A Grammy Award presented to Pearl Jam in 1996 has sold at the top of Nate D Sanders' latest online sale.

Pearl Jam and many of the grunge bands of the day resisted the mainstream music industry

Pearl Jam picked up the award for Best Hard Rock Performance with the song Spin the Black Circle, but the moment is well remembered by fans of the band for singer Eddie Vedder's acceptance speech.

"I don't know what this means," Vedder said. "I don't think it means anything."

The band has a long tradition of opposing the mainstream music industry, often pulling stunts such as this. In 1994, at the height of grunge music's popularity, the band sued Ticketmaster for applying a service charge to its concert tickets.

A superb piece of the band's history, the award started at $10,000, but soon soared to $52,226 in the October 30 online auction.

Grunge music memorabilia, particularly that of Nirvana and singer Kurt Cobain, is steadily rising in value as collectors realise the movement's importance to the history of music.

See our top 5 sales of Kurt Cobain memorabilia.

Those who were young fans of the genre back in the early 1990s are now finding themselves with more disposable income, and are spending it on memorabilia. With Pearl Jam considered one of the most influential bands of the 1990s, their collectibles could be top-sellers in this market in years to come.

Paul Fraser Collectibles has a great range of music memorabilia for sale.