Blame it on eBay? The market for rock memorabilia is red hot right now, with some collectible items going easily into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to Rolling Stone, an emerging generation of collectors with deep pockets are starting to snap up all kinds of music-related items that tie to their nostalgic pasts. Says John Collins of the auction house Cooper Owen, "These collectors were rock fans in the Sixties and Seventies, and now they have a lot of money. They're buying their history."

As well, Ed Kosinski, a collector and dealer, opines that the market is also encouraging these purchases as investments with a personal touch, suggesting that today's memorabilia fans are, "looking for alternative investments, and for something that gives them some sort of gratification." (We think the driving force is more the latter, rather than the former. Somehow, we can't imagine buying a leather jacket worn by [fill in star here] or handwritten lyrics on a cocktail napkin are necessarily the most sound investments. Then again, we liked tech stocks in 2000 and where did that get us?)

Interestingly enough, some of these collectibles are being bought by the musicians or their families in an attempt recoup items that were undervalued in the earlier days of their career. For example, Beatles' enthusiast Andy Geller says that George Harrison's widow, Olivia, has been cornering the market on Harrison's guitars: "There aren't that many Beatle instruments out there, and if it's George's guitar, Olivia's gonna buy it."

The market began in the 1970s but really took off in the 1980s, especially around Beatles material (George Michael reportedly paid $2.1 million for the piano that John Lennon composed "Imagine" on) and then, in the 1990s, it went stratospheric as millionaires and billionaires jumped into the fray.

We're just curious how this might extend to newer genres like house music or hip-hop. Will Run DMC's iconic black hats and white Adidas one day go for the kind of money that an Elvis costume or Hendrix guitar can command? We'll see ... (Source: Rolling Stone)