Pop music and merchandise have always gone hand in hand. Limited edition tour T-shirts, priceless vinyl LPs, rare 45s, novelty lunchboxes – the list is endless.
Over the years, merchandise for acts such as The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Spice Girls, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, and many others, has fetched thousands, if not millions of pounds.
And sometimes, ordinary people like us don’t realise that they’re sitting on a goldmine and that parts of their music collection are worth a small fortune.
So, we’re asking: could you have some of the rarest and most valuable music merchandise sitting in the back of your wardrobe, or up in the loft?
We’ve had some help from music merchandise experts to find valuable pieces of pop music history that could have been stowed away in a box 30 years ago.
Let’s take a look…
Iron Maiden belt – £73
We weren’t exactly going to start with the big bucks, were we?
In 2003, Iron Maiden embarked on their Dance of Death World Tour to promote their album of the same name – their 13th album overall.
To go along with it, the British heavy metal band released a leather belt as part of the merchandise collection, complete with the band’s logo and mascot in metal.
The band’s mascot, Eddie, has been a regular feature of their live shows, album covers, and merchandise since he was first introduced in 1980.
MusicGoldMine has the belt currently on sale for almost $100, equivalent to £75, while Iron Maiden belt buckles are fetching over £80 on eBay.
Were you still heavily into Iron Maiden in the early 2000s? Could you have bought this belt, or have had one bought for you, around the time of Dance of Death?
Check out the listing here and see if more than £70 worth of leather belts is in your wardrobe.
Metallica beach balls – £230
Metallica are currently in the middle of their M72 world tour, which is helping to promote their most recent album, 72 Seasons, which was released in 2023.
Another stalwart of heavy metal, 72 Seasons is Metallica’s 11th studio album and is named after the number of seasons you go through before you turn 18 years old.
During their live shows, the band – currently made up of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo – are releasing giant beach balls into the crowd.
Much to the chagrin of Metallica concert attendees, some fans are catching and deflating the beach balls almost immediately in order to sell them online.
If you’re someone who ended up with a beach ball but haven’t attempted to sell it yet, some listings on eBay are demanding a price as high as $300 (£230).
The Beatles lunchbox and Thermos – £800
In 1965, Beatlemania was at its height. And it wasn’t just about the music: John Lennon, Sir Ringo Starr, Sir Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were everywhere.
On TV, on the big screen, on billboards, posters, and even, as it turns out, limited edition tin novelty lunchbox sets, complete with Thermos cup.
Made by Aladdin, the lunchbox is currently listed for around £615 on memorabilia expert site MusicGoldMine, but listings on eBay are nearly touching £1,000.
The lunchbox features a cartoon drawing of the band performing live, while the Thermos cup displays the legendary band members’ faces, as well as a printed signature for each of them.
Did you collect one of these at the height of Beatlemania in the 1960s, or even in the years afterwards when John, Paul, George, and Ringo all embarked on solo careers?
Cranberries tour T-shirt 1995 – £370
The Cranberries hit the heights in the early 1990s thanks to hit songs such as Dreams, Linger, and Zombie – their second album No Need to Argue went triple Platinum in the UK.
And the tour for that 1994 album was a success too, with merchandise from it still available for almost £400 in some places – at least according to a No Need to Argue T-shirt listing on eBay.
Reports from music merch website Just Collecting revealed that a similar Cranberries T-shirt went for more than £1,900 at an auction back in August 2014.
They said: ‘[This was] bought on the American leg, which saw the band perform throughout August of that year – the shirt may not seem as rare as the others on the list.
‘But,’ the story continued, ‘for one collector at least, it was valuable enough to buy it for $2,500 (£1,900) on eBay in August 2014.’
AC/DC tour jacket – £615
Did you happen to catch AC/DC on their 1981/1982 For Those About to Rock world tour, which supported their album (almost) of the same name?
For those of you reading this in the UK, you see them in Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, or Dublin?
If so, then you might well have got your hands on the mother of all rock and roll jackets. The one listed wasn’t available to fans but was made for crew members helping out on the tour – meaning it could have been passed down.
The one in the picture above was made for their run of rearranged shows in Boston, which took place in December 1981 and commands an asking price of £615 on MusicGoldMine.
The 1981 tour was the last of the era to feature Phil Rudd on drums, with Phil and guitarist Malcolm Young falling out shortly afterwards. Phil rejoined the band in 1994, and then again in 2018.
Katy Perry signed One of the Boys album – £300
Things might be different now – but in 2009, Katy Perry was on top of the pop world, with a run of major hits from her major label debut album One of the Boys.
I Kissed a Girl, Hot n Cold, Thinking of You, and Waking Up in Vegas were all over TV and radio in 2008 and dominated the charts in the UK and the US as well.
Now, a special edition signed version of One of the Boys – featuring Katy’s own autograph which has been officially verified – is fetching up to £300 on auction sites.
Meanwhile, other listings of the same album – also signed by Katy herself – are commanding more than £300, with pictures of Katy signing it also providing proof.
So if you have the red and yellow vinyl version of One of the Boys from 2009, and if you can get the Roar singer to sign it, you could be looking at a healthy profit.
Beware, though, the MusicGoldMine listing comes with a warning: ‘Don’t be fooled by other “signed” items on the internet.’
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper official watch – £135
In the mid-1990s, Beatlemania had a bit of a revival. Two new Beatles songs (Free as a Bird, and Real Love) were out in the world, while the Beatles Anthology had just been released.
Amid the excitement, officially branded Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band watches were made in 1996 – many people own Apple Watches today, but this is an Apple watch of a different kind.
If you got hold of one of these in the 1990s, you could be in possession of a precious item worth over £130 – or, at the very least, £63 according to some eBay listings.
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If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
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