Valuing a rock and roll concert poster is based on condition and supply and demand. The most valuable posters will be those that are extremely rare and in mint to near mint condition. If a poster is rare, having one in mint or near mint condition would be even rarer so that is where the big money is.

The first thing to look for in a poster is whether or not it is a commercial poster. Commercial posters are licensed prints which are sold in retail stores. These posters are usually not rare since they were produced in large quantities at some point. These posters typically do not have much collectible value but they do have nostalgic value. The value of one of these posters might be only $10 but if there is a 1980's Bon Jovi licensed poster and you love Bon Jovi you might be willing to pay $30 for this poster. If it is 25 years old and hard to find, even though it is a commercial poster it will still be snapped up by hardcore fans of that band. Also, a collector of say Bon Jovi posters might want to add it to his or her collection. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder in poster collecting. One man's trash is anothers treasure and nowhere is this more evident than in rock and roll posters. As you will see, most of them have been literally thrown in the trash.

Original posters are not licensed and are broken down into either concert or gig posters or record promo posters. Concert posters are displayed prior to a concert (or club gig) and record promo posters are displayed in record stores to promote the release of an album. I will now talk exclusively about record promo posters and will do a post on concert posters another time.

These record promo posters are much rarer since they were never licensed to be sold to the general public and were therefore never mass produced. To complicate matters even more some bands have records (or CD's) released by different record labels especially in the seventies and eighties before everything became more streamlined. So you might have a record promo poster for a 1970's album which is printed up with the record label which only distributes in the U.S and Canada. The same band might be released on another label in the U.K and Europe. So the record promo posters are different. They have different labels on them and sometimes the artwork is even different. Since the posters are different they are valued differently.

For example the Beatles would be more valuable on a British label and Bruce Springsteen would be more valuable on a U.S label (usually) since this is where the bands originate from. Please note this is not always the case just a general rule. Japanese items go for big money nowdays. So do German items. Because of the value of the pound or Euro relative to the dollar, a European will typically pay much more than a U.S collector. These items are much rarer in Europe than they are in the U.S. And the currency is much stronger in Europe right now so the price does not seem expensive in Euros. However, generally speaking you want the artist on the label from the country they originated. Also, bands might have an original label and then switch. The original will always be the most valuable. So will the first album or the most famous album. Naturally the more popular or iconic the artist, the more popular the poster might be. However a rare one of a kind poster will still be more valuable for an unknown band than a more common poster for a known band.

Typically record promo posters were displayed in the record store (think Tower Records and Virgin but also all the little record stores that were prevalent in the seventies and eighties). They would usually get only one or two copies per store and they would be displayed for a few weeks before being discarded. Many of these posters were simply thrown away. Sometimes store employees would take the posters home and hang them up on their wall. Usually these people would not consider the collectible value and would use tape etc. to hang them up on the wall. When it came time to take down the poster it usually landed up in the trash. Store record employees at age 19 thought it was cool to hang up a poster of their favorite artist in their bedroom. At 29, their new spouse didn't think it was so cool so it got either thrown away or rolled up and put in the basement or garage. If thrown away then obviously the poster is not going to resurface. If rolled up, then what you get 30 years later is a damp water stained, tape marked, dusty item which has probably got quite a few tears from being ripped off the wall. And that is assuming that they managed to rip it off the wall in the record store without too much damage.

So finding one in a near mint or even an excellent condition is very difficult. Now when you do find one and you look around and you cannot see this poster anywhere then you don't really know it's value. If you go to a website like Wolfgangs Vault and you cannot find this poster then you start realizing the collectible value and how rare this poster might be. If you look on a site like this you will see that the posters from the eighties of big name artists go for prices from $95 to over $400. From the seventies, the prices are from $100 up to $2,000 and from the sixties the prices are approaching $10,000 on some posters. That is not a typo.  One poster selling for almost $10,000.

Hopefully this little lesson in record promo posters has taught you a little about how rare these posters really are. When I put these posters in my Ebay Store with Buy it Now prices of $89 you can be assured of one thing. The prices will be going up every year. If I see one of my posters sell for hundreds of dollars you better believe that the price is going up. These posters are rare. They are much rarer than the lithographic prints the art gallery is trying to sell you for $500 which have an edition of 500 from a living artist. These posters are in some cases from non existent defunt record labels, with famous poster artists (now dead in some cases) and are one of a kind items. Some of these posters will sell for thousands of dollars ten or twenty years from now. I am not in a rush to sell them. They are part of my collection.  

Naturally if you have a collection of original posters I would be interested in purchasing them. Send me an email to lex@memorabiliagalore.com for a price quote. I purchase all rock and roll memorabilia from individual pieces up to dealer lots. I am looking for original rock and roll concert and record promo posters, handbills, postcards, concert programs / tour books, backstage passes, concert tickets, concert apparel, t-shirs, jackets, pins, photos, and any and all rocka and roll memorabilia. I am especially fond of anything with psychedelic rock art from any of the famoust poster designers such as Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Bob Masses, Rick Griffin as well as some of the newer artists such as Emek. I will pay top dollar for any fillmore era items such as the family dog and Bill Graham Presents posters, postcards, handbills etc. I am also interested in adding almost anything from the late sixties to early 70's that is not already in my collection.

I have hundreds of original rock and roll memorabilia items in my Ebay store.

Please visit my Ebay Store at http://stores.ebay.com/memorabilia-galore