Butcher cover on ebay---CHEAP!!!

[Sam]

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1497257458

Here's your chance members! Tell your wives what you really want for christmas! Ahhh--to dream.

[Holy Zoo]

*choke* *cough*

Yikes, that's out of control. And the reserve hasn't even been met!

[Paul L.]

I don't care if The Beatles all made affidavits that those are their signatures on that cover--the only autograph that can really and truly be verified is the one you get yourself after the star himself has just signed it. And that should be trusted only by you, and not be accepted by some purchaser down the line. All these certificates of authenticity that are offered on eBay--you gather them all together and they are worth approximately nothing.

[Holy Zoo]

I have to admit, I don't really get the whole "signature collecting" thing. At least, not at the outrageous prices they command.

To me, it's a nice momento of actually meeting the person. Yeah, a couple of times I've paid an extra couple of bucks to get a signed copy directly from the artist (King Crimson did this a few years back). So does Kevin Smith on his ViewAskew website.

But paying thousands of $$$? I just don't get it.

Thinking about it a bit more, I do think I used to be more enamored with with celebrities... probably into my mid-twenties, when I started actually meeting some of them and discovering (big surprise!) they're just regular folk like you and me. :)

Besides, I much more value being able to have, say, a dialog with Steve Hoffman than having his signature on a CD.

(ok, ok, he's not really a celebrity in the traditional sense, but he is to us!) :D

jeff

[ December 17, 2001: Message edited by: Holy Zoo ]

[Kevin Sypolt]

Hmmm, I think I'd rather buy a car. Some people have waaayyy too much time and money on their hands...

[Sckott]

Truely, you can't take it "with you". I think Lewoshin's book has a duplicate without autographs in one of the pages.

Have it enlarged, frame it nicely, and look to it with fond memories.

The music matters. It's what gives us hope and happiness. This is what life is about. And it's worth more than thirty thousand dollars...

Happy Holidays. Eat mildly, and love your family.

Cheers.

[Sam]

Guys! Guys! It's not the signatures! Yeah, that's nice, but it's the FIRST STATE Butcher cover. If you type in "Butcher 1st state" on ebay, you'll find another 1st state going for $25,000---without the signatures. There were only a handful of Butcher covers that were left untouched--hence not covered with the steamer trunk photo. The few (and stereo is the rare one)that were around were smartly left sealed in most cases. (excluding the one on ebay that was signed). These few mint untouched Butcher covers (maybe 10 or so)have indeed gone up in value. I can't afford it, but realize its value has really nothing to do with the fab four signing it. And no, based on what the public is willing to pay, this rare lp and appealing lp is correctly priced. Take a look at the number of bidders so far. 45. take a look at this site for a complete explanation. http://www.rarebeatles.com/album2/discog/discog.htm

[Guest 2]

Do you really think that Paul would have signed his name across George's face??

Just a thought.

Tony

[Jeffrey]

Hi,

Originally posted by SAM:
[QB
Here's your chance members! Tell your wives what you really want for christmas! Ahhh--to dream.[/QB]

Gotta feelin' that I could tell every woman I've ever known & between them they couldn't raise this kinda $ for a gift.

Everything you gather is just more that you can lose,
Jeffrey

[Gary]

Hummph. This item is no longer for sale. Wonder if that means they got an offer they could not refuse?

And they protected it against "right click" copying, too.

I wonder if they really ARE authentic signatures. They look similiar to mine (which were verified as NOT being authentic) and *I* know that I did not forge them!

Nor did my friend.

*shrug*

[Dave]

To Gary mainly
Those are in fact the real Beatles signatures.
How do I know? Check out my autographed London Paladium: Royal Command Performance 1963 poster next time your here :D

[Douglas]

OR you can pay $75,000.00 for a Can't Buy Me Love 45, another great deal (see link below). By the way, you're right they LOOK like Beatles signatures on the Butcher cover but who knows. How many Italian DJs had access to a first state butcher cover, when according to Perry Cox, no first state Yesterday and Today's in butcher form were sold to the public in any country that wasn't pasted over.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1496930641

[Dave]

jlomax if you read the posted article in it you'll find that the first state butcher cover was given to the dj as a gift when The Beatles were promoting the album at the radio station he worked at and signed in person. ;)

[Gary]

Eh, a good story. But it's only a story. I can invent a great story involving the Toronto Telegram and the Beatles at the Hot Stove Lounge.

Maybe the best point about that item is the certificate of authenticity from Frank Caiazzo for the signatures.

Oh who cares - even if I had the spending cash, I probably would not buy it. Can you imagine what kind of DCC / MFSL / audiophile catalogue you'd have!?!

"The grapes are sour" Gary ;)

[Douglas]

Originally posted by Dave:
jlomax if you read the posted article in it you'll find that the first state butcher cover was given to the dj as a gift when The Beatles were promoting the album at the radio station he worked at and signed in person. ;)

Nope, Dave. The article says nothing about it being a gift from the Beatles or anyone else. It says he interviewed them and that this copy comes from his "shelves."

[Dave]

jlomax,
Sorry mate it might not be there that I read it. It may have been on the ebay ad itself which of course means absolutely nothing except for the Frank Caiazzo authenticity. :D

[ December 18, 2001: Message edited by: Dave ]

[Douglas]

No problem. Who is this Frank Ciazzo anyway? I've heard of some Beatle experts but I haven't heard of him. Do you all know his reputation? [rubs chin and considers bidding]

[Douglas]

Curiouser and curiouser:

"The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available
for sale."

Final bid was $27,100; it hadn't made the seller's reserve price.

[Gary]

Well I think that they either got a really big offer, the signatures are NOT authentic or ...?

We'll never know.

Yea, good point: Who IS this Frank guy? :eek:

[Dave]

When you guys find out let me know. He's sopposed to be some kind of signature expert?!?

[Holy Zoo]

Could be that the guy was using ebay to advertise the item's existance.

I've heard of a few instances where people put up a super rare item, but with an out-of-sight reserve just to get the word out.

It wouldn't surprise me if through the grapevine every major Beatles collector heard about this as a direct result.

All he has to do is wait for the right person to email him saying "name your price, I'll give it to ya", and mission accomplished. All for a few bucks to post the auction.

And if it doesn't meet reserve, no harm done.

And... if some bogus bidder does bid up to your insane $10 million reserve, you can bet that they are just screwing with you, and cancel their bid (or even cancel all bids and close the auction).

Ebay of course frowns on using them just as an advertising mechanism, but unless you make a habit of it, they probably won't nuke your account.

[ December 18, 2001: Message edited by: Holy Zoo ]

[Holy Zoo]

Originally posted by jlomax:
No problem. Who is this Frank Ciazzo anyway? I've heard of some Beatle experts but I haven't heard of him. Do you all know his reputation? [rubs chin and considers bidding]

A quick search on google yielded:

http://www.beatlesautographs.com

Our Mission...

To provide authentic, genuine examples of Beatles handwriting and autographs to the public.* What sets us apart from other autograph dealers is we specialize only in Beatles material.

Frank Caiazzo is the founder and owner of The Beatles Autographs. He began his study of Beatles signed and handwritten material in 1986. Since that time,* he has taken literally thousands of hours to study the intricacies contained within the signatures of the four members of The Beatles. From the outset, Frank has remained very focused in his approach and in his desire to know everything about their signatures. Eventually he found that he could look at a particular set of autographs or individual autograph and not only ascertain whether or not it was authentic, but could also determine when it was signed to within a few months.

[ December 18, 2001: Message edited by: Holy Zoo ]

[Douglas]

I know this is an old thread now but I thought you all might enjoy some followup about this. It was probably a fake. The guy Caiazzo who allegedly offered a COA is allegedly denying that he has authenticated this. There was also a thread on rec.beatles.music about examining the jpg of the cover in photoshop which I proceeded to do and just as the guy says, there's a halo around all the signatures, although this halo may be from the jpegging of the image, not from a cut and paste as this guy assumes. Below is pasted from that post:

This is not a case of a "suspicion" or a "hunch". The seller did not/does
NOT have an official COA from Frank Caiazzo, yet he claims in the ad that he
indeed had such an item. I know Frank personally...

What this person did was copy a set of autographs that
was previously on Ebay and super-imposed them onto a butcher cover image.
This is very easy to do in Pshop. You see, when zoomed way in you can
actually see how the pixels are different just around the actual lines of
the autographs!! You can tell that they have been added as there are white
pixels surrounding all of the autograph lines, following them like a "halo".

[ December 22, 2001: Message edited by: jlomax ]

[Gary]

Thanks, Jlomax! I'm sure that all of us appreciate hearing the conclusion!

Wow - can you imagine? Some poor guy sending $50,000.00 to the seller and just getting to post negative feedback when it does not arrive - or the fake arrives?

But I'm sure that they'd take a more appropriate action to get their money back....
:eek:

[Douglas]

Even more followup to this. Check out the link below before it goes dead. Look familiar? http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewItem&item=1491777755

[ December 30, 2001: Message edited by: jlomax ]