Celebrity auctions: Fans put passion before profits

By Mark Davies, CNN.com writer

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Want to own a piece of showbusiness or sporting history?

Perhaps a memento of the Beatles tickles your fancy. A photograph of soccer star David Beckham, signed by the man himself, perhaps? Or you may even have a hankering to own the ladder from the spaceship USCSS Nostromo, as featured in the film Alien.

These days, thanks to the rise and rise of auctions and other sales of celebrity memorabilia, it really is possible to get your hands on items which have been touched by fame.

John Lennon's piano, sold to singer George Michael for more than $2 million on Tuesday, may be a little out of most people's reach, but a host of other items are available to dedicated fans -- or hopeful investors with an eye on future profits -- for much more affordable prices.

And if it's merely an autograph you long for, there is no longer any need to queue up in the wind and the rain outside sports stadia and theatres to ask for that treasured signature -- just get online and buy it through one of the many Internet sites offering celebrity memorabilia.

The auction house Sotheby's dates the beginning of the celebrity auction craze to 1981, when it says it held the first such event of its kind.

It also claims to have hosted the biggest ever sale in this field, when John Lennon's 1965 Rolls Royce Phantom V went for £1.7 million ($2.5 million) in New York in 1985.

Stephen Maycock, rock specialist at Sotheby's in London, says the market has been growing steadily over the last 20 years, with buyers gradually becoming more selective in their buying.

He said: "It is a market where the object per se has no intrinsic value but has a Midas appeal because it was owned or played or used by a rock legend -- the object is imbued with their spirit.

"It is to do with the fascination people have with legends -- a cult thing."

Mementos of the Beatles, predictably, are "far and away" the most popular, with items relating to John Lennon particularly sought after, says Maycock, with only a handful of other artists -- among them Jimi Hendrix (a Hendrix jacket recently sold for £35,000 ($49,200)), Led Zeppelin and Elvis Presley -- able to command similar interest.

But while such items may increase in value over the years, Maycock says the primary motive for purchasers is as fans rather than investors.

"Most people are people who buy because they enjoy having the stuff," he said. "I don't think people buy for investment. I never met anyone who said they were buying as an investment. They may make a profit, but they buy because they like the item more than anything else."

The market, says Maycock, has polarised recently, with Beatles items far and away the most popular.

There have been times when items relating to other artists have been popular -- there was a surge of interest in Prince and Michael Jackson in the late 1980s and early 90s, for instance -- but few have the staying power to keep up with the Fab Four.

And that situation is not likely to change, says Maycock, with the acts of the present day not likely to ever command the pulling power of legends of the 1960s.

Manchester United's David Beckham: United are one of hottest properties for autograph collectors

"I cannot see the trend changing that much to be honest," he said. "It is not about commercial success, it is about how did a group or an artist change music -- is their legacy really important?

"The Spice Girls sold a lot of records, but in 20 years, will they have been deemed to have changed the course of music like the Beatles, Hendrix or Presley?

"In the overall scheme of things, they may not be judged to be that important to the whole genre. The Beatles have a place of their own and I can't see that ever changing."

So how much would you have to pay to own a memento of John, Paul, George and Ringo?

"Items are not all priced at tens of thousands of pounds," said Maycock. "It literally goes from nothing to a million, so people with a few hundred pounds to spend can do so."

He said Beatles' autographs were now becoming more expensive -- heading into the thousands rather than hundreds of pounds -- so those with less to spend are turning their attention to merchandise from the 1960s such as programmes or magazines.

Maycock's favourite story of a hidden treasure is of the man who found an old drum skin in his loft, painted with the words "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

"He brought it into the office wrapped in a blanket. We didn't believe it could be the real thing, but we took it to Peter Blake, who conceived the Sgt Pepper album cover, and within a few seconds he confirmed that it was the one from the cover. It was eventually sold for £50,000 ($72,500)."

The theory that it is love, not money, which inspires purchasers of celebrity memorabilia is backed up by Clive Hiller, owner of auctioneers Louis Taylor in Hanley, Staffordshire, northern England.

Earlier this week, the auction house held a sale of more than 400 items belonging to the estate of the late England football legend Sir Stanley Matthews, with more than £66,000 ($96,000) raised from items including football shirts and the star's passport.

Hiller told reporters: "I think a lot of people turned up because they wanted something to remind them of him. He was a kind-hearted person and he gave so much away."

David Kay, owner of London-based company Star Signings -- which specialises in items signed by sportsmen and women -- agrees that most of his customers are fans and collectors more interested in the item itself than how much it might fetch at an auction in the future.

But he said some collectors do also have an eye on potential gains, citing items signed by the Manchester United soccer team during its recent treble cup-winning year as an example.

"We do have customers who bought United treble pieces with a view to them being worth money, and they have gone up in value," he said.

But he says most are enthusiastic collectors -- he himself set up the business when he realised that his passion for autographs was shared by many others -- who will simply sell items in order to buy better quality versions of the same signature.

A Manchester United shirt signed by the treble-winning team would cost up to £2,000 ($2,900), he says, while items signed by England's World Cup winning football team of 1966 cost up to £3,000 ($4,400).

If such things are regularly sought after, other customers have less mainstream requests -- such as the man wanting autographs of players from the English second division soccer team Rotherham United. Another customer wanted to complete a collection by securing the signature of Chelsea's reserve team goalkeeper.

The Internet, meanwhile, is a growing source of celebrity merchandise and online auctions, with a host of web sites specialising in autographs, props from movies and other material such as the clothes worn by the leading lights of Hollywood.

Indeed, Fleetwood Owen, the auction house which sold the Lennon piano on Tuesday, is currently holding an Internet auction of items from the 1979 film Alien.

The sale includes more than 60 lots from film posters and scripts to the harpoon gun and flame thrower used by star Sigourney Weaver to a full alien costume and an alien egg.

With bids opening at £2,000 ($2,900), the egg seems pricey -- but then again, it might look just great next to the signed poster of Rotherham United Football Club.

From CNN.com Europe

George Michael buys Lennon's piano
October 18, 2000
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October 8, 1999

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