Maybe I'm Amazed

If you grew up in the 1950s, ’60s, or ’70s, then the popular music of those days is likely near and dear to your heart. Elvis Presley and the Beatles and the Beach Boys and Bob Dylan and the Byrds and so many others from the era created the soundtrack to countless lives.

In the “makes you feel old” department, it’s strange to consider how long ago rock’n’roll began. It was more than 50 years ago that the likes of Elvis, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry were jolting the music scene. It’s been a full 45 years since John, Paul, George, and Ringo set off “the British Invasion” and produced their own seismic effect on pop culture.


Isn’t it amazing to consider how highly we value old-time rock’n’roll? Baby boomers not only are still listening (as proven by recent hot-selling hits compilations from the Beatles, Elvis, and the Beach Boys), but they’re spending huge sums on related memorabilia.

Actually, it’s not so amazing that something like an Elvis jumpsuit—complete with a cape featuring gold lining—would sell for $212,600, as it did at GottaHaveIt.com on March 26. After all, The King performed in the blue jumpsuit at Madison Square Garden on June 10, 1972. He’s also shown wearing it on the cover of his album Elvis: An Afternoon in the Garden.

It is amazing, though, that otherwise normal pieces can draw healthy sums if they’re related to our pop music icons. Example: The same GottaHaveIt.com sale featuring the jumpsuit also offered an average shirt with a connection to an Elvis film. It’s “a firm possibility,” according to the item’s catalog listing, “that Elvis wore this shirt for the filming of his 1957 [movie] Jailhouse Rock.” The “possibility” was firm enough to attract a winning bid of $4,150.


Beatles memorabilia inspires a similar passion. Early recordings on vinyl—if in top condition—can sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Example: A first stereo pressing of the 1963 album Please Please Me, issued by Parlophone with a black and gold label, sold for $25,575 on 39 bids at eBay in April.

Even unsigned photographs, if rare and vintage, can bring surprising prices—like the $835 paid for a 1960/61 portrait of the Beatles with Pete Best, rather than Ringo, as drummer. In fact, there’s a relatively rich supply of Beatles collectibles in general, and there never seems to be a shortage of bidders.

“It’s Only Rock’n’Roll,” the Rolling Stones once snarled. But maybe they were wrong. Music and music memorabilia do what the best collectible items do: They take us back in time. And what a trip!

The Mighty Bambino

A wonderfully innocent photograph of Babe Ruth signing autographs turned up at a recent Heritage Galleries auction. The image finds the Sultan of Swat surrounded by players from two women’s softball teams, the Roverettes and Americanettes, and freezes in time a moment that defines Ruth’s popularity. It also proves that there are some appealing Ruth-related mementos that can be had for bargain prices: It sold for $75.


More than a dozen other vintage Ruth photos—all from the Culver Pictures Archive—also sold for prices between $60 and $150. But don’t get the idea that Ruth memorabilia is cold. No, there’s always demand among sports collectors for anything Ruth-related. The Culver pictures weren’t autographed, and unsigned photos happen to be one area in the realm of Babe Ruth memorabilia that’s affordable.

If an authentic Ruth signature is involved, prices skyrocket. A pair of autographed Ruth photos in the same Heritage sale, for example, sold for $4,500 each (see below). And Ruth single-signed baseballs, of course, remain a true prize in the sports memorabilia market. They can sell for as little as a few thousand dollars to more than $60,000, depending on the condition of the ball and the appearance of the autograph.


Consider another item in the aforementioned Heritage sale. A mid-1920s Ruth-signed ball sold for $3,110, its value affected by stains on the ball and, more important, by a signature that looked to be faded over time. You could tell it was a Ruth autograph, but it appeared to have spent some time exposed to sunlight.

On the other hand, in the past four years, Heritage has sold 10 Ruth-signed baseballs for prices between $20,000 and $51,000. The top-priced example, from a 2008 auction, was a c. 1947 ball (Ruth died in 1948 at age 53) graded at Near-Mint/Mint+ by a leading autograph authentication service, PSA/DNA. In 2004, an equally clean example of a Ruth-signed baseball sold for $63,250 in a joint sale by Sotheby’s and SCP Auctions. More recently, in a March 2009 sale, SCP Auctions sold seven Ruth single-signed balls, fetching prices between $2,800 and $14,800.

Believe it or not, Ruth baseball cards can sell for even more than an autographed ball. A high-grade (Near-Mint/Mint+) 1933 Goudey card of Ruth sold for $89,625 last year, for example. And we haven’t even touched on the “high end” of the Ruth market.... In recent years, a 1930s uniform Ruth wore brought $658,000. A ball that Babe hit into the bleachers at the 1933 All-Star Game fetched $805,000. Ruth-used bats have sold well into six-figure prices. And in 2005, Sotheby’s reeled in $996,000 for the 1919 contract sending Ruth from the Red Sox to the Yankees.

During the past decade, we’ve seen the reputations of all kinds of contemporary stars sullied by their use (or suspected use) of performance-enhancing steroids. As a result, the market for players once considered to be future Hall of Fame “locks”—from Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds to Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez—has become chilly, if not cold. Then there’s The Bambino: His stats actually start looking even better—and serious collectors keep reaching deeper to buy their own piece of a baseball icon.

There are still deals to be had when it comes to Babe Ruth memorabilia. The charmer of a photo pictured above, for example, sold for a mere $75. And the signed photos above each brought $4,500. On the other hand, a top-condition Babe-signed baseball can be pricey; the one pictured here fetched $51,000 in May 2008. [All photos courtesy of Heritage Galleries.]