Snake America Seventy Eight
Snake is a bi-weekly newsletter covering after-market goods. This week: completed auctions. Subscribe here.
Peter Max bedsheet, 1960s, sold $50: The market for used bedsheets is brisker than one might think. For reasons of personal hygiene I have not looked into it aside from cursory research into Peter Max-licensed linens. Max is the best artist because he has been vegan since the 1960s, is too well-compensated to work with multiple Corvettes and lived in Israel. Why aren't there legion of fans who wear and outfit their homes with only things which Peter Max has lent his name to? Sleep on the above-mentioned sheets, watch Dale Earnhardt Sr., may he rest in peace, win the Winston Cup(1), adhere to a vegan diet, adorn their walls with multicolored art for city fairs, marathons and Toulouse-Lautrec, etc, use those inflatable 7-Up pillows I wrote about last year. These sheets fit a queen-sized bed, which is the best place to start.
Madrigal, S/T 7", $1913, sold: I got sent this link when the Beatles White Album album was on auction the other week. This is a pretty expensive album. I haven't heard it. Why did it go for so much? These bands in the 1960s and 70s would pay record-pressers and copy shops and put out their own records because no real labels would sign them. This Madrigal record and others like it (Christopher, Bobb Trimble) are private press records--as opposed to records by bands like Megadeth, and vanity press records, which are private press records financed by a would-be label. The difference between these bands and punk groups was private press ones wanted to be on labels. They put out records because they couldn't get signed or to get signed(2). That's the gist of it.
Vintage 1960s Schroeder stuffed doll, unsold, $79: Very rare and elegant Schroeder doll from the year John F. Kennedy was allegedly assassinated. The doll wears a Beethoven sweatshirt. Stories about Charles Schulz, who designed the doll, are so depressing. You wonder if he ever went swimming or drank a nice Coca Cola or beat someone up or hit the water park. The story about him and the original red haired girl has him still complaining about getting dumped 60 years later. Being crabby isn't cool. Though his work will outlive us all. Was he trying to live more like Beethoven?
When Beethoven first moved to Vienna he began to take part in competitions with other pianists. They used to say of him: "He is not a man but a demon. He plays in such a way that he will drive us all to the grave."
There's a discussion on straightdope.com about classical music that makes listeners angry. The first response was "Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) caused a riot in the audience at its premiere performance in 1913," says Johanna. RedDawgEsq responds, "I could be wrong but I believe the emotion engendered by "The Rite of Spring" was not so much anger as it was astonishment at its blatant evocation of visceral and sexual instincts." I don't think he's wrong. No one mentions Electric Light Orchestra in the thread. Wouldn't it be funny if the soul of Peanuts wasn't Charlie Brown but Schroeder?
LL Bean tote bag, 1960s, $200, sold: I think the price on this tote bag is pretty good. LL Bean's tote bags from the 1960s have contrast stitching on the handles. The 1980s bags' aren't as pronounced. And the 60s ones have old cursive labels. The seller says these are Ratsey bags, but Ratsey is a different company whose bag production predates Bean's. Another one in blue this size sold for no money (see below), but a third one that was a little bigger sold for $300. I believe the first run of Bean bags, after they put the sail sides on them to finish them off, didn't have any color. They were all white fabric, like the Bell Telephone bags.
LL Bean tote bag, 1980s, $30, sold: Rarer color than the above-mentioned, but from the 1980s. Blue-and-red and blue-and-green Bean totes run about $200, low as $130. This was a very rare "mistake listing." It got bought the day after it went up. Mistake listings are as good as it gets with clothes on. This bag is nice since it looks like a tote gone wrong. It's very aggressive. I've never seen one of these in "punished" condition. I am waiting, though.
1989 Coca Cola Collector's Convention tote bag, $15, unsold: There's also the option of buying this for significantly less money than either of the above-mentioned. Not spending money is never a good idea. But there's inherent value in the Coca Cola label. In "Barbarians at the Gate," Bryan Burrough and John Helyard report how F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJ Reynolds-Nabisco in the 1980s, knew his company was worth more than its low stock price, mis-priced by a Wall St. that couldn't properly evaluate the money in tobacco. That is why (I think) he pushed for its leveraged buyout, which ended up biting him in the ass. I think a Coke convention tote bag for $15 is the same thing but on a smaller scale.
Shakespeare sweatshirt, 1960s, sold, $62: What's the opposite of wearing your heart on your sleeve? There's a theory that a cadre of unaccomplished and anonymous English professors are the people behind the idea that Shakespeare's plays were written not by him but by King James or someone else. Those professors, as well as Hellen Keller and Charlie Chaplin, can't give an uneducated rube the credit that he's the best to ever do it:
How could a man of such humble origins and education come by such wealth of insight, wide-ranging understanding of complex legal and political matters and intimate knowledge of life in the English court?
I'm sure it's possible. Sweatshirt is a 1960s Champion--such stuff what dreams are made on.
Thanks for reading. Send me questions about which holiday gifts you should give, but are having trouble determining, for the next issue.
Snake.
ERRATA: I asked in the previous newsletter whether Ringo was selling his Beatles White Album because he needed or wanted the money. Ringo's album was auctioned off for charity.
Snake Before That: Beatles White Album 0000001 (sold for $790,000, $730,000 over estimate)
Last Snake: Scoob Lover suit, Nike lunchbag (still for sale; still for sale)
(1) This assumes participation while Earnhardt was still alive.
(2) Further, more precise reading: Enjoy The Experience, 2013, on Sinecure Books, and this search.