Saturday, October 15, 2011

John Lennon signed my album

John Lennon signed my album

This is a very unique site that posts letters written by various "famous" people throughout history. The link is to a letter from an inmate at a facility in New York that wants to know about some authentic memorabilia and it's value. I can't imagine ever getting a letter similar to this but i'm sure that piece of memorabilia is worth A LOT of money wherever it is now.

Autographed memorabilia is an ever-changing marketplace that is extremely fluid. What I mean is that something as mundane as a hair brush could be assessed to be valued at say $300 because it was owned by Michael Jackson and has his real hair still in it. Well, to a collector of Michael Jackson memorabilia this item may be worth $600 or $800. An item is only "Worth" what your able to sell it for. Someone may be selling a "beenie babie" online and say it's rare, only 100 ever made, brand new perfect condition, so it's worth $1000. If after 2 weeks he has not got any emails about it, no offers, ect and you call and offer him $400, that's what it's worth. Supply and demand is always going to be how goods are judged.

That comb that was Michael Jackson's became exponentially more valuable after his death because obviously there are only so many combs out there with his actual hair in them. The supply would be very limited for an authentic item like this, and since michael jackson was one of the most influential musicians in the world in history the demand would be HUGE for something like this....it could sell for over $10,000 and 100 years down the line be worth 10 times that. Consumers buying sets the price, then customers pay according to what any particular item is worth to them.  A baseball that michael jordan signed to your son on his birthday before he died is obviously going to be worth a lot more to you then to a collector looking for memorabilia to add to his collection for an investment. 

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