Dearest Art Collector
Aline Braunbeck
Their music, style, and cultural impact have been enormous, and their vinyl records have been highly sought after by collectors worldwide. The following are the most expensive Beatles records ever sold:
One rare album version features a serial number embossed on the front cover, while another includes a prototype cover with the album title in a script font. However, the most expensive version of the white album ever is a rare double LP, with a white gatefold cover stamped with serial number "0000001".
However, one of the rarest and most valuable Beatles album covers is the rare 1966 "Yesterday and Today" compilation. The original cover featured the four Beatles posing in butcher smocks, surrounded by decapitated baby dolls and raw meat.
Due to its controversial content, the controversial album cover was quickly recalled and replaced with a new cover. However, a few copies were sold before the recall, and one sold for $125,000 in 2016.
However, the most expensive version of the album is a copy signed by Lennon and Yoko Ono, which was given to Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman, just hours before the shooting. The album was later found in Chapman's possession and sold for $150,000 in 1999.
The record was never commercially released, and the only known copy was recorded on an acetate disc that Elvis gave to a friend as a gift. Later, the friend sold the disc to an Oregon-based record collector, who sold it at an auction for $300,000 in 2015.
This single was recorded by Elvis Presley in 1953 and marked his first commercial recording. It's also known as one of the rarest singles ever pressed due to its limited run of only 500 copies at the time.
"Good Luck Charm" was a hit single released by Elvis Presley in 1962. The record features a rare test pressing with a completely different take, released by RCA Victor's subsidiary label, HMV, in the UK as early access.
The album includes ten tracks, including a cover of "Blueberry Hill" and the title track, "Moody Blue." However, the most valuable version of the album is a mint edition sealed copy, which was sold for $3,000 in 2020.
Aside most expensive vinyl records from The Beatles and Elvis Presley, plenty of other musicians have highly valuable and sought-after vinyl records. Here are some of the most expensive records from other artists:
In 2015, Wu-Tang Clan announced they had created a one-of-a-kind double album, "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin." The album was produced secretly over six years and sold in a unique art print cover depicting the group's logo.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a classic album by The Beatles and one of their most iconic covers. However, few people know that the black Parlophone label version of the album is highly valuable to record collectors.
The album was initially released in the UK in 1967, featuring the black Parlophone label with a yellow logo. One copy of an expensive vinyl record of the test pressing of the album sold for $42,000 in 2021.
"Legacy of Brutality" is a compilation album by punk band The Misfits, originally released in 1985. The album was pressed on black vinyl, but a few copies featured a blue label with "Fiend Club" at the top.
The original pressing of the single featured a sleeve with a picture of the Queen with her eyes crossed out, but most copies were destroyed when the record company, A&M, dropped the band. The few surviving copies have become highly valuable, with one selling for $20,000 in 2003.
"SMiLE" was an album The Beach Boys recorded in 1966-1967, but it was never released for various reasons. The project was revived in the 2000s, and an official version of the album was finally released in 2011.
The original mono pressings' most expensive record has become highly sought after by record collectors, as they feature a unique mix compared to later stereo versions. One copy sold for $10,500 in 2010.
Are You Experienced? is arguably the definitive album by Jimi Hendrix and was initially released in 1967 on Reprise Records with a purple label design dripping down from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner on both sides (variation 1).
Some of the most expensive records ever sold include The Beatles' "White Album" (double LP with a gatefold cover), Wu-Tang Clan's "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," and Bob Dylan's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" (early demo copy).
Whether you're a Beatles collector or a Wu-Tang Clan fan, there's always something rare and valuable to discover in vinyl records. Despite the rise of digital music streaming services, vinyl records remain a timeless artifact of music history, and their value will continue to rise over the years to come.
Only 4 of the more than 700 Bugatti Type 57s crafted in the 1930s and 1940s are Type 57S Atlantics. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack. The Bugatti Type 57SC epitomizes the elegance, vision, and artistry of Bugatti. The most recent sale was in 2010, when a 1936 model sold for $30 million.
This magnificent 1957 Ferrari 335 S features stunning Scagletti coachwork and a 4.1-liter V12. According to MotorTrend, it sold for a reported $35.7 million at auction house Artcurial. For a time, the automobile led the 1957 Le Mans before dropping to fifth due to mech
The most expensive American classic car of all time sold for the highest car auction price in the United States at a whopping total of $22 million. The Duesenberg SSJ driven by actor Gary Cooper sold at auction in Pebble Beach in 2018, and it remains one of only two models of its kind in existence since the Great Depression halted its production run.
Rarer than its 250 GTO Scaglietti designed siblings, this auction was a truly one in a lifetime opportunity in August 2014. It is one of only three Berlinetta competizione cars, in addition to being a top performing racing car once owned by Steve McQueen.
A classic car with the character with its frog green and wide mouthed grille. It joins another expensive car on our list as one of the only three cars in the 1950s to win both the World SportsCar Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans in the same year. It was raced by the biggest names such as Roy Salvadori, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, and Carroll Shelby, among others.
The first of its kind ever designed by Carroll Shelby, the original Shelby Cobra sold for $13.74 million in Monterey, California in August 2016. Other models such as the Cobra 427 and the Supersnake typically are closer to 3 million in auction. With its glass blue and wide eyed headlights it is no mistake this is one of the most important racing cars in history well deserved price.
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I am certainly not a serious collector of historical artifacts, but I have a thing for obscure curiosa:for example, I maintain an expansive if entirely worthless collection ofhyperinflationary banknotes from around the world.
My other unserious numismatic pursuit is the collection of money depicting murderousrevolutionaries, dictators, and other bad actors who either couldn't help themselves and put their ownlikeness on the currency, or who ended up there as a consequence of a personality cult cultivated bytheir acolytes after the subject's death.
Of course, the criteria for inclusion on the list are a bit mushy. For example, all his accomplishments aside,Napoleon Bonaparte can be described as a murderous despot - yet most Europeans would object to having him listed next to Pol Pot. To avoid the ambiguities of dealing with an era where authoritarian leadership was the global norm,I decided to limit my collection to the leaders who established authoritarian regimes in the 20th centuryand beyond. I also stayed away from kings and other royalty.
It must also be said that the collection is necessarily incomplete. For instance, Adolf Hitler andJoseph Stalin are among the most prolific murderers in human history, but I am not aware of any state-issuedbanknotes bearing their likeness. In contrast to this duo, some other dictators commemorated here, such as theYugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, feel almost out of place - but they did end up on a banknote or two.
The collection is fascinating, quite wacky, and at times rather beautiful. Let's kick off the review with some household names in the West. First, we havethe father of the nation and the eternal leader of North Korea, Kim Il-sung. Middle-of-the-road estimatesput the number of people murdered by the regime at around 1,500,000; countless others perished due to famine or endedup in labor camps:
Next, we have Chairman Mao Zedong of China. The murders carried out by the revolutionary regime likely total morethan a million, but they pale in comparison with more than 30,000,000 who perished due to Mao's deranged agriculturaland land reform policies implemented shortly after the establishment of his communist state:
Up next, Vladimir Lenin, on one of several Soviet banknotes to bear his likeness. The murders carried outduring and immediately after the Bolshevik Revolution number in the hundreds of thousands. The overall death toll ofMarxist-Leninist ideologies in the Soviet Union and the neighboring states easily exceeds ten million, much of itcredited to Lenin's protege, Joseph Stalin:
Closer to the modern day, we have Saddam Hussein, the absolute ruler of Iraq up until his capture and eventual executionby the forces aligned with the United States of America. Saddam espoused a blend of nationalism and secular socialism. It is estimated that at least 200,000 people were murdered by Hussein's regime, and some researchers place the number closer to 600,000:
Next, we have Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, assassinated after being captured by rebels during the Libyan Civil War.A flamboyant socialist ruler always conscious of his image (and portrayed here with his trademark shades).Gaddafi's legacy is perhaps a bit more nuanced, although there is littledoubt that he was a tyrant and that his regime made little distinction between rebel fighters and their civilian supporters,killing the latter by the thousands:
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