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Band-Signed Beatles Album Census and Price History 2016

It's been 5 years since we published our first Band-Signed Beatles Album Census.

It's time to update it!

A history of full-band-signed Beatles album prices would be hugely helpful to the marketplace as well, going back as far as we can, so let's build that, too. Not just from auctions, but reports from collectors and dealers who have sold them.

For starters, please read the 2011 Census, which had a few years of updating and other input added by collectors and dealers.

Add your research and commentary to this discussion for now, and as we get more data, we'll post two separate discussions to fine tune it. Once we feel comfortable with the information we have and what we have determined, we'll publish reports that will help collectors and dealers worldwide make better educated decisions on Beatles album sales and purchases.

These are the results of the 2011 census:

US Release Band-Signed Beatles Albums

0 “Introducing the Beatles” [Added to list on Sept. 16, 2019]

6-7 “Meet the Beatles”
2 “Help”
1 “Beatles 65”
1 “Beatles VI”
0 “Rubber Soul”
2 “Revolver”
0 “Magical Mystery Tour”
0 “Abbey Road” +1 offered by Autographs for Sale on eBay starting Mar. 16, 2019
0 “Yellow Submarine”
1 “White Album” +1 sold by Tracks in Nov/Dec 2013 for $186,000; +1 more signed for the same person who got the other 2 signed (added 3/13/19)
1 “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
0 “Let it Be”

17 US Albums Known

UK Release Band-Signed Beatles Albums
Roughly 75 “Please Please Me” (Their first album, signed in three 1963 UK promotional tours)
16-21 “With the Beatles” (The tail end of their easier accessibility) [Editor's Note: 1 since April 2011 added.]
8-10 “Hard Day’s Night”
3 “Beatles for Sale”
2 “Help”
1 “Rubber Soul” +1
1 “Revolver”
5 “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” +1 sold by Bonhams on June 30, 2016
0 “Magical Mystery Tour” (All reissues from the 1980s and up.)
0 “White Album”+1 UK (sold to collector in the US)
0 “Yellow Submarine”
2 “Abbey Road”
0 “Let it Be”

Roughly 113-120 UK Albums Known (38-45 plus roughly 75 “Please Please Me” albums)

Let's do it!

Tags: beatles album, census, history, price

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tommy Byron on March 6, 2016 at 3:05pm

Certainly looks good..

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Richards on March 7, 2016 at 9:43am

Dang...it's a very good "forgery"...would have fooled me.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Moss on March 10, 2016 at 7:59am

Here's Hunter Davies, the Beatles official biographer, talking about his signed albums. I wonder if they're still out there somewhere...

"Once my Beatles book was published, I shoved all the bits of paper in a drawer. Some time around 1975, we were burgled and various items were taken, including my records signed by the Fab Four. On the insurance, I claimed £2 per LP because, at that time, there was no extra value in their autographs. Earlier this year, a signed copy of the Sergeant Pepper album sold for £57,000."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10078829/Beatles-lyrics-I-saved-...

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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on April 21, 2016 at 7:32am

Earlier today I came across a couple of "signed" LPs when browsing through a Phillips catalogue from 26 April 1989.

They are interesting in that one is the US Sgt. Pepper and the other Abbey Rd. They are not already in the census as far as I know and I guess there is a good reason for that.

They were catalogued as:

Lot 352 - A rare autographed "Abbey Road" LP sleeve, signed by each member, three signed in black and one in purple felt tip pens.....Three of the autographs were obtained by an employee of a catering firm who were hired to entertain guests at Ringo's new home in Highgate. It was then left with Ringo, who later got John to sign it.

Lot 368 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- (US SMAS 2653), signed on the inside cover by all four Beatles in black felt tip pen , also signed and dedicated on the front cover "To Jerry, Love John Lennon '78", in black felt tip pen. All autographs were obtained in the mid to late '70s in the USA.

Any thoughts? The scans are very hard to make out as the illustrations were not huge and the printing pretty pixel-heavy. This applies particularly to Abbey Rd - you can just make out the start of Paul. On that one maybe it is only possible to judge the plausibility of the story - Ringo did move into Highgate in 1969 but that doesn't prove a lot.

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Abbey Rd.jpg, 1.9 MB
Sgt. Pepper.jpg, 1.9 MB

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Knublauch on April 21, 2016 at 7:41am

They are both not authentic.

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Permalink Reply by fab432 on April 21, 2016 at 8:54am

Yikes they definitely look off to me.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Moss on May 1, 2016 at 9:14am

What do you all think of this signed Let It Be, coming up for sale at Julien's?

http://www.julienslive.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/177/lot/75547/?...

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Permalink Reply by Paul on July 6, 2016 at 8:23pm

Its still a high price for a manufactured item, being let it be. Real autographs on 2 lps moulded into one.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 6, 2016 at 8:33pm

I agree, that was a lot of money for an assembled album, even though it's the only Let it Be known. It won't be added to the census.

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Permalink Reply by KarlKeaton on July 6, 2016 at 8:34pm

Just a bit to creative for my tastes!

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Permalink Reply by Paul on July 6, 2016 at 8:54pm

I really dont like seeing albums that are manufactured in this way. I know its happening and it gives people the wrong idea because of the money invovled.