By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
November 25, 1999
Remember how you threw out your Partridge Family lunch box when you hit high school?
Chances are that if you had held onto it, you’d be up $160.
Oops.
VH1 is about to validate all the rock ‘n’ roll pack rats out there who save every ticket stub, signed scrap and poster they can get their hands on. Following the popularity of PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow” – where everyday folks haul their attic wares to be sized up by experts – the music cable channel has launched its own appraisal series.
“VH1 Rock Collectors” debuts as a two-hour special at 11 a.m. Saturday. The following week, hourlong episodes will begin airing in that slot.
“This is a chance for our passionate audience to tell their stories of how they’re connected to their mementos,” says executive producer Bill Brand. “These are people who rarely get backstage, but they usually have better stories to tell than the so-called insiders.”
Brand and his VH1 team tested the waters in June, heading for the Cleveland home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They had already alerted the media that experts from Sotheby’s auction house would be on hand to appraise any music memorabilia folks might want to bring.
“We said, `Let’s see if someone shows up,’ ” Brand recalls. “We weren’t sure how it would turn out. Thirty minutes after the doors opened, we had 150 people, each carrying brown paper sacks filled with their mementos.”
Since then, the show has taken its act on the road to Las Vegas, Austin, Texas and Miami. Chicago can expect a visit in 2000.
Some fans hit the jackpot with their mementos: a scrapbook with autographs and personal notes from the Beatles, $10,000; unused Woodstock tickets, $1,000 for the pair; Beatles’ talcum powder, $400 to $600; a T-shirt worn by singer Axl Rose, $100.
Even a defaced copy of the Beatles’ infamous “butcher block” album – pulled from stores because of its graphic cover imagery – was appraised at $1,500. Of course, it helps that it was Stevie Ray Vaughan’s personal copy.
So what type of things won’t garner big money?
“Well, there were some things that obviously had sentimental value,” Brand says diplomatically. “But that was about it. There were people bringing in a lot of old albums that really didn’t have any value – maybe $2 each. And there was one woman in Vegas who had bowling pictures of Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear.
“But we’re doing a show like this not just to draw a price value to items. Our channel’s mission is telling the stories behind the music. And the fans are a part of this.”
For instance, one fan – a guitar collector – was restoring a guitar when he recognized Charlie Daniels’ autograph on the instrument. He contacted Daniels, who told him that the guitar had been stolen from him at a Maryland gig in 1961.
Some of the items will be available for viewers’ bids at www.VH1.com. But, Brand says, a good chunk of fans decide to hang onto their goods even after having them appraised.
And as for those Partridge Family lunch boxes, there’s at least one music fan who’s hanging onto all six of his: David Cassidy.
