A Letter From Freda

Back in the sixties when you wrote to a fan club more often than not you got a personal reply from an actual person rather than the modern day standard form letter.

If you wrote to the Beatles you may have received a reply from one of the fan club secretaries.

In this case the correspondent got a reply from the longest standing Fan Club secretary, Freda Kelly.

(address on the letter has been blurred for publication, it is clear on the actual item)

This letter will be sold at our auction in August and has an estimated value of £100-£130.

More Pictures

Please note that while we write about a lot of the items to be auctioned here, there are several more pictured in an album on the Beatles Shop facebook profile. You can view the album by clicking this link.





The auction takes place on August 25th 2012 at The Paul McCartney Auditorium at LIPA. It is organised by The Beatles Shop on Mathew Street, where lots are still being taken in up until May. Contact details are listed on the right of this page, and potential vendors and buyers should read the FAQs and the relevant buyers/sellers notes.

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If you have any items of interest for the auction please contact us. Click the link on the right for details of how to get in touch.

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Press enquiries should be made through the same contact link. Better images of items can be made available to the press upon request.

Promoting Help!

This cool little promotional postcard was issued in 1965 to advertise the arrival of the second Beatles movie, Help!, at the Odeon Cinema in Leeds.

Printed in back and white, it features all the details about the film showing on one side, and on the other side has a picture of the band in a scene from the film.

This item, originally expected to be thrown away after the event, is estimated to sell in our auction in August at around £60-£70

 

 

If you have anything that you would like valued, or considered for a place in our auction please see the FAQ section and get in touch.

Starting a Collection?

We try to have something to suit everyone’s pocket in our auction each year. The unusual and expensive items tend to get all the attention but there’s nearly always something nice for people who are looking for small and affordable items to kick start their original memorabilia collections, or maybe even start a collection for their children.

Here’s a framed up, ready to display Fan Club Patch. The patch dates from the 60s and was framed up later with a letter from Christies Auction House. The letters are all numbered and there are 2500 in the edition.

The estimate for this item is £15-£20.

Another very easily displayable yet very affordable lot is this original guitar shaped brooch from Invicta Plastics which features a picture of George Harrison. Also in the same lot is a large original Beatles button badge.

This lot of two items has an estimate of £15-£20. (please note the photos aren’t to scale.)

The Master Of Going Faster?

Here’s something a bit different for our auction in August.

George Harrison’s love of motor racing is well documented and he was often seen at Formula 1 Grand Prix races etc…

This is a programme for the British Empire Trophy held at Silverstone in 1996. It is signed by George and also by Brazilian racing driver Nelson Piquet.

This unusual signed item carries an estimate of £650-£700.

Casbah Club Card

The Casbah Club was, in fact still is, located at 8 Haymans Green in the West Derby area of Liverpool. It was opened by Pete Best’s mum Mona and the Quarrymen played on the opening day of the club in 1959.

The Beatles made their debut there in December 1960 and played their final Casbah date in June 1962.

This membership card is for the period covering November 1961 through to November 1962 which covers that historic final Beatles date.

(please note the photo has been amended to remove part of the address written in the card, it is complete on the actual card.)

The estimate on this item is £1000 - £1200

 

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We are currently taking items in for our next Auction in August. All advice on valuations and placing items into auction with us is entirely free. Please see the Contacts section on this site for more details and read the FAQs for more information.

It took me years to write….

There have been so many books written about the Beatles. Sadly very few have any monetary value.

Books from the time are popular with fans, but condition is everything with these items. Loose, damaged or missing pages, tears and creases and damaged spines all have a very big effect on the value of a book.

The edition of the book is also relevant. Many of the books have gone through numerous reprints over the years.  Mind you some books had numerous reprints in the same year that they were first issued. For example – John’s two books from the sixties In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works were reprinted several times due to high demand in the months after release.

Here’s a lot for our auction which consists of both of his sixties books. The In His Own Write dates from the year of release but is a second edition. The copy of A Spaniard In The Works is a first edition.

Together they have an estimate of £60-£70.

 

Before the release of the Beatles Anthology Book, the only fully authorised biography of the Beatles was the 1968 book The Beatles by Hunter Davies. The book as been revised and reprinted constantly since then.

This first edition hardcover with dust jacket is going up for sale in our auction for an estimated £25-£35.

 

 

If you have anything you would like valued or considered for placement into the auction our contact details can be found by following the link above. Please read the FAQs first. We are already taking items in for the August 2012 event and we can only include a certain amount of items in the auction so it is better to come to us well in advance of the closing date for lots. (Which is usually the beginning of June) Valuations are completely free. We do not value autographs without seeing them. If contacting us by mail or email please include a clear photograph. If contacting us via telephone please have any items to hand in case there are questions we need answering about the item. When bringing items in for valuation please contact us before hand to make sure that the person who does our valuations is available.

Beatles Crockery

The blue transfer plates and cups crop up often in our auctions and 2012 is no different.

So far we a nice selection of these items. They are a nice affordable way to have an original item that looks great on display.

Two biscuit plates.

These are for sale in a lot together, they carry an estimate of £ 80-£90

A plate with a Washington Pottery stamp on the reverse. Not all the Washington Pottery plates have the stamp, but they still date from the same time. However anything with this blue Beatles pattern and a gold rim is a reproduction from a later era.

The plate is estimated at £30- £40

Beatles mugs or cups came with different stamps or imprint on the base. This one is embossed with “Vogue Tams England 64” on the base.

It has an estimate of £40-£50.

 

If you have anything you would like valued or considered for placement into the auction our contact details can be found by following the link above. Please read the FAQs first. We are already taking items in for the August 2012 event and we can only include a certain amount of items in the auction so it is better to come to us well in advance of the closing date for lots. (Which is usually the beginning of June) Valuations are completely free. We do not value autographs without seeing them. If contacting us by mail or email please include a clear photograph. If contacting us via telephone please have any items to hand in case there are questions we need answering about the item. When bringing items in for valuation please contact us before hand to make sure that the person who does our valuations is available.

A small piece of Mersey Beat history

We get some interesting little snapshots of history in the auction.

For example, here’s a receipt on Mersey Beat headed notepaper for copies of the magazine stocked by the Jacaranda Club (owned by The Beatles’ former manager Allan Williams).  The document is dated 14th March 1962 and includes a mention of issue 13 which is the famous Poll Winners edition of Mersey Beat from January 1962 with the Beatles topping the poll.

While the item isn’t of a high monetary value, the estimate is £40-£50, it is a fascinating (and affordable) slice of history. It features a well known issue of a historic Merseyside music magazine and a club, and its owner, with strong links to the  whole Beatles story.

Two more McCartney signatures

We have recently taken in two more Paul McCartney signatures for the auction in August.

As with the previous post the signatures come from two different eras of Paul’s career.

The autograph on this cigarette packet was obtained in Rhyl in 1963 when the Beatles played at Ritz Ballroom in July that year.

It has an estimate of £250-£300.

 

 

The second autograph has an interesting story attached to it. The vendor used to work for Hoover and a colleague had to go on a call to Jean Boht’s house. Jean Boht was the star of the popular sitcom Bread, playing the matriarchal Ma Boswell. The vendor was a fan of the series and asked if her colleague would get her an autograph. They did, and they also got an autograph from the other person visiting Jean Boht that day, who just happened to be Paul McCartney. The autograph also features a smiley face drawn by Paul which adds to the appeal of the signature.  It carries an estimate of £400-£450.