Playing For Keeps

Top 50 Elvis Collectables

Elvis Presley became a one-man industry during his lifetime. He continues to be a oneman industry 30 years after his death. It’s well over half a century since he made his first commercial recording, for Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, and Elvis’ voice and image are still two of the hottest properties on Earth.

If you take into account virtually every country in the world, all those that released Presley’s records during his career and thereafter, and also produced Elvis-related material such as magazines, posters, books, even postage stamps and bubblegum cards, it doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out how many desirable items of memorabilia exist for an Elvis fan to collect.

It would be an impossible task to take on, if the intention was to own even a fraction of the array of Elvis collectables. Many of his personal effects are already in the hands of collectors and investors, or secure in museums or the like. In any case, when Presley’s accessories or items of clothing do come onto the market, usually by way of large auction houses, the high prices they fetch makes this a prohibitive area of collecting for the average person.

Buying something that Presley actually owned or touched is increasingly expensive, including, for example, his signature on a scrap of paper. It’s a truism to say …

by Bob Solly
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