Expert: Pattie - 4/8/2009

Question
i would like to know if the this book full of beatles photos is worth anything and if so where would i be best to sell it thank you

Answer
Hi Julie!

Well,that's one of my favourite books. I'm a collector of Beatle pictures and pics of John (as well as all Beatle books), and Dezo, in my opinion, took the best of the bunch. He's released a few books, some with the same photos, but just under different titles and packaging. "With The Beatles: The Historic Photographs of Dezo Hoffmann" was originally published in 1982. Unfortunately, because it was mass produced, it's not particularly rare compared to some Beatle books. I just checked online to see what the going rate for the book is, and you can still get that one for about $15 or less (the lowest I saw was $7). I did, however, find some people selling it for as much as $60. Their copies don't seem to be any different than the ones going for less than $15, so I'm not sure why the wide price discrepancy. Like anything else, the books condition would certainly be a factor. If your book is in perfect condition, no tears, dog-eared corners, folds etc, you may be able to sell it for a little more, say $20 or so. Just keep in mind that there are copies readily available online for under $10. I guess it depends on how quickly you want to sell it.

Your best bet for selling is Amazon.com or eBay. I've never sold anything on eBay, but many of my friends do and they say it's very easy to use. I've sold many books on Amazon.com and it doesn't get any easier than that. You just set yourself up as a seller, look up the book you want to sell from their database, name your price and click. All the artwork is already there, so there's no need to take pictures or host them. You should add a description though, of the condition of your book. Both places will take a very small percentage of your final sale price, but eBay also has some other tiny fees for listing and such that Amazon.com does not have. Another suggestion is Half.com, which is a subsidiary of eBay. Again, I've never sold anything through them, just purchased, but I've heard that it's more similar to Amazon in how the seller is charged and compensated, as well as simplicity of use. Personally, my suggestion would be to hang on to it for awhile. Anything with the Beatles name on it goes up in value. This coming September (9/9/09), there will be a major surge in "Beatlemania" when their entire catalog of music will be re-released, fully restored and digitally re-mastered. I suspect that this will impact other areas of merchandise, books included. I hope this helped and thanks for the question!

Peace,
Pattie
8^)