On the heels of its first successful sports and entertainment sale in June, Collect.com Auctions has announced its first forays into the world of antiques and music memorabilia.

The recently formed auction house, owned by Krause Publications (publishers of Goldmine), started out with a sale primarily focused on sports, but the sale also included music and memorabilia items, including a lot of four autographed Chuck Berry records which sold for $585 and a drum head signed by the members of AC/DC — Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd — which went for $117. (Prices include a buyer’s premium of 17 percent.)

“We were very happy with the quality of consignments we secured for our debut auction,” said Steve Bloedow, director of Collect.com Auctions.  “We reach more than 100,000 collectors through our publications, Web sites and e-mail newsletters and we continue to reach new buyers every day.”

 The company’s second auction, which will run Aug. 10-27, also includes more than a dozen lots of collectible vinyl and music memorabilia, including guitars signed by Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Michael Jackson; a 1964 set of O-Pee-Chee trading cards depicting The Beatles; and roadies jackets from tours with Jackson, Elton John and Prince.

Consigner interest in music and memorabilia items has been high enough that Collect.com has added a music and music memorabilia auction to its schedule for November, following closely after its antiques and collectibles auction scheduled to run Oct. 19 through Nov. 5. The consignment deadline for the music auction is Sept. 23.

For more information about past or upcoming sales or about consigning items with Collect.com Auctions, call 888-463-3063 or visit www.collect.com/auctions.

Music writer Bruce Pollock takes a look at the social and music scene in the U.S. from around November 1968 (Nixon’s election) to June 1970 (the aftermath of the Kent State shootings in Ohio). Along the way he includes a wealth of first-hand accounts from people who were involved at the time.

The first part of the book looks at the major music hotspots on both coasts — Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, etc. — not forgetting to cover Detroit, as well. The second half looks at the competition between singles produced for AM radio and album-oriented rock, and the major festivals of the period. In each segment, Pollock is careful to show how the music of the time was linked with events of the day, both good and bad. The peace-and-love aspirations of events like Woodstock shine amidst darker realities such as the Manson Family murders and violence at other events.

The book also looks at the volatile mix of musical styles that thrived in these times — The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and more. It’s not light reading, by any means, but it does provide a compelling picture of how rock music fit into and reflected the times.

by  Stephen M.H. Braitman

The first appearance of a new column and resource in Goldmine magazine deserves some explanation.

As the premiere U.S. publication devoted to record collecting, the coverage one expects to find in the magazine is pretty clear: Records, either on vinyl or CD, and the music therein.

This column attempts to enlarge that focus. “Memorabilia” covers a lot of terrain. Anything remotely related to music that doesn’t actually include the sonic characteristics is memorabilia -— posters, photographs, concert tickets, sheet music, promotion objects, instruments, psychedelic Bentley automobiles, ancestral homes. You get the idea.

Music memorabilia is actually a bigger business than records. Many readers know about the $138,000 paid for a copy of the Beatles 1966 Shea Stadium concert poster. If you were given the choice of a one-foot stack of posters and a one-foot stack of LPs, which would you choose? Yes, pound for pound, posters and flyers are worth much, much more than records. Except for those that have been reprinted for commercial sale (i.e., Fillmore), most posters are one-time-only events. Their very nature makes them rarer than even limited small-edition record pressings.

This holds true for those odd and strange items produced by record companies to promote their artists and new releases. How about a Clash jigsaw puzzle? An E.L.O. light switch? Maybe a pewter pair of Bruce Springsteen “Born to Run” tennis sneakers on a key chain? A Johnny Paycheck shot glass? The elaborate gimmicks that profit-flush record companies have lavished upon their fawning press for years have made promo objects a ripe field for collectors. Slightly less objects of adoration are commercial products such as action figures and trading cards.

Except for The Beatles. Anything Beatles is the great exception.

An extreme example of the outer regions of memorabilia is reflected in the Summer Entertainment Sale from Julien’s Auctions to be held at the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood June 26-27. With a focus on items owned by Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, the ultimate in bizarre intimacy is a set of prescription bottles owned by Elvis. That’s right, the King’s own drug stash is up for sale, courtesy of his personal physician, “Dr. Nick.” The fact that “Dr. Nick” is a trademarked name means that AMA patient privacy ethics have probably not been consulted. Good for collectors, though!

Summer is high season, in fact, for the major auction houses to roll out their most extravagant, fanciful, even ridiculous items to compete with vacations at the beach and cocktail parties on the veranda. Leland’s and Heritage Galleries are offering extensive catalog auctions on their Web sites through June, while Christies New York has their “Pop Culture Auction” exhibition culminating in a bidding event June 23. Bonhams in Los Angeles is featuring “The Peter Golding Collection of Rock & Roll Art” June 14, which includes such fascinations as a Jackson 5 flight case, a Chinese gong owned by John Bonham, an engraved Cartier sterling silver box from John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and an unused set of Woodstock concert tickets.

Music memorabilia is inevitably tied in with history, and this column will also detail those exhibitions and events from the many significant music museums and galleries around the country.

While the Country Music Hall Of Fame (Nashville), Rock & Roll Museum (Cleveland) and Experience Music Project (Seattle) may get a lot of attention, it may surprise readers to know about places like the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas, the Delta Music Museum in Ferriday, La., and the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in Honolulu. Where else would you see a tribute to Otis Redding but at the Stax Museum in Memphis? Or see Merle Haggard play with Gene Watson at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame? We’ll be keeping up a calendar and guide to all these important centers of music history. One word: Go!

A personal anecdote is worth relating as fitting conclusion to this column’s debut. We recently received an excited phone call from someone who was going through their late father’s possessions. He discovered among the papers something so incredible he could not believe he was actually holding it in his hands. He knew his father was a knowledgeable collector and music fan, but he was blown away to discover that he now owned the original contract to play the Woodstock festival, signed by all four members of The Who!

Well, of course, this was not going to pay down the man’s mortgage. This was simply just another orphan copy of a reprint originally included in the 1970 album, Live At Leeds. The Woodstock contract was one of several cool pieces of paper slipped into the sleeve of that album, and now they all keep showing up out of context, creating brief dreams of windfalls all over the world. We get a call like this at least once a month.

This proves the power of memorabilia. But it also gives pause to ponder: When is memorabilia not memorabilia? Do all those Who contracts and the Shea stadium poster reprints on eBay constitute memorabilia? If someone creates a “souvenir memento” of a legendary concert of The Byrds, Love and The Doors at The Whisky — that never took place — is it still memorabilia? Yes, there’s a lot to talk about in the coming months. Onwards!

Stephen M.H. Braitman is a music appraiser (www.MusicAppraisals.com), writer, collector and fan.

May 28-Sept. 3: Summer Showcase Concert Series, Buddy Holly Center

June: June 2009 Summer Catalog Sale, Leland’s.com

June 14: Entertainment Memorabilia Auction including The Peter Golding Collection of Rock and Roll Art, Bonham’s & Butterfields

June 19: Merle Haggard with Gene Watson, Alabama Music Hall Of Fame

June 21-28: Rockin’ Hot Summer Auction (Preview June 14), Backstage Auctions

June 23: Pop Culture Auction (Public viewing June 19-22), Christie’s New York

June 24-27: Romp 2009 Music Festival, International Bluegrass Music Museum

June 26-27: Julien’s Auctions Summer Entertainment Sale, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas.

Aug. 6-8: 10th Annual Rockabilly Festival, International Rock-A-Billy Hall Of Fame Museum

Sept. 10: Country Music Auction, Christie’s New York

Opening
Opens Aug. 7, through June 2010: Brenda Lee: Dynamite; Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum

Opens Aug. 15, through Jan. 3, 2010: Spaced Out: The Final Frontier in Album Covers, Experience Music Project

Continuing
Through June: Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music, Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum

Through Aug. 31: Otis Redding: From Macon to Memphis, Stax Museum of American Soul Music

Through Dec. 31: Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy, Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum

Through Dec. 31: Motown: The Sound of Young America Turns 50, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum

Through April 11, 2010: Jimi Hendrix: An Evolution of Sound, Experience Music Project

Through Spring 2010: From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum

Museums
NOTE: Many of these museums have wonderful and fascinating permanent exhibits. Please check them out.

Alabama Music Hall
Of Fame
P.O. Box 740405
Tuscumbia, AL 35674

Birthplace of Country Music Alliance Museum
P.O. Box 216
Bristol, TN 37621
276-645-0035

Buddy Holly Center
1801 Crickets Avenue
Lubbock, TX 79401
806-775-3560
www.buddyhollycenter.org

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
222 Fifth Ave. S.
Nashville, TN 37203
800-852-6437
www.countrymusichalloffame.com

Delta Music Museum
218 Louisiana Ave.
Ferriday, LA 71334
318-757-9999

Experience Music Project
330 Sixth Ave. N. Suite 100
Seattle, WA 98109
1-877-EMPLIVE
www.emplive.com

Hawaiian Music Hall Of Fame And Museum
P.O. Box 4717
Honolulu, HI 96812-4717
808-372-8921
www.hawaiimusicmuseum.org

NOTE: Most auction houses allow online bidding, and also offer public viewing at their gallery locations.

Backstage Auctions
713-862-1200
www.backstageauctions.com

Bonhams & Butterfields
415-861-7500
www.bonhams.com/us

Christie’s New York
212-636-2000
www.christies.com/calendar/?locations=43

Gotta Have It Collectibles
800-950-1202
www.gottahaverockandroll.com

Heritage Galleries
800-872-6467
www.heritagegalleries.com

Julien’s Auctions
310-836-1818
www.juliensauctions.com

Lelands.com
516-409-9700
www.lelands.com

by  Stephen M.H. Braitman

The PlayTape was the creation of one Frank Stanton and was launched at an MGM Records distributors meeting in New York during 1966. Self-winding tapes of anything up to 24 minutes in length, selling for between $1 and $3 (battery-operated players cost between $20 and $30) were touted as the ultimate in portable music, a market which radio had hitherto had to itself.

With backing from a number of record companies, PlayTapes were launched in September 1967 in five formats, each distinguished by the color of the cartridge. PlayTapes in red packaging featured two songs, the equivalent of a 7-inch single. Black cartridges featured four songs; white cartridges featured eight. Full LP releases would thus be spread across two tapes; the Beatles White Album consumed five (0955-0959).

In addition, there were also collections of children’s songs (blue cartridges) and educational/spoken-word issues (gray cartridges). The tapes were packaged in bubble packs, which could be hung on special racks in retail outlets. All releases by individual artists were originally packaged with the same artwork.

There was no shortage of PlayTape releases. MGM artists dominated the field, with PlayTapes by The Animals, Herman’s Hermits, the Righteous Brothers and Steve and Eydie swiftly making themselves known. But Warners (Petula Clark, Connie Stevens, Grateful Dead and Mason Williams), Capitol (the Beach Boys, Nat King Cole, the Beatles and the Hollyridge Strings), ABC (Lovin’ Spoonful, the Mamas and The Papas and the Impressions), Reprise (Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jimi Hendrix), A&M (Herb Alpert and Sergio Mendes) and Motown (the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder) also signed on early on. All releases were in mono; plans to launch stereo PlayTapes never came to fruition.

By early 1968, more than 3,000 artists were featured in the PlayTape catalog. A marketing tie-in with Pepsi-Cola broadened PlayTape’s scope even further, while electronics firm Discarton Ltd. launched a combination portable record (45s only)/PlayTape player which stands as a direct forebear of the music centers of the 1970s.

However, despite having the portable market to itself for much of 1967-68, PlayTape’s days were limited. The nature of the system, while similar to 4- and 8-track technology, allowed for only 2-track tapes; it was that which limited the tape’s length, and that which gave the rival formats an edge.

By late 1968, their own first portable players were hitting the market and, while PlayTapes did continue (for reasons unknown) to flourish in Germany, by 1969 their American lifespan was over.

The biggest market for PlayTapes today is limited to enthusiasts of individual artists, broadening collections which have already swept the vinyl, 8-track and similar common formats. The Beatles, of course, are the most popular act in this respect — most of their LP catalog appears to have been issued on PlayTape, although some releases have eluded discovery thus far. In addition, several Apple releases, including George Harrison’s Wonderwall Music (0989) and Mary Hopkin’s Post Card (1030), appeared.

The Mini Pac was an early predecessor of the PlayTape, designed by Earl Muntz (inventor of the 4-track cartridge) as an alternative to singles and EPs. Mini Pacs held up to four songs and were compatible with all 4-track existing players. However, the format seems to have existed for a matter of months only, and tapes today are exceedingly rare.

A little known variant on the 8-track, the Mini-8 was introduced in 1969 by Lear Jet a