After a few more telephone conversations today and over the last week, I have organised for a couple of people from the National LIbrary of Australia to come up from Canberra next week to have a look at my music collection with the view of selling it off as one piece.
I don't really want to let go of it but it does take a whole room so I could always do with the space and a little bit of money. So if the price is right I will seriously consider letting just about all of it go.
I was thinking of selling it piece by piece on ebay but there are thousands upon thousands of pieces in the collection from magazines, rare tour posters (many signed), backstage passes (a couple from U2, Crowded House, Huey Lewis & The News, MTV Awards plus many others), record albums and singles (many also signed including by some musicians who are now dead), photos, tour itineraries (like The Police world tour from 1981), record company bios & promotional items, rare live recordings and interviews (some that have never been aired), newspaper clippings and just about anything related to music from the last 22 years I have been collecting and before. I never threw anything away and I had access to some pretty cool stuff during my time working in the music industry and just as a fan of popular music.
A price range in the thousands has already been mentioned but it's hard to know exactly what it is all worth. I don't want to sell it below its value so I have to think long and hard about it all and weigh up any sort of concrete offer made. They have already told me that I have exactly the type of things they are after and they have been very enthusiastic about coming up to see it and also told me not to sell off anything just yet.
I will still hold onto the CD and film library but the rest of it will most likely be offered to the National Library of Australia to add to their own collection and a deal for copies of audio or footage could be arranged.
Who knew collecting odd bits of paper and miscellaneous items would one day become quite valuable.
Dyar