As a  GK fan, I’m also a collector of his memorabilia, especially his records. And one place I were I buy most of my records, due to convenience and availability, is eBay. Now, I’m not sure if this is due to the ever increasing seller fees eBay continues to impose on sellers or what, but the exorbitant prices that some people are charging for his records on eBay these days are just insane.

Let’s examine his 78rpm records for example; I would suspect there is less and less demand for these records every day. In addition, most commercial GK 78’s were mass-produced at the time and sold very well, especially the hits. So much so that even today, given their age and fragility, there is still an abundance of them available. In fact because of this, most record dealers or serious 78 collectors want nothing to do with them. But yet one can easily find eBay flooded with these 78s – with some priced as high as $30-$50 or more!

Realistically, Gene Krupa Brunswick 78s from the late 30’s in EX or better condition should only command about $7-$10 each. His Columbia 78s from the 40’s in EX or better condition will only value at about $4-$5 each. Maybe a little more for the Columbia 35000 series which are slightly rarer then the rest and then maybe a little less for his Okeh releases which were budget releases and are not so rare. Still, this is decidedly less than one sees presently listed on the majority of eBay’s auction listings. Add to that the fact that the old shellac 78s are very HEAVY and expensive to ship and one could easily end up paying more than the item’s worth just in shipping alone!

It may be people have that old assumption that just because it’s old, it must be worth something. But actually in the hobby of collecting, in addition to an item’s condition of course, its value is usually determined by market supply and demand. The demand has to outweigh the supply in order to increase an item’s value. Which, as discussed earlier, would hardly seem the case with regard to Krupa 78s ….to be continued

Yet another European record company that has also released a CD from Gene’s old album catalog is REAL GONE JAZZ, also out of the UK. This company has gone and done AVID JAZZ one better by releasing a four CD set containing seven Krupa albums!

Although of the seven, three are again the ones with Buddy Rich that have previously been available on CD from Verve; “Krupa & Rich”, “The Drum Battle” and “Burnin’ Beat”. A fourth album, “Plays Gerry Mulligan Arrangements”, has also been previously released by Verve as well.

Continuing with the remaining three, “Big Noise” was released in Japan a number of years back and available in the states as an import and “Swingin’ With”,  a compilation album of 78 sides Gene cut for RCA/Victor in both the early thirties and again in the fifties, has had the tracks included on the Krupa Chronological Classics CDs #754 and #1359.

So, for this package, that technically only leaves “Percussion King” as the sole album out of this seven album issue to feature its CD debut — But I’m not complaining!

Why Verve, or the company that now owns the Verve catalog,  has refrained from releasing more from their Krupa back-catalog on to compact disc is a mystery to me. Aside from from the three issues Gene did with Buddy Rich, Verve has elected to release only two other Krupa albums on CD in the U.S. — 1956’s “Drummer Man“ & “Plays Gerry Mulligan Arrangements“ from 1958. Luckily, due to lax copyright laws in Europe, we do have alternative options.

One such alternative is from from a company in the UK called AVID JAZZ, who have stepped up where Verve has failed and recently released a couple of multi-album Krupa CDs. These bargain priced double CDs each contain at least four of Gene’s Verve/Clef original albums per issue in each surprisingly good sounding release.

Look for us featuring content from these releases in future posts!