20th-Century Bill Graham Rock n' Roll Handbills

Appraised on: August 9, 2003

Appraised in: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Appraised by: Rudy Franchi

Category: Collectibles

Episode Info: Oklahoma City, Hour 3 (#809)

Originally Aired: March 1, 2004

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (3:23)

APPRAISER: This is a collection of Bill Graham material related to his concerts-- promotional material.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: The vast number of collectors of this material go for the posters. You have one example of a poster here in your collection. Here, with the poster, you have the flyer and you have the tickets. For every poster that Bill Graham did, just about, he did a handbill.

GUEST: Yes, he did.

APPRAISER: And very few people collect the handbills. They might collect a poster and then say, "I'll get the handbill to go with it." But you've amassed an almost complete collection of every Bill Graham handbill. Is that right?

GUEST: Yes, I lack three.

APPRAISER: There are three that are missing. What made you decide to focus on them?

GUEST: Well, two things-- storage space and I love miniatures, and each one of these is a little miniature piece of art.

APPRAISER: Exactly-- it's a miniature poster. And it's exactly like the poster. Dealers just love Bill Graham because he numbered all of his posters.

GUEST: Exactly.

APPRAISER: You want to point out the number on that one there?

GUEST: This is 231.

APPRAISER: That's number 231. And this here, the Jefferson Airplane, is number one.

GUEST: Exactly.

APPRAISER: That was the first in the series.

GUEST: Yes, sir.

APPRAISER: And... Now, people are familiar with this artwork, of course. This is Wes Wilson, and this is the height of the psychedelic San Francisco movement. The San Francisco psychedelic movement refers to Bill Graham posters basically.

GUEST: Exactly.

APPRAISER: And this is an interesting piece. It is very seldom seen.

GUEST: Yeah. I loved it because Jimi Hendrix was third on the bill.

APPRAISER: Right. And that's his first appearance at...

GUEST: At the Monterey Pop Festival, yes, sir.

APPRAISER: This one says "copy."

GUEST: Right-- I've been looking for that one for 18 years. This is sort of a Holy Grail?

APPRAISER: It is the Holy Grail. That's when Bill Graham took the five major rock bands to Toronto, and he shipped all the paper ephemera overland, and the truck was stolen. And so there's almost none of these in existence.

GUEST: No, almost none.

APPRAISER: And this piece here is the famous "flying eyeball" by Rick Griffin.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Have you ever had a valuation put on this stuff?

GUEST: Just with the guys I trade with-- never a real appraisal.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh. Individually, they sell anywhere from, you know, $50 into the high hundreds. What's the most you've ever paid for one?

GUEST: I paid $1,200 for the one for the play called The Beard. That was a non-concert one.

APPRAISER: Right. Yeah, but it fits into the series, because the numbers fit in. It is one of the numbered. It was a play that Bill Graham produced. If you were to break up the set and sell them individually, you would gross about $18,000 to $20,000 for the entire collection. But you have something else here. Often the total is worth more than the sum of the parts. You have an almost complete collection-- as complete as anybody could get practically. And I would think that if you were to take this and sell it as a collection, a unit, and not break it up, at a pop culture auction, you'd be looking at in the range of $28,000 to $30,000 for this collection.

GUEST: I'm shocked. ( chuckles briefly ) I'm shocked.

APPRAISER: Well, that's... That's what comes from really paying attention to the details of a collection. Thanks for bringing it in.

GUEST: It was my pleasure. Thank you.