Backstage Auctions, one of the premiere rock ‘n’ roll music auction houses, is extremely happy with their annual heavy metal auction, Rock Gods & Metal Monsters Auction.
“I have closely watched the last several years and I have seen a trend,” says Backstage Auctions owner Jacques van Gool. “While classic rock is still very collectible — and will remain collectible — it has started to lose some of its power. Now we’re onto the next generation, and the next generation are the people who grew up on hard rock/heavy metal.”
Backstage Auctions sees an opportunity with heavy metal that other auctioneers haven’t really taken advantage of yet. “We really are the only ones among the handful of auctioneers that have said we are going to do a front-to-back, 100-percent heavy metal auction,” says van Gool. “I don’t want to take away anything from the other auctioneers, because they do great jobs. And I want them to be there because they collectively help the hobby. But other than us nobody cares about [bands like] Overkill. They won’t even do Anthrax.”
This spring over 900 of the 1200 auction lots sold at their Rock Gods & Metal Monsters Auction— from stage gear to vintage vinyl. The combined gear from Scott Ian of Anthrax alone (see sample photo of Scott Ian guitar above) sold at auction for a price of nearly $17K. But a particular auction lot that was quite a surprise was one showcased by an Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhoads 1981 signed press release that went for a very high final bid.
“This was signed by Ozzy and Randy on December 31 following their New Year’s Eve show at the L.A. Forum,” explains van Gool. “We had this one page signed press release together with the t-shirt from the show. I knew that it was a special thing. Anything Randy Rhoads signed is always good. The opening bid price was modest but that ended up selling for $3,500. That’s very respectable.”
Scott Ian of Anthrax signs his guitar pre-auction. Photo courtesy of Backstage Auctions.
One thing is certain: there will be another top-to-bottom, heavy metal auction coming your way from Backstage Auctions. Who knows, maybe by next year there will be a couple of them.
Next up for Backstage Auctions: The Summer Music Swag Auction in September and The Classic Rock ‘n Pop Auction in December. Click here to register for your VIP All Access. And for those of you who don’t really do auctions, you can do the BUY IT NOW option at their store, which has some great metal memorabilia in stock.
For a previous Powerline post on the Rock Gods & Metal Monsters Auction (this one regarding Queensryche) click here.
