To buy some Fab Four items all you need is dough, and a computer.
Money can’t buy you love – but it can buy you an 8-foot-long yellow submarine or a handwritten note from John Lennon to Bob Dylan.
More than 300 of the world’s rarest Fab Four collectibles are for sale until Dec. 9 in an Internet-only auction, from a one-of-a-kind bottle of Beatles perfume to a never heard 26-minute recording of the band singing Christmas carols.
Those who have an extra $5,000 for a toy Beatles banjo or $15,000 for a signed photo from the movie “Help” can bid at www.ItsOnlyRockNRoll.com.
The staggering assortment was consigned from Barbara Crawford, a private collector in Atlanta who had the foresight to save cans of Beatles soda, Beatles talcum powder and yes, Beatles hair spray.
For $5,000, fans can purchase a handwritten note that Lennon penned to Dylan on the back of an eight-track sleeve for Lennon’s first solo LP, the Plastic Ono Band.
The lighthearted letter, sent to Dylan while he was staying at Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park mansion, ends, “P.S. I don’t think “God’ is very “Donovan,’ do you?”
The collection also includes hundreds of oddities from other rock stars, including producer-turned-murder-suspect Phil Spector’s birth certificate, several of Stevie Nicks’ billowing gowns and a signed Elvis Presley credit card for Germain Bros. Liquor and Food.
But the hottest item is a never-before-heard recording of the Beatles singing “The 12 Days of Christmas” and other carols.
Marc Zakarin, who founded the Web site with his wife, Deb, said the guys were joking around so much that their label didn’t release it.
“The public has never heard a second of it,” he said.
In all, about 325 of the 850 items up for auction have something to do with the Beatles, including an original poster for their 1965 Shea Stadium show, a menu signed by Paul McCartney, unused concert tickets and a slew of Beatles-branded collectibles, from jewelry to a pair of Keds sneakers.
The auction went live Thursday night and runs until Dec. 9. A second wave of Beatles’ memorabilia will be auctioned off in the spring.
—
(c) 2003, New York Daily News.
Visit the Daily News online at http://www.nydailynews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-11-17-03 1608EST
Send questions/comments to the editors.
