The 2013 Liverpool Beatles Auction

With so many rare and unusual items on offer, it looks like the 2013 Liverpool Beatles Auction will be the best one yet.

Here’s just a few of the highlights.

Fan Club Night card signed by five Beatles – this promotional card from a special fan club night down in the Cavern Club was signed by all four Beatles at the time including Pete Best and not long afterwards was also signed by Ringo Starr. It is expected to reach between £4750-£5500 in the August auction.

Jumping ahead to 1967 this set of Beatles autographs was obtained when they were filming the I Am The Walrus sequence for Magical Mystery Tour at RAF West Malling. After they stopped touring it was harder to find all the Beatles in one place therefore full sets of autographs from the latter part of the 60s are rare. This set, which includes a few other Magical Mystery Tour cast members has been valued at £5000-£6000


Extremely early autographs are very popular, but there’s not too many as early as these by John Lennon. These two school text books are from Quarry Bank school in Liverpool and both were signed out by John while he was at the school. The books carry an estimate of £2000-£2750 each.

Another personal item of John Lennon’s that is up for auction this year is his tie. This black knitted piece of neckwear was given to a fan in the Cavern Club in 1962. A letter detailing the circumstances comes with this item. Anyone looking to buy this unusual piece of Beatle memorabilia can expect to pay £1700-£1800 for it.


Staying with the Cavern Club theme and rare items – there are two previously unseen photographs of the Beatles in the Cavern in this year’s auction. They are both signed on the reverse but although there are four signatures, they are not complete sets of Beatles autographs as Paul McCartney has signed John Lennon’s name. This doesn’t detract from the historical value of the previously unknown photographs and they carry a value of £3250-£3750 each. (Please note the image below is edited and watermarked to preserve the value of the item.)


Tickets to early Beatles shows are extremely collectible. There are so few about because they either played un-ticketed club bookings or tickets were collected at the door and later binned en masse. The ticket below is for a staff dance at Lewis’s Department store in Liverpool. The club listed on the ticket was on the 6th floor of the building. The estimate for this very rare ticket is £2250-£2500

Handbills, much like tickets, are items that were picked up at the time and more often than not thrown away at a later date once a gig was over. This makes surviving handbills for early Beatles concerts quite valuable. This handbill for a concert at Heswall Jazz Club in March 1962 is from Freda Kelly’s personal collection. Freda was the Beatles Fan Club secretary from the early days in Liverpool right through to when the Fan Club ended. The handbill is expected to fetch £2250-£2500 when it is sold in our auction in August.


Radio DJs would sometimes get promotional copies of singles to play before release to help publicise the songs. This demonstration record on the Parlophone green A label is for Hello Goodbye with I Am The Walrus on the B side. It will be put up for auction in August and is expected to reach £1600-£1800.

And if all that wasn't enough there's over 300 lots all over varying values to hopefully please every collectors pocket. There's original magazines, photos, autographs, collectibles and even Paul McCartney's front door! 

The 2013 Liverpool Beatle Auction is to held at The Paul McCartney Auditorium at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in LIverpool on Saturday 24th August 2013, starting from 10.30am.

There is a viewing day at the same location on Friday 23th August from 11am to 4pm

Catalogues will be available from The Beatles Shop on Mathew Street from the end of July. A downloadable pdf version of the cataolgue text is available here. And list of all the items covered by the Beatles Auction Blog with lots numbers is available here.
All press enquiries should be made to Stephen at The Beatles Shop. The contact details are here. Items can be made available for photographing, but we need notice as they are not kept on the shop premises.

These contact details are also for any enquiries about items by bidders. Please see the FAQs and Buyers Notes.