http://cgi.ebay.com/Beatles-Yesterday-and-Today-1st-State-Stereo-RARE-/250841792129
As you know I work for eBay. I do the mobile apps and stuff. When you work for eBay, they encourage you, for obvious reasons, to use the service as much as possible. When I first joined, I decided that I would try to find some toys of my childhood. Micronauts. I'd dig around to see what was familiar and make some bids. I won several of them and they now litter my desk at work.
When we introduced selling in our iPhone app, I decided it was time to sell some stuff. I sold some books and an old Apple T-Shirt. It was very easy. I had a little something to do with that, but you never know until you try.
Now I'm selling something that is probably worth more than a car or two. My friend has had this album since he found it at a garage sale in 1979. The owners didn't know what they had. My friend did. I'm not sure what he paid for it, but it was possible a buck. He figured it was worth a few hundred at the time, but he didn't care. He is a Beatles fanatic and to own such a cool collectors item was all that mattered. I believe when he found it, it was sealed. It turns out this is one of the rarest records ever. After several years, from what I know he decided to open it, to make sure it was real. I don't know if he ever played it. Perhaps only once. But the cellophane is still wrapped around it and it is in pristine condition considering the years and where it was found. The odd thing about the record, and what makes it even more special, is that there is a blue dot retail sticker in the top center of the cover on the cellophane. This either signifies a price code or a category code. If anyone knows for sure, it'd be great to find out. This was probably in a store, someplace in the Los Angeles area, bought the day it came out, and just sat until 1979. This could be called "The Blue Dot Butcher".
There is plenty of history and lore surrounding the album. It was pulled from stores the day it was supposed to go on sale and most merchants never got the chance to put it on the shelves. As soon as they did, they were asked to remove them. The fact that it is stereo is also significant. They pressed far fewer stereo versions at that time. So this all adds up to being a very very special record and piece of history. A few sealed stereo versions have sold up to $88,000. But this may be the only one in existence with the cellophane still around it and especially with what it most likely a retail sticker in place. It's not easy knowing what it's worth, but I guess we'll find out.
Frankly I'm nervous about selling it. I'm sure that I'll get a lot of questions, and it's never easy knowing what to start an auction at and what to set a reserve price at. But everyone tells me to set the reserve at the minimum acceptable price you'd like to get, and to start the auction at a fairly low price. My friend told me what he wants the reserve to be, and I started it at $100. It should be interesting to see what happens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_and_Today
http://news-antique.com/?id=796406&keys=Beatles-Butcher-Cover-Auction
