The rock memorabilia market is exploding. It’s no longer unusual for the most serious collectors to shell out well over $100,000 for top items — especially instruments, handwritten lyric manuscripts and clothing. “These collectors were rock fans in the Sixties and Seventies, and now they have a lot of money,” says John Collins, managing director of U.K. rock auction house Cooper Owen. “They’re buying their history.”

In Christie’s annual rock and pop auction on November 21st, poems handwritten by Bob Dylan in 1960 sold for $78,000, setting a record for a Dylan manuscript. Among other recent high-end sales: John Lennon’s scrawled lyrics for “All You Need Is Love” fetched $1 million at an auction in July; “Blackie,” the Fender Stratocaster that served as Eric Clapton’s main stage and studio guitar from 1970 to 1985, was bought by the Guitar Center music-store chain last June for $959,500; and a poster for the Beatles’ 1966 Shea Stadium concert sold for $132,000 last December.

Posted: 12|6|05 at 10:04 am. Filed under: UK News.