Collecting old tickets and stubs from 1920-1970 probably revolves around big-name artists more than any other aspect of this hobby.  Everyone loves old hits like “Incense and Peppermints” and “At the Hop,” but few people would want your old Strawberry Alarm Clock or Danny & the Juniors ticket stub.  With so little real estate to display and usually no picture, the artist’s name really has to jump out at you.  So all of the action tends to revolve around only the most collectible of artists – but there are plenty of them.

 

Naturally, collectors prefer full, unused tickets over torn-in-half stubs.  But stubs can be highly collectible, for the right artist or show.  And at least they’re usually a “onesie” or “twosie.”  With unused full tickets, oftentimes one is just the tip of the iceberg… the promoter may have a whole shoebox of them, and leak them out one at a time.  Once collectors catch wind of quantity, the desirability slacks way off.  Although a full, unused Beatles concert ticket from the 1960s seems almost unimaginable to someone outside the hobby, there’s a surplus of them from the Suffolk Downs Racetrack in Boston, MA for the Fab Four’s August 18, 1966 concert there.  So they sell for a pittance.

 

Pictured: The Beatles at Busch Memorial Stadium, St. Louis, MO, August 21, 1966; Elvis Presley in person at the Florida Theatre, St. Petersburg, Florida, Tuesday, Aug. August 7 7th; Tommy Dorsey Shep Fields Frank Sinatra Buddy Rich Dance Caravan, Pubilc Auditorium Cleveland OH Ohio, Nov. 5, 6, 7 or 9, 1941; The Beach Boys at Boise High School Auditorium, Sunday, September 13, 1964; Slim Whitman Show, Overton Park Shell, July 30, 8:00 PM, Memphis TN Tenn., Elvis Presley; and the Rolling Stones, Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA Calif. Friday June 5, 1964 – their very first appearance concert show on American soil.

 

This 1954 ticket represents the first time Elvis Presley, with Scotty and Bill, ever performed before a concert audience.  As the opening act, Elvis performed his first Sun single - and that was it.  If hundreds of millions of rock-concert tickets have been sold over the last 50 years, this is one of the first three ever made (three specimens are known to exist). 

 

Cash for your stuff – talk with Pete Howard, the world’s number one authority on old, rare, cardboard, boxing-style, vintage, collectable, collectible concert posters / window cards / broadsides.