Book Board Chat

Highest Prices Obtained on Ebay for "Celebrity" High School Yearbooks

Well, unlike last week where the prices were somewhat weak, people seem to have opened up their pocketbooks quite wide with an eye-popping assortment of prices.

$1259.55 Vince Lombardi Freshman Year "Signed" by him as "Lom" under two group photos he had. This price clearly was related to the signings and not as much to the yearbook (although any of his books are quite scarce as he attended a 6 year program leading to the priesthood; leaving after 4 to finish at conventional prep school.) As a yearbook without his having "signed" the value would be a fraction of this.

$1000 Andy Warhol Senior Year: This is a VERY strong price for this book which usually sells in the $500-$1000 range. Warhol, of course, has a strong collectible following and this book is rather scarce in excellent condition owing to a plastic spiral binding and soft cover, leading to few intact, surviving pieces. Also, Warhol did not achieve major national fame till about 15-17 years after he graduated and thus not a lot of these were saved/preserved for his presence in them (unlike, e.g. Elvis, who became a national sensation within 18 months of his high school graduation, leading everyone to provide much safer keeping of the book!!)

$1000 Bob Dylan JUNIOR year: This is interesting as the seller only showed his posed head photo and did not make it explicit that this was NOT his Senior year (which normally would be worth a multiple of a lower year) and perhaps the buyer either didn't care or didn't realize. In any event this is the highest price I have ever seen this book sell for.

$810 and $510 Metallica-James Hetfield-related These were two high school yearbooks relating to James Hetfield's early high school days and one contained a long inscription by him referring to one of his early bands and the other had his posed head photo BUT the key is that they both belonged to Ron McGovney, an early member of Hetfield's band. Thus the value was based less on Hetfield's presence in the books and more on the circumstances and ownership of them.

$511 Janis Joplin SENIOR Good solid price for this book. Plenty of copies, but also plenty of fans.

$500 Steve Jobs JUNIOR year listed and sold shortly after his death was announced. Same book had been purchased on Ebay for $299 the prior week while he was still alive.

$449 Madonna SENIOR year: The material girl still carries some collectible weight (even if she has kept off any other).

$400 Jonas Salk SENIOR year: Iconic name for the 20th Century, but a very STRONG price; higher than I have ever seen for this book.

$369 Robert Lowell SENIOR year. Buyer got a sensational bargain because the book had a few cutouts in the advertising section; aside from that book was in superb condition from a tiny private school with only about 30 graduates pictured. Extremely scarce low-volume, depression-era book of a Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and "Poet Laureate".

Again, if anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to e-mail to me directly.