngry]

Valuable to me was the Andrew Hill Select that compiled all(?) of the remaining unissued studio dates. I burnt them into single CDs (by session) and had a blast!

[romualdo]

On 6/11/2024 at 4:34 AM, medjuck said:

And would my  Neidlinger/Taylor signed by Buell be worth even more? 

Steve Lacy signed my box - value added?

On 6/12/2024 at 3:04 AM, medjuck said:

Yes!  The Ellington and Goodman estates have been especially difficult to deal with and in the case of Goodman it's meant that some great Prez  is not being issued because Goodman is on the cuts.   In fact a large percentage of the collection is devoted to Goodman whose estate is keeping it from being heard. 

I listened to those Prez/Goodman tracks when I visited the Jazz Museum in Harlem back in 2017

Edited June 13 by romualdo

[Big Beat Steve]

On 6/12/2024 at 6:09 AM, JSngry said:

Maynard's fan base is different than that of most subjects of Mosaic sets.

Amazing. How would you characterize that "fan base"?

[JSngry]

Devoted to Maynard's trumpet "machismo". 

There's a lot more to that Roulette box music than the high notes (a lot more), but that's not what keeps the price high.

No pun intended.

[Big Beat Steve]

42 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Devoted to Maynard's trumpet "machismo". 

There's a lot more to that Roulette box music than the high notes (a lot more), but that's not what keeps the price high.

No pun intended.

Thanks.

At any rate, looks like the Message from Newport and his Newport Suite (plus helpings from his EmArcy catalog and his Birdland Dream Bands on Vik) will do (not just "have to do") for me.

[JSngry]

The Speedway or whatever it's called record was a very pleasant surprise for me, the writing is very inventive.

[scooter_phx]

On 6/11/2024 at 9:09 PM, JSngry said:

Maynard's fan base is different than that of most subjects of Mosaic sets.

I can agree with this statement only if you're referring to trumpet players trying to imitate what they hear on this set.  IMHO, most of the writing is well done and the band has some really good players doing their thing.  True, most of the listeners aren't going to like the piano boxes but that's okay.  I do.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Check it out https://archive.org/details/CompleteRouletteRecordingsoftheMaynardFergusonOrchestra_201904

Edited June 13 by Stompin at the Savoy

[JSngry]

20 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

Check it out https://archive.org/details/CompleteRouletteRecordingsoftheMaynardFergusonOrchestra_201904

Thank you!!!

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Some of that Ferguson stuff is a little over-powering: every possible box checked and soloists taking it up to 11.  No negative, open space. 

[JSngry]

The difference is that that band had an honest 11.

[Ken Dryden]

I am a bit surprised that the Stuff Smith Mosaic set doesn't sell for more. Mosaic had to quit offering it before their lease was up due to some contract issue. I guess he is too much of a fringe artist for jazz collectors today.

Of all the high priced Mosaic Vinyl, the only one I bought was the Miles Davis Plugged Nickel when it was initially issued. I don't think the Columbia/Legacy box was out at the time. It is hard to justify paying premium prices for vinyl sets when I have the music on easier to use CDs.

Maybe the next new thread idea: 

At what age do you plan to stop acquiring music and start selling it, if you don't have any heirs who would want it?

 

 

 

[jazzbo]

I paid the most for the three Commodore sets, though I got a great deal buying all three, previously unplayed, at once. They were somehow lacking the books, but I had bought those from Mosaic at 10 dollars a pop a few years beforehand.

I value these sets HIGHLY. Just amazing music, in excellent sound.

[jazzkrow]

11 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

I am a bit surprised that the Stuff Smith Mosaic set doesn't sell for more. Mosaic had to quit offering it before their lease was up due to some contract issue. I guess he is too much of a fringe artist for jazz collectors today.

Of all the high priced Mosaic Vinyl, the only one I bought was the Miles Davis Plugged Nickel when it was initially issued. I don't think the Columbia/Legacy box was out at the time. It is hard to justify paying premium prices for vinyl sets when I have the music on easier to use CDs.

Maybe the next new thread idea: 

At what age do you plan to stop acquiring music and start selling it, if you don't have any heirs who would want it?

 

 

 

 

That is the huge question...

When to sell our large mosaic collection, when we have no heirs that would have interest?

That's certainly is suitable for another topic for input. A sad decision for us to make, when it took so much time and effort to build up our collection...

What are people thinking here regarding this tough topic to consider..?

[Dub Modal]

I've sold some Mosaic sets after ripping the music and taking some notes from the booklets. Honestly, it was pretty satisfying to have them gone from the shelves and into the hands of folks who had interest in the music. I've come to dislike the size of these boxes and have held off buying several of them due to the space they take up. I do like the booklets and the corresponding size of the photos in them. I kind of wish Mosaic could publish volumes of just the booklets into several editions but I'm sure there's licensing issues there. 

I think the majority of these sets will tank in value in the next 5 to 10 years, save some small percentage of them.