The Beatles

Introduction
The Beatles is probably the world's most famous band. The band had a relatively large official catalogue and a similarly large unofficial catalogue.

Since the Beatles has a large fanbase with many devoted fans, the band probably has the most thoroughly worked-through bootleg catalogue. People have worked to collect whatever there is of the band that was recorded live, in the studio or at home, and these bootlegs tend to aim to pick the best sources around. Sources are often even spliced to aid the completists around.

The problem with this trend is that there are few "best of" collections around. Many of the bootlegged items are hardly interesting, with the band performing roughly similar versions of the same songs multiple times in a row. Sequencing, moreover, is often chronological to ensure that you get 12 versions of "Strawberry Fields Forever" in a row. Sure, it's a great song, but you're more likely to go crazy than to get something from that.
One of the reasons why there's no "best of" collections of these bootleg tapes is that the band actually released such a set, with the six cd Anthology collection. This collection chronicles some of the better things the band did that remained unreleased until the 1990s.

For people who may want a little more than that, the alternative seems to be to go completely crazy and get whatever it is you can get by the band. If you don't wanna keep all of it, you can always delete whatever version you dislike and so on.

For the completist:

Purple Chick's deluxe editions of all albumsThe group Purple Chick has collected most (if not all?) released versions, studio demos and studio takes of all songs and put together deluxe editions of all albums the Beatles released. These editions include both the mono and stereo releases of the LP versions, rare mono and stereo mixes and other rarities. The discs also include a few outtakes.

Purple Chick's live editionsPurple Chick has also collected whatever the band did live. The quality here varies considerably. The band also never quite became a great live band. This is definitely only for those who are really interested.

Purple Chick's BBC
The Beatles released their double CD Live at the BBC in 1994. Since 1994, both many new and also a number of higher quality versions have surfaced and this makes the live album a little outdated. Someone should take another round at it, attempting to make a better version of that album. Purple Chick has - in their true spirit - aimed at collecting whatever the band did. Their BBC collection is thus as complete as it gets and includes all the highlights and flaws the band produced while doing these BBC sessions.

The "Complete Home Recordings"-collectionsPeople who are a little interested in what the Beatles did at home may want to check out the complete home recordings collections. These chronicles the Beatles at home and spans a total of six volumes. All are worthwhile, but all also differ in terms of artistic quality and sound quality. Much of it is simply unlistenable. There are gems, however.