Pop Culture Collectors

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But a past constructed of trinkets and theme songs probably says more about the way things never were than about what people actually did or how they made sense of those eras. It also suggests something about the need to possess memories we believe are important. Why else would people pay $80 for a set of 'original 1969 Woodstock tickets,' complete with letter of authenticity, when they didn't even attend the concert?

One reason is that pop culture collecting has become big business. In an article on collecting Beatles merchandise, Baby Boomer Collectibles reports that the trinkets and souvenirs young fans tucked away in hope chests in the 1960s -- Flip Your Wig board games ($110), Yellow Submarine wristwatches ($675), Beatles hair spray ($800), Paul Bubblebath ($110), Beatles lunchbox with thermos ($250) -- are among the most valuable collectibles on the pop market today.

What happens to the social and political meaning of pop culture when it is revived and inserted into another era? The newly emerged Politically Incorrect Collectibles Association is testing the limits of that question. 'Politically incorrect collectibles are the toys, banks, figurines, compotes, postcards, vases, dolls -- you name it -- from our past which use stereotypes and clich/s of different groups as their theme,' says the PICA news release. The premier issue of the Politically Incorrect Collectible Association Newsletter (Dec. 1994) highlights ethnic and class stereotypes, and girlie merchandise, while the next issue promises spouse-abuse collectibles and the 'valuable relics of the Ku Klux Klan.' PICA claims that the most offensive artifacts are the most sought after -- a dark underside to the collecting phenomenon that reminds us of its political connotations. What a culture does and does not deem worthy to collect is profoundly important, says Clifford, because it reflects the cultural milieu of the time -- and of ours.

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