What the Freddie Mercury Auction Said About Price

During September, Sotheby’s London sold more than 1,400 items that belonged to Freddie Mercury. His mustache comb went for a whopping £152,000 ($189,000):

Where are we going? To what prices tell us.

Freddie Mercury Auction

The room at Sotheby’s was described as “electric.”  A black-tie event, the evening auction began with bidders (and onlookers) chanting “We Will Rock You.” Next, after almost 20 minutes, a graffiti-covered door (with fans’ messages) went for $521,000:

Composed of six installments on different days, the auction’s sales, at £39,936,046, ($48.7 million) far exceeded what Sotheby’s had projected. In addition to the mustache comb and the door, items in the auction ranged from his Adidas high tops to handwritten lyrics. It included clothing, art, and jewelry. His 1973 Yamaha baby grand piano that was used to compose Bohemian Rhapsody went for £1.7 million ($2,2 million). Meanwhile, a Bohemian Rhapsody handwritten draft manuscript (originally called Mongolian Rhapsody, on 15 pages of British Midland Airways stationery) sold for £1,379,000 ($1.681 million). Similarly stratospheric, his crown and cloak, worn at the end of each Magic tour performance, pulled in £635,000 ($801,500).

Sotheby’s summarized the auction with these numbers:

Our Bottom Line: The Price System

It’s easy to take prices for granted. However, as a source of information, they are so very crucial. In a market economy, for producers, by reflecting the value of land, labor, and capital, they signal the potential for profits. As for demand, we find out what might be popular, affordable, necessary. And always, high and low, prices create incentives. (I should note that command economies with governments that set prices lack the crucial information that prices convey.)

At the Freddie Mercury auction, estimated prices signaled what Sotheby’s expected. Then, when the auction revealed they were far too low, we found out more about Mr. Mercury’s star power. Indeed, throughout a week or so in September, at a Freddie Mercury auction, we saw the power of the price system.

But also, we can reverse today’s title. We saw what price said about Freddie Mercury.

My sources and more: For more detail about the Freddie Mercury auction, do take a look at Artnet and Sotheby’s.  But then, for the bigger picture, the NY Times had a summary of celebrity auctions.