The British record collector magazine Record Collector has published several Top 20 to 100 “Worldwide Rarities” lists throughout the years for Queen and solo releases. The ones published between 1998 and 2000 can be found here. Some more lists have been published throughout the years with the last notable one being from 2021, but all were arguably incomplete. The collectors market changes on a regular basis. New items are being discovered every few months or years. Rare items are suddenly not so rare anymore because old warehouse stock was found or interest in a particular artist or release has increased or decreased, changing demand and thus an item’s value.
A small group of Queen collectors came up with the idea to compile a new contemporary list, covering not just Queen, but also the solo releases. Each list will be a Top 100 to ensure that as many releases will be covered as possible. To avoid the fact that many lists will be dominated by obscure one-off releases or test pressings, two main categories are introduced:
- General public releases: these include music formats which could be purchased in a shop, were handed out to radio stations or where released but then withdrawn again
- Non-general public releases: as expected, this one covers anything that was not made for the record buying audience. These include test pressings, acetates, special executive and non-public event releases and rumoured releases
Each of these two categories apply to every artist or band (Queen, The Cross, Brian May, Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor) and will cover 100 of the most rare and expensive releases up to the date of this publication. This approach thus means that you will get up to 200 releases per artist! The only exception is for John, since his solo output is so small.
The list
Some words about this list. The referenced values are all estimates and not written in stone. They are in most cases for (near) mint copies and based on (recent) sale values. Still, anyone can ask or pay for an item whatever he or she wants.
The title of a release in the list can be a link to a relevant page (i.e. Discogs or Popsike) with further details including images, catalogue number, label information etc. You may even stumble upon an opportunity to buy such an item!
The thumbnails are clickable to see a larger version of the artwork if needed, but please note that many images are sourced from various places across the internet. This means that the quality is not always that great.
The below 15 entries cover all releases of which John was an integral part in the musical output. This however excludes any releases where he “just” produced the music or had writing credits. Unfortunately, he was only ever in three bands being his 60s band The Opposition (later renamed to Art), Queen and The Immortals. It is for this reason that we have combined everything into one list (obviously excluding Queen releases) including commercial releases, test pressings and other oddities.
| Details | Value | |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | 6.000 € | |
 | Unknown 1969, UK, Acetate (?, Single) 3 track acetate featuring Transit 3, Vehicle and Sunny, song order and disc size are unknown, John’s first band The Opposition, this disc was released under the re-named band name Art |
|
| #2 | 100 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, UK, Vinyl (12″, Single) Test pressing, white label |
|
| #3 | 75 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, UK, Vinyl (7″, Single) Test pressing, white label |
|
| #4 | 70 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, UK, Vinyl (12″, Single) Picture sleeve |
|
| #5 | 50 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, Spain, Vinyl (12″, Single) Commercial release, picture sleeve |
|
| #6 | 35 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, UK, Vinyl (7″, Single) Picture sleeve |
|
| #7 | 30 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, EU, Vinyl (12″, Single) Picture sleeve, no barcode on the back |
|
| #8 | 30 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, Germany, Vinyl (7″, Single) With German promo sheet |
|
| #9 | 30 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, Spain, Vinyl (7″, Single) Commercial release, black & white back sleeve |
|
| #10 | 25 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, EU, Vinyl (12″, Single) Picture sleeve |
|
| #11 | 25 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, EU, Vinyl (7″, Single) Picture sleeve |
|
| #12 | 25 € | |
 | Who Made Who / No Turning Back 1986, Italy, Vinyl (7″, Single) Jukebox promo, A-side is by AC/DC, no picture sleeve, with jukebox title card |
|
| #13 | 20 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, Spain, Vinyl (12″, Single) Promo |
|
| #14 | 20 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, Italy, Vinyl (7″, Single) Picture sleeve |
|
| #15 | 15 € | |
 | No Turning Back 1986, Spain, Vinyl (7″, Single) Promo, black & white back sleeve |
|
This already concludes the collectables for John Deacon. 15 items added through collaboration by a number of fans and collectors. It is expected that there are still some gems hidden in someone’s collection or information has gone lost over the years. But anything that may pop up this year, may be a candidate for next year’s list in case we decide to revise this topic.
For an overview of all available lists, please refer to the main article.
These Top 100 lists were created with the valuable input from the following people: Remy Hunter, Jeroen Kooistra, Carmelo Larrosa, Ron Formela
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