Beatles' Material "Butchered"

admin · Post by **admin** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 4:40 am

A most interesting auction has ended here.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:51 am

I guess a book could be written on the cultural significance of this. I look for humor and can only find irony and some deception.

If these are going up at 100% per year (!?!?), I guess Livingston's son is holding onto about 20 to fund his retirement?

The funniest remark to me is that, after being mobbed by collectors at the record swap meet back in '86, he "put the rest into a closet and pretty much forgot about them."

Yeah, right.

You're right, Peter, it is interesting. And I'm not sure I feel comfortable with what it says to me about collectors and collecting.

paulv63 · Post by **paulv63** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:26 am

The auctions that I enjoy are those of Perry Cox.
The items usually start off with "The best I've ever offered" and he gets these ridiculous prices because he made up some prices in his book. The average person could never resell these things for the prices they paid.

steve_hershberger · Post by **steve_hershberger** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:39 am

Well, I'm a big Beatle fan, but don't keep up on such minutiae (sp?) as this kind of thing. But it's weird - I read this and had thoughts that I should jump on this and buy it. Doesn't matter that it cost $23K - which would be 15-20% of the inheritance I recently got (which I'm living on now) - I was thinking of overall investment value for the future.

I was cracking up about all the "serious collector" questions/answers about stuff like the shrink-wrap holes mentioned... "Breathing holes"? Oh please... Like shrink-wrap holes were done on purpose!! Fwiw, I've done shrink-wrapping of various things before, and any "holes" are NOT done on purpose.

Then I thought - what's the guarantee of what the actual album in the sleeve is?

While in college, in '76, I bought a brand new shrink-wrapped copy of Jimi Hendrix's "Rainbow Bridge" album. I'll admit that my girlfriend and I were tripping that morning, just getting off on two hits of windowpane (each) at the time of purchasing the record. Took it back to my dormroom and shoved it under the door, then we went out doing other things for a while.

Anyway, we get back to my room, eager to play this new record. I tore off the shrink-wrap and pull out the album... The lable on it says it's some Vikki Carr album(!) and I'm thinking "No way!" Especially regarding the album was sealed up when I bought it, right? I mean, I've got a few albums where the lables are on the wrong sides - like the "A" side and "B" side are on the wrong sides...

Oh, the title of the album and song titles are all in Spanish too...

So, I put the album on my stereo. Sure enough, it's Vikki Carr singing some Spanish songs!

Trust me, this is NOT what you'd want to hear while you're heavily tripping - especially when expecting some cool Hendrix stuff!!!

I swear I'm not making any of this up!

So, getting back to the Beatles stuff here - I'd be extremely wary of spending big bucks for a "sealed" butcher block album... And I'd definitely want to tear it open and PLAY the thing too! Of course, doing so would bring down the value.

Just saying - there's really no way to determine the legitimacy of such items these days. But, for whoever paid $23+K for it, I hope they got something real.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:49 am

Well, here we go, picky, picky, picky, but 1/8" shrink wrap "breathing holes" WERE common and ARE deliberate.

Scastles · Post by **Scastles** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:42 am

I've seen the same thing with mislabeling on records, Steve. However,in the case of this one if I paid 23K for it I doubt I'd ever tear into the shrink wrap to see what record was inside.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:36 am

Well, here we go, even pickier, but how much is that "Vikki Carr in Spanish" disc worth?

steve_hershberger · Post by **steve_hershberger** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:52 am

Dane - LOL! Well, you got me on how much that Vikki Carr album was (or now is) worth, but it wasn't a factor to me that day.

And yeah, we were so high that we passed it back and forth between us, asking stuff like "Do you see this like I do?" and "Am I reading this correctly?", etc.

OK, so we were definitely high, but we both read the same thing on the record label. Which, naturally, led to actually playing the record to confirm what it was.

Sure as heck wasn't Hendrix! LOL Given our admitted condition at the time, we even replayed it for a few friends to confirm it was decidely non-Hendrix music, and was definitely sung in Spanish. And who knows if it was REALLY Vikki Carr singing? I mean, who among us could ever identify her voice? We were just going by what was written on the actual record label.

To us, it was one of those strange things that'd ONLY happen when you're stoned.

As for what it was/is worth, I didn't care... I bought it on that fateful Saturday morning and took it back to the college bookstore for a refund on Monday. They didn't have another copy in stock, so I got my whole $1.85 (plus tax) back in cash!

Again, I swear I'm not exaggerating or making this up.

string_along · Post by **string_along** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:11 am

I guess my three Sparkletts bottles full of Chuckie Cheese tokens wouldn't have been considered a serious bid, anyways.

winston · Post by **winston** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:48 am

I am not a collector of things per se, so I don't get it. Who sets the asking price for stuff like this?

Even if I had that sort of money to spend on an album I would not buy a Beatles LP at that price. Especially one that I can't use and probably can't display without worrying about doing something to it that might effect it's value.

Scastles · Post by **Scastles** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:37 pm

Brian, I've wonder myself how the price is determined for these 'first state/original' copies of the butcher cover. The bidding started at $132, so it doesn't appear the seller set any pricing.

webhead · Post by **webhead** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:46 pm

I remember a couple years ago, Perry Cox (Ebay ID:Perrydcox) had one that sold for $30K+. I kept pulling the auction up at work and drooling over it. Sadly, I wasn't in the market for one of those. Perry is a trusted Beatles collector, & Seller, he has written quite a few Beatles price guides.

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:49 pm

I like the part where someone asks:

"Hello, What is your reserve price?"

... obviously unclear on the Ebay concept.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:53 pm

I've found that, unless you state it very clearly in the ad copy (and sometimes despite the fact that you state it very clearly in the ad copy...) you will always get jokers asking that question.

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 2:10 pm

yup, I've sold some stuff on ebay and you often get odd inquiries by email .... like offering a lowball amount right at the beginning of the auction.