| sigmapsidelta 28.11.2009 19:21 |
I just went by an anniversary - 30 years to the day since I first watched the world's best strut their stuff on stage. It was on 27th November 1979 when, as an innocent 17 year old kid, I braved the northern British winter clad only in jeans and specially-made (and printed - it said 'It's Late Freddie!' - hoping for the song request) tee-shirt (and shoes, socks and underwear, of course). In other words bloody freezing outside the Manchester Apollo. The offers of £50 for my ticket were becoming more enticing by the second as my blood became more sluggish. Then the doors opened and we (a couple of thousand of us, at least) flooded in towards the warm lights. I bought my programme and proceeded to enter the auditorium. What followed is best left to those paid by the word to explain. I just know that I was a Queen fan and, even so, what I experienced in those few hours was an epiphany. The cream on the cake, and the reason for this thread, post and question is that I just happened to have a connection with the head of security for that particular venue. He couldn't put me face to face with the band, but he could put a pen, my programme and all four members in the same area and produce a result. Thus I have treasured a 1979 tour programme, signed by all four on the cover (with ticket stub and fan club tour dates letter) ever since without knowing whether or not I should be considering some kind of insurance - I know its priceless, but those philistines at the co-op don't. Anyone any idea what I should look to insure my treasure for? I had the pleasure of seeing both of the Dec. '80 concerts at the NEC and the 1982 concert at Elland Road, Leeds, but didn't have the benefit of an 'in' with the security at those venues so my programmes for those dates are, sadly, basic unsigned items. . |
| The Real Wizard 28.11.2009 21:07 |
sigmapsidelta wrote: Anyone any idea what I should look to insure my treasure for?. My vote goes for zero. It's a one-of-a-kind item for you, so no amount of money would be able to replace it. Just take good care of it, and treasure your memories. |
| Ginger01 29.11.2009 05:45 |
What a great problem to have! :) I agree with Sir GH that what you have is priceless and if something happened to it, it would be irreplaceable. But if you do want to get it insured (which I can understand) you might contact one of the big auction houses (Sotheby's, Christie's, etc) to give you a written estimate (you can say it's for insurance if you like). Collectibles such as this do come up for auction now and again and I am sure they will have had this kind of request before. They might want to see it first, though, before they give you a figure. I would think the Co-op would accept an estimated value from Sotheby's et al but if the number is too high they may refuse to ensure it, price it separately or impose conditions on how it is to be stored (eg kept in a safe /safety deposit box, etc). Hope this helps! |
| TimBHM 29.11.2009 05:51 |
Sir GH wrote:sigmapsidelta wrote: Anyone any idea what I should look to insure my treasure for?.My vote goes for zero. It's a one-of-a-kind item for you, so no amount of money would be able to replace it. Just take good care of it, and treasure your memories. However if you watch the Antiques Roadshow then noteworthy autographs tend to be valued at most around £100 for someone of this kind of notability and much more if it's someone like JFK or Churchill. Now they always advise insurance be set at a higher level than the valuation but the trouble is that it's irreplacable now isn't it? So Bob's right about that one one level. My advice would be to ask the people at AR or a reputable dealer (if you can find one!) |
| sigmapsidelta 29.11.2009 07:06 |
Thank you for your replies. I do vaguely recall seeing an article in a newspaper in about 1994 about autographs and their values. Freddie was one of the more expensive ones mentioned at £250. I know that 'collectables' tend to go up and down in value depending on various trends, but did that £250 really become something sufficiently large to bother somebody like Christies or Sotheby's with? I am a bookseller by trade and know that the big auction houses are happy to handle something like a Churchill signed first edition at around £30,000, but the programme can't be in that league, surely? If it was I'd be scared to look at it too closely in case the act of observing it altered it at the quantum level. Plus I probably couldn't afford the premiums on that sort of figure. I shall dare a call to one of the establishments mentioned above. Not sure if I'd want to take my prize into a big, dirty city to let them see it. though - it has lived in the clean coastal air of Devon for the past 20 years. . |
| Ginger01 29.11.2009 09:01 |
Actually I think Bonhams might be the one for you - see this : link In their upcoming sale on 9 December they have some Paul Rodgers memorabilia going for £250 (est) link There is also a Paul McCartney autograph further down the same page estimated at £200-300 - given that both Pauls are still around to sign more autographs whereas Freddie, alas, is not, your programme should be worth something. |
| QUEENexpert 29.11.2009 10:33 |
You want to get rid of it?!!?!?!! Keep it forever. I would be buried with something like that. Keep it. |
| pittrek 29.11.2009 10:56 |
I want to have your problems. REALLY :) |
| sigmapsidelta 29.11.2009 12:20 |
'I want to have your problems' Well, I used to be a postman but had to resign over a recurrent injury. You're welcome to my stress fracture. [img=/images/smiley/msn/wink_smile.gif][/img] I don't have any intention of parting with the programme. It is housed on a book stand on top of one of my speakers, still wearing the plastic cover I put on it as soon as I got home the night of the concert. The last people to touch that cover signed it. I suppose I could even provide fingerprint evidence for that. It is just something I never thought to include in any calculation for insurance before. And if you'd really like to own such an item you might be interested to know that there were five programmes signed that night. Mine and the one belonging to my girlfriend at that time account for two, meaning there are another three such out there somewhere (my ex would never part with her treasure either). There was something of an error made that night concerning the exit strategy from the theatre. Lined up by the stage door were three long wheelbase Mercedes limos, bumper to bumper. That was the error and 'Superman' paid for it. When the band came out and started getting into the cars it was apparent that 'Superman', who was due to be in the front passenger seat of the middle car, had no way to get there - there was a crowd on either side of the stage door - other than going over the bonnet. Now Manchester in November is not the dryest of places (probably why its known as the Rainy City), and it had rained while we were all inside soaking up the decibels. So the bonnet of the car was shiny with wax and speckled with water droplets. 'Superman' jumped up onto the bonnet and immediately discovered a distinct lack of friction. His foot shot out from beneath him and he made it the rest of the way to the other side of the car head first. I was about two yards away from his landing spot and heard the thud of his impact. He was so big I expected to see a crater in the tarmac when he got up. But that he got up at all was a surprise - I can only say that really had to hurt. . |
| Ginger01 29.11.2009 14:05 |
What a story! I only wish you had the photos to go with it - that would be really something:) I understand totally you have no intention of parting with your treasure. It's just to demonstrate that these big auction houses do have the expertise to value items like your wonderful programme and that you are by no means "too small" for them. Indeed - you are serious! Think of how many calls they get from people who buy a blackened canvas in a carboot sale and are convinced that it is a Rembrandt or something. 99.99% of the time they are wrong - but the 0.01% when they are right they (client and auction house) make a fortune. Go for it! Insurance is all about hoping you will never need to use it. I wish you many long happy years in he company of your truly priceless programme - as Pittek so rightly said, we all wish we had your problem (not the health one, of course, and we wish you didn't have it either!) :))) |
| Mr. Scully 30.11.2009 10:16 |
The value of a set of 4 genuine Queen signatures is somewhere around 300 GBP. No need to insure it (there are far more valuable items) but no need to sell it either. Just keep the signatures forever. |
| sigmapsidelta 30.11.2009 12:43 |
I managed to get my hands on a little book published by Stanley Gibbons, the philatelic dealers. Seems they're also into autographs now. They give each entry in their 'catalogue' three different 'estimated values'. One is for a signed photo, one for a signed document and the third for an autograph album page. I'd put a programme down as being nearest to a document out of those three, and the Gibbons 2008 figure for that is £1,250 - its £1,500 for a signed photo and £1,000 for the album page. That would have it close to rivalling the most expensive of my first editions collection, and they're insured. No amount of insurance payout would replace it, but 'market value' compensation would pay for the wake should anything ever happen to it. . |
| master marathon runner 30.11.2009 13:32 |
you lucky little monkey ! i saw them at newcastle city hall for that crazy tour which came after the manchester gig. i was also at the nec december 1980 gig that you mentioned and got some good photos.it was the nearest i got to getting the autographs as me and my pal went around the back of the nec and happened upon the dressing room. there was about 20 fans gathered there and you could see the boys through the joins in the curtain and this is what we saw; they were sporting brown terry towelling gowns and freddie was applying moisturiser . brian was sitting with his back right up against the curtains and reading fan mail which we could also read, i swear , it was that close, he then started reading the daily express and i even remember the headline; 'no invasion-yet' -alluding to the threat of the ussr invading poland due to the turmoil caused by lech walesa and solidarity in the gdansk shipyards. And then roger threw the curtains back and bawled at us good humoredly. our entreaties to the security guy to take our programmes to get the autographs fell on deaf, agressive ears. you wont believe this , but a local restaurent near me is decorated out with celebrity autographs, the owner is a serious collecter according to a write up in my local paper a few tears ago. And there on the wall are her majesties ( the daytime shot with freddie dressed all in blue, i think) apparently,genuinally autograped.the photo is screwed to the wall i hasten to add,i just hope he knows the value , as discussed here. |
| ok.computer 30.11.2009 14:16 |
SImap, this is something I also had to deal with not so long ago. This is going to ramble a bit, but I hope it's of interest to others too. I have a fairly large record and CD collection, which to replace, if you take the face value of, say, a vinyl single at £3.99 and a CD album at say anything between £3 if it is on sale or £16.99 if it's out of chart and on HMV's shelves, would cost between £8k to £10k. But that being said, some of the albums are rare, going up to fairly modest sums of around £100 each. How do you replace that? Well, the insurance companies - most of them - will take a list. Basically, a big list of everything you have. And for the rare stuff, you make a separate list. That includes your ordinary 7" vinyl of a reasonable common single - let's a good quality version of Fat Bottomed Girls. Anything that is out of the ordinary, and would cost more than face value. They may ask you to provide a photo of the item. Some have even been known to send someone round to verify that the item is actually there and take the pic for them, but that doesn't happen as much any more. For the rarest of items, such as you describe, then your best guess will have to do, and they will generally take that at face value, within reason. They *may* ask for a written valuation. And they *may* put a limit on that. Say you feel that your programme is worth £3k. They may limit any payout to £1500 or whatever. So for that, you shop around. Where they really put the boot in, is for so-called "master collections", where the owner has just about everything. They will then impose special conditions - from the very mundane, in terms of security, to the very high-level, in terms of how the collection is stored or accessed. But you being a bookseller, would probably know all this. For an auction value....well....it's 20 pages of paper, with some ink on the front. It will all be down to whether or not there are two people in the room that really want it! Most auction houses will probably give you a valuation based on their knowledge of the market, the current economic climate, whether they know someone who really wants it, etc, etc, etc. And no item is ever too small. :-) Mr Scully is about right, and I shifted a genuine, fully-signed Hot Space promotional record for about £400 recently. Just enjoy the item on the top of your speaker as you do, and make sure the insurance company know that you have, and should the unthinkable happen, you're covered. Only thing I'd do? Get a nice box frame with some museum-grade glass, and a latch on the back. £60 will cover it. All the best, you lucky sod! |