Old sets can include a few surprises … like Pro Set’s UK MusiCards

It sounded like a fun, cheap rip of some oldschool wax — a late-night buy just because it was a good deal — but it turned into another lesson about old cardboard.

This time, the product was a long-forgotten (and maybe unknown to some) release from Pro Set back in 1991 — the company’s UK edition of SuperStars MusiCards.

To those of you who were around for Pro Set, you probably fondly remember the football card chases created by the Dallas, Texas-based company in 1989 and 1990 and the overproduction that was happening but we never saw because everybody (and their mother) was buying. By 1991, many of its products — and there were many in the non-football realm — arrived with a thud. Not because they were bad but because they were trying new things and new things didn’t always work. (And because the presses kept on rolling.) By 1993, the company was back down to football and by 1994 the company was gone completely.

And if you weren’t around then? Well, you missed out on some of the best simple cardboard of all times … and one example of that is this 1991 SuperStars MusiCards UK Editon.

Grammy Foundation auctions include big autographs, rare memorabilia to benefit charities

The 58th Grammy Awards have come and gone but the Grammy Foundation‘s auctions have plenty of time remaining on eBay with autographs and memorabilia from some of music’s biggest names of today available — and some big names from the past, too.

Among the more than 100 auctions is the ensemble you see above. It’s the priciest piece of memorabilia as the bidding stands now — three original copies of books self-published by rock icon Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors.

An American Prayer, The Lords: Notes on Vision and The New Creatures were printed in 1969 and 1970 and just 100 copies of Lords and Creatures were made. Just 500 copies of Prayer exist. The copies belonged to a friend of Morrison and are being sold in one lot. Its opening bid is $5,000. (Update: The books sold for $17,755 after 55 bids.)

The most-expensive item so far is a pair of tickets to next year’s Grammys and the after-party. Keep reading for the basics on a few more Grammy auctions.