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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: ironlord1963 on September 15, 2009, 07:46:53 PM
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While rummaging around some of my old stuff, I came across a old treasure of mine. Of course then I started to try and decide a value, of course this one is a bit hard. So I thought well lets just share this as my find of the week (refind). I have work for many years in the photo industry, Of course a bit of a pack rat, and when the boss say throw out those old files, well not everything gets tossed. The owner of a previous photo lab, was a young photograher and got a chance to take pics of the Beatles on their first tour here in seattle. These photos was never published and he still has the orginal negatives somewhere. I did try and give this back to him when I found it, but he said keep it and told me the story. This is just the contact sheet of the photos, but negative are lost in the void and I have the only contact sheet of these pics. I have had them for about 10 years lost in the void of my Pack rat closet. So I thought maybe I should sell them to someone who may like it more then me. Well folks if you was in my shoes what would you say they are worth?
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You know my gut feeling is that on something like that, you'd have to assume the best and see if you could interest an auction house in putting it up for a well-advertised memorabilia auction, and just see what the heck happens! Boy, with an item like that, one of a kind with unreleased photos... I suppose you might have the potential for it to go hog wild, or fall flat on its face. I guess you'd have to research what other good, clear, one-off photos would bring. You could really jump the value if you could get a surviving Beatle to sign it!!
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I doubt it would fall on it's face at a serious auction. Too bad the negatives are lost in the void.
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Cool proof sheet , ironlord .
Since you work in the art-framing world , sounds like time to stick 'em in one .
Just a thought , but perhaps you could persuade the music museum in Seattle Center (you know the one) to disply them there for awhile .
Besides being a photo-record of one-of-a-kind moments in Seattle/music history , it could/would add to their value when being sold ( or donate them for tax purposes !!! ) .
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Good point joe maybe I should go talk to them at the EMP. I will or figured I would frame it in a nice frame. Still just thinking about it, just refound it yesterday so still giving it some thought.
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A good point about them displaying them at the museum (make sure of the the agreement if they are lost or stolen while on loan)....you can then tout this as a plus/plus for them....which should make their value more valid and possibly bring in more $$$.
Document, document, document......docum ent how you came into possession of them. The time/date they were shot and by whom. All of this matters!
Auction is a great idea tales.
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I bet there are museums like the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame and that kind of stuff that would LOVE to display some never before seen photos of the Fab Four! I think you've got something really special here!
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You know, just to keep those photos completely in an unpublished state, now that we got to check 'em out, why don't you pull the images out of the forum, before somebody nabs 'em? Just to be safe.
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I agree with tales!
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Maybe that is a good ideal, but I just tried and it won't let me. Not that I'm too worried, they are pretty low res files. Won't be able to make them that big. If someone know how like Admin to delete them that would be fine. I do have a sales person here that has connections at the EMP, and she is going to ask them to get a hold of me. However after your comment, I just might use the scanner here at work to make high res files of the images before I do anything with them. So if your a beatles fan let me know, maybe I can set you up.
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O.k. I just figured it out, photos are removed thanks for the advise tales.
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By golly you are quick!
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You're welcome! Better to err on the side of paranoia! ;D
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Glad to have seen them & to see them gone , ironlord .
I was thinking about the whole issue when I veiwed them this morning , and refrained from saying anything ... happy that others here did !
Now you can say that they've been exhibited at a members-only limited audience 5.5 hour debut on-line !
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I missed it!!!!
You know, the Beatles are going through a huge resurgence in popularity right now, due to the re-issue of their remastered albums and the RockBand Beatles game. I would say this is the time to sell! What you have just might go for an absurd amount of money.
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I was thinking, why not contact a major, high-end auction house that deals in pop-culture memorabilia and tell them what you've got? It can't hurt to see what they say. Even if you decide not to part with it, you might get an idea about what level of interest there might be in it. I agree with Skinny, unreleased Beatles stuff could be way hot.
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Do what you want with em .
I'd think homespun 401k & wait till they're all dead .
That's when things will heat up .
In the mean time , you've got the skills to preserve them !
Thanks for the preview , ironlord1963 .
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Sorry Skinny that you missed. The down and dirty I have discovered. Major problem that I myself should of realized at first, With the photographer mostly likely still living at least he look healthy 2 years ago, is He owns the rights. Being a photographer myself should of realized that, Basically If I sell it that would violate the Copyright laws, most likey Neither EMP or a Auction house would touch it unless I was the photographer. I can own, copy and give away prints, but can not sell. The next problem I have would be to valadate the fact I have the only copies, being a contact sheet says hay you have a nice copy of the originals, it is my words and the words the photograher saying they are the only ones that exsist. Amazing I thought I would take a peak at contact sheets on Ebay. There is one available of pics of beatles in the making of yellow submarine, sounds better then a news conference. They are special and rare but that would just be my word. If I was to sell it would have to be to a private collector of beatles stuff in the secrets of a dark alley 8). A real hard core collector would know the rareity of these and maybe willing to give us some $$$. Even better I could wait for the Michael Jackson Syndroum (His dolls sold for Hundreds the first day AMJ) Something like that would be $$$$$ APM lets say.
For right now I will be doing a high res drum scan on it at work and maybe have a few rare beatle print. I think I can get a 8x10 at least from the film contacts. Can't Sell but Have some friends who would love to have prints. I will mount it and see what happens but looks like for now I just have something cool to look at. Right next to my hundred of so Art Wolfe prints and copy negs I have, things they toss at the photo Labs.
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Then there's the question of "Was the photographer working for hire ?" ... the cpyrgt may belong to the employer ....etc , etc ... If nobody has paid the $40.00 fee , perhaps it's only copyrighted in someones' mind .
(Short form VA (-visual arts-) from register of copyrights , Library of Congress)
Copyright laws are a frog in a blender , in the U.S. !!!
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From What I remember of the story was he was a young photographer, that by chance ended up at the news conference, I remember him telling he didn't even know who the beatles was at the time. I still thinks he doesn't know who the beatles are cause he was not at all concerned about the contact sheet or where those neg are. I would be digging hard in my closet searching if I was him. But he don't care last I knew he sold 4 buildings in seattle for 20+ mill, has a private jet and would only be worth a few pennies to him. However it is cool and I will mount and display it and get some digital files of the shots and wait and see, could be a nice cap to the 401K.