Collecting music memorabilia is a passion that will pay you back.
The amount of pleasure a good music memorabilia collection can give is beyond measure.
And the financial returns can be sweet music too. Music memorabilia can be a good investment.
But where do you start?
Read on and we’ll give you an expert’s take on getting started in music memorabilia collection.
But the first advice I give to anyone interested in collecting and collectibles is that their own enthusiasms are the best guide to a long-lasting, satisfying relationship with your specialism.
1 - What is music memorabilia?
It could be anything.
Which isn’t very helpful.
But, if its related to music or musicians they I would happily sell at as collectible music memorabilia.
How about owning a literal piece of Elvis with this hair?
You’re probably most familiar with the likes of:
- Records, CDs, and mass-released, commercial recordings
- Unofficial or unreleased recordings, DJ promos, mastertapes, bootlegs, etc.
- Autographs
- Personal documents, particularly song lyrics or notes, sketches art
- Musical instruments and equipment
- Commercially produced collectibles, promotional material, toys and the like
- Costumes
- Posters, art work, promotional and press materials…
And so on.
You get the picture.
We’ll start generally, then look at some of the specifics of music memorabilia collecting.
2 - Advice for all collectors
If you’re new to collecting, welcome aboard.
You’ll have a wonderful time and there is a vibrant and helpful community around every area of specialist collecting.
And, we don’t want to patronise you, but you should keep your wits about you.
Paranoia is bad, but you should learn some basics around authenticating items and protecting yourself from fraud of various sorts.
The usual caution you bring to online transactions needs to apply to your collecting too.
Deal with people you trust, check terms and conditions, things that look too good to be true usually are.
And, with items that have to be a unique and authentic item to be worth owning you should add some further precautions.
Provenance (a proven history of an item’s origin and ownership) is vital.
Expert advice cannot be beaten.
You can buy authentication services for some things; Beatles autographs for example.
Certificated authentication (we certificate the guaranteed authenticity of everything we sell, and its backed by our decades of expertise and industry experience) is a good extra on any item.
How much you pay is very much up to you.
Valuation of music memorabilia is no exact science. And with many sales going to auction, prices can be set in one of the most notoriously unstable pricing mechanisms in all of capitalism.
Supply and demand plays its part.
Still number 1: The Beatles are in a class of their own.
We’ll mention The Beatles a lot in this article because a lot of people want to buy memorabilia associated with them. They are possibly the most popular musical act in history. That’s a lot of demand. And for some things it far outstrips supply and pushes up prices.
My favourites, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, less so.
Scarcity introduces some supply-side pressure.
Put them together and you get millions of Beatles fans desperate to get a good-quality signed album and you’re paying around £15,000 for an early album signed by them all.
My Ned’s Atomic Dustbin signed records aren’t going for that amount.
So you want scarce items that are in demand, ideally with a good, provable personal connection to an artist, with fully certificated authenticity and a record of their provenance that are in excellent condition.
But these are very dynamic markets so valuing music memorabilia is best done by experts as you sell or buy.
That’s the reality in most cases.
And in some cases, the experts will be wrong, and you’ll only find out when you find an item you’re selling doesn’t make its minimum, or an item you’re trying to buy becomes the subject of a bidding war that drives an item out of your reach.
That’s collecting.
Recordings
Records, CDs, tapes and other physical recordings are mass produced for mass consumption. As a result the vast majority of them have relatively little value.
Those that do will fulfill the criteria we’ve set out above: rarity, a special connection, demand outstripping supply.
Some releases do achieve value in their own right, but it is more likely to be tens of pounds rather than hundreds.
To take a fairly random example, a copy of Snoop Doggy Dogg’s second LP, from 1996, Tha Doggfather, on double vinyl can be found online for around £50.
That’s not bad. This was a massive selling record, millions of copies must exist. But 1996 was the height of the CD era, vinyl wasn’t really a mass-consumption medium any more. And that adds value.
Get it signed?
A signed copy of Snoop’s first album, Doggystyle, also on vinyl, is listed on eBay for nearly £400, and that’s one of the cheaper examples. It’s a good quality, large signature in a nice position, with a photograph of Snoop signing and certification. A perfect example.
All of the top-valued records though are very special editions:
The notorious unique Wu-Tang Clan Once Upon a Time in Shaolin CD bought by Martin Shkreli for $2 million in 2015, and sold again for $4 million in 2021.
A unique recording of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind for $1.8 million in 2022.
Ringo Starr’s personal copy of the White Album, numbered 0000001 for $790,000 in 2015 (the highest price for a copy of a commercially released recording).
If Paul McCartney ever sells the Quarrymen’s 1958 acetate of That'll Be the Day and In Spite of All the Danger it will surely break all records and decimate the £200,000 estimate that was put on it for many years.
Autographs
Do you know who it is yet? Fans will quickly recognise David Bowie's signature.
Autographs are a specialism in their own right, and we have written about them here, here, and here.
Autographs are what every young fan - before the selfie - was clamouring for outside stage doors and concert halls.
Pop stars sign a lot. Very successful pop stars get asked to sign more than they sustainable could.
So some pop star autographs are forged.
Often by staff. Sometimes with handstamps. And sometimes with autopens.
Research, provenance, and certificates of authenticity are your best protection against these imposters.
Value comes from quality, condition, notability, and where the autograph is - a photograph, a record album, a guitar…?
A David Bowie “autograph” that sold for $42,000 in 2016 owes much of its value to the fact that it’s at the bottom of the lyrics to The Jean Genie.
Jimmy Page autograph? I can find you one for under a fiver.
Jimmy Page autograph on a guitar? $73,000.
Contracts are also a favourite, in part because they illustrate how poorly paid and exploited many internationally famous artists (and especially minority artists) actually were.
A Hendrix autograph is always valuable, but his signature on a notorious PPX contract from 1965 went to auction with a top estimate of $200,000 in 2014. It had already sold in 2011 for around $45,000 against a $10,000 estimate.
The Beatles in this category are a category to themselves as they are in all others.
A signed Sgt Pepper album made gnarly $300,000, Ringo’s signed drumhead from the legendary Ed Sullivan Show made $2.2 million, their first contract with Brian Epstein $550,000.
Documents, lyrics, and letters
Madonna lyrics just as the Queen of Pop wrote them.
Pattie Boyd is a remarkable woman in her own right. But, she will probably be most remembered by history because two famous men - George Harrison and Eric Clapton - became infatuated with her.
She recently listed for auction some letters that touch on those relationships and a Clapton letter carried a £10,000 to £15,000 estimate.
That sale also gives us an original George Harrison lyric to consider. The handwritten 1981 lyric sheet for Mystical One could make up to £50,000 according to its estimate.
That’s small beer by some standards.
David Bowie’s Suffragette City made nearly £100,000.
Bruce Springsteen’s working lyric book for Born to Run made $250,000 in 2018.
Authenticity is important. And, provenance will matter.
If you’ve ever tried your hand at songwriting, or read any memoirs or biographies of songwriters, you’ll know that multiple copies of lyrics in many versions scattered over all sorts of scraps of paper in all sorts of condition can be called upon.
Proving which version you have and that it was actually written by the hand of the musician in question is as important as what the song is.
Musical instruments
Members of Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin signed this guitar.
I’m confident in saying that guitars are, on average, the most valuable music memorabilia on the market.
It has to be the right guitar. And the provenance has to be good.
But if you have that instrument you could be looking at life-changing sums of money.
$6 million for Kurt Cobain’s “unplugged” acoustic, $4.5 million for a Strat (Cobain is probably the most collectible and valuable single rock figure right now).
Guitars have a particular magic for musicians and fans (many of whom are frustrated musicians themselves).
There’s a very tight identification between player and instrument. It's an archetype of the rock 'n' roll era.
Most guitars are mass produced. That means it can be hard to know for sure that an instrument is the one strummed, set on fire or smashed by your hero.
Photomatching can work in some cases. But provenance - Kurt Cobain’s brother has sold some of his guitars - is very important.
Guitars stand out, but pianos, drums ($2.2 million for Ringo’s)… and in time digital and electronic instruments also have value.
Mass produced memorabilia
Big bands are money-making machines. And since the “invention of the teenager” in the 1950s they’ve been used to separate young people from their money.
T-shirts for the indie kids, figures and collectibles for the boy band fans, opportunities to look, dress, and sound like your heroes.
As we’ve seen, mass production is bad for collectors.
So, most collectible memorabilia will never be extremely valuable.
(Not that that means you shouldn’t collect it if you love it.)
However, exceptions do exist.
Again, a signature, photograph or significant link to a star will help.
As will the preservation of pristine packaging!
Some very rare Beatles toys can make thousands of pounds, but mostly you’re looking at hundreds for well-preserved items like Yellow Submarine lunch boxes.
Some items may come to have a kitsch value to collectors outside the music memorabilia world.
Costumes and clothes
Want to look like Elton John? You can, with this jumpsuit.
Costumes can be highly collectible and valuable items of music memorabilia.
To take two great recent examples:
Freddie Mercury’s on-stage crown and cape made £635,000 at auction last year.
A jumpsuit worn by Elvis at Madison Square Gardens made $0.5 million in 2021.
However, these are standouts.
Some costumes worn by Elton John were recently sold and did well. They went over estimates to reach a couple of thousand dollars.
Costumes need to be significant to have huge value.
Perhaps there's value for buyers to be found there.
Posters, art, promo
What a wonderful slice of 60s beat pop this poster is.
Posters, pictures, lobby cards, press releases, press packs… produced in huge numbers and wonderful ways to celebrate your favourite artists.
Context is everything.
Among the most valuable recent poster sales was the record $4.5 million paid in 2022 for a Buddy Holly poster.
The reason?
Holly tragically died in a plane crash on the way to play the show.
The previous record was for The Beatles legendary show at Shea Stadium, New York, which made nearly $300,000.
And these items have the magic formula.
They’re rare (the Holly poster is the only known example) and historic, rather than just rare.
Rare posters will also make money.
As will particularly attractive ones, which may have graphic or artistic value that exceeds the musical value or notoriety of the acts they advertise.
And you can still pick up posters on the streets.
Perhaps you should.
The band of all bands
All four: a full of Beatle signatures puts a multiplier on their value.
We’ve mentioned The Beatles a lot.
They are a category on their own.
No band is - yet - more collectible. No market more febrile. And no memorabilia more attractive to forgers.
You could spend the rest of your collecting life dedicated to one small area of their career.
Follow your heart
And that’s my final and most important advice.
Decide why you’re collecting.
If you’re an investor and you’re buying to store value or even to trade to make a quick profit that’s one thing.
If you’re collecting because you love, say, 60s Psych, then follow your passions and buy things you’ll love to be around.
I'd have this at home. I think buying what you love is the short-cut to collecting success.
Passion buying should be more constant.
Because musical taste moves quickly.
If I were buying to invest, I’d probably look at the hip hop world.
One of the world’s biggest auction houses held their first hip hop sale as recently as 2020.
But in 20 years time I think someone like Kendrick Lamarr is going to be massive on the collectibles market. It's a market that I think will grow and you could still get in close to the ground floor.
If you’d like to buy music memorabilia have a look at our shop here.
Get in touch if you'd like to sell your music memorabilia online with us.
