Investing Wisely In Rock Memorabilia
Some moments of rock history are likely to be remembered long after others have faded into obscurity, and if you know which ones to focus on, you could make some very good investment choices. However if you let your personal tastes outweigh your investment head, it could cost you dearly.
Anyone between the ages of 30 and 70 today has lived through a period in musical history that has been quite unlike any other. The birth of popular music has created numerous ways to profit and invest, especially as now so many other forms of investment seem either unreliable or unprofitable.
Collecting memorabilia has to be done with something of a hard heart however. If you are a fan of T Rex or Springsteen, it is important not to get carried away with your own personal tastes, look at what is most likely to gain and retain value right from the start.
There are numerous websites and blogs dedicated to collecting music memorabilia, so there’d is no shortage of expert advice out there for people who are unsure as to whether they are buying an investment or a liability.
One of the biggest issues for potential investors is trying to find a poster or other piece of memorabilia that is priced realistically. There is no point in buying a music poster that has already reached its ceiling price, not only do you need to have a piece of work retain its value, but you also want it to appreciate in value.
Posters for famous concerts such as Woodstock, Monterey or Altamont might now be approaching six figure price tags, with iconic Beatles, Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd poster attracting five figure sums, but it very much depends on age, condition and context.
As with all niche collectables, it pays to be knowledgeable to start with. If you don’t have an extensive album collection, if you don’t have opinions of Peter Frampton’s vocoder, and if you’ve never listened to a Yes concept album, this might not be the investment niche for you. However, if you know music and are passionate about pop culture, rock memorabilia could be ideal.
The internet has made the market for rock posters very buoyant and serious money as poured into the market in recent years as interest in investing has moved from the back pages of Record Collector magazine to the search page of Google. The moment that professional investors took over from fans as the movers and shakers in the Market, it was guaranteed to become big business.
To compete in this marketplace, you need to be a bit of both. Firstly you need to have a sufficient amount of interest in music in order to have a good idea of what you are buying, but you also need to have the skills of an investor to make sure the poster does more than brighten up your study.
You need to be able to assess what the poster should realistically be worth, what it is likely to fetch in the future and whether or not it is a safe vehicle to invest in. It is these kinds of skills that makes you an investor, not just someone with a very expensive hobby.
