By Jeb Wright

It is auction time again over at the most collector friendly and fun auction house in the land, Backstage Auctions. This time they are turning it up to eleven and throwing their Metal signs in the air. I am talking about the Rock Gods & Metal Monsters Auction that begins April 21, 2012.

Classic Rock Revisited caught up with owner Jacques van Gool to discuss what is in this auction as well as whom some of the famous consigners are.

We discuss how BSA caters to the power collector as well as the average rock fans and even get Jacques to reminisce about some of his favorite finds he has made on his never ending quest as a Metal Head Collector, himself. This is a fun, informative and just plain great interview. BSA are doing all they can to put something meaningful in the hand of every fan, whether they have a budget of fifty bucks or five thousand.

Jacques: Yes, we are always busy but this auction was particularly challenging. We ended up with 30 consignors and we have never had that many before for a single auction. The majority of them had anywhere from ten to twenty items. We ended up with well over 1200 auction lots. As you know, a single lot can contain ten, twenty of thirty items.

The logistics of dealing with 30 people was challenging. You have 30 times the handholding and 30 times setting up the stuff and getting it here. Some people are very professional and easy to deal with but others do require a little bit more time. It’s when the left side of the brain agrees to do an auction but the right side of the brain says, “No, please don’t ship me off to the auction block!”

What happens is that you work and work and work and then with four weeks left all of the floodgates open. I have deadlines and I have to give them friendly reminders and they will say, “I will ship it out” but then they wait until the last four weeks. We were getting in collections every day last week. The moment that you say that you will not let anyone else in on the auction you will get a call and they will say, “My buddy told me about the auction. Can I be part of it too?” You have to get to a point where you have to say no and tell them that they can do it next time.

Jacques: I am a Metal Head at heart and I really love this stuff. I know just about every single piece that comes in terms of knowing who the band is and in most cases I have seen them in concert. To me, that is exciting and fun. I get to see the old records, posters and T-shirts. It is great to do something that naturally excites you; it doesn’t feel like a job. I will admit that I can’t remember the last six day work week I had because most weeks are seven day work weeks. I really don’t go to bed until two in the morning and I am getting up at six in the morning. I’m getting to that point that I am a zombie. Just today, we literally wrapped up all of the logistics. All of the stuff is here and we are almost ready to go.

Jacques: Most people trust you, as we work closely with them and we have a wonderful reputation and they know we are going to do what is right. However, there are those that take a little more interest. They will ask why the price of one thing is fifty bucks and the other is seventy five bucks. You explain it to them but they clearly have a different yardstick because they are basing it on their emotions. Mine is based on the market. Every Led Zeppelin album is a great album but they also pressed five million copies. A band like Dietrich is a band that nobody has ever heard of but they only pressed five hundred copies, so they are actually worth more than Led Zeppelin. At first glance, it doesn’t make sense, but you have to realize the facts.

Jacques: We got introduced to Page Hamilton, from Helmet. Page introduced to us to his neighbor, John Tempesta, who was in Exodus, Testament and Helmet and is a legitimate Metal player. John introduced us to his brother, Mike, who is the guitar player from Powerman 5000. They are interesting because the lead singer is the brother of Rob Zombie. I have to mention that we have some insanely cool White Zombie stuff.

Jacques: You always ask me that and I always realize that I don’t have a single answer. One of our consigners is Rob Garven, the drummer of Cirith Ungol. With all due respect, in America, they are sort of unknown band but to me, I love them. They were big in Europe and they released phenomenal records on Metal Blade. I think that they deserve some credit for being one of the early Doom Metal type bands. The early Doom Metal bands were not as low tempo as they eventually became. It was a little sinister. I remember when I picked up my first Cirith Ungol album back in 1981, I was hooked.

We got some great stuff from Robert. We got an album that is so pristine that it must have come off the press right into his hands and then saved in a dark, climate controlled environment. The album looks like it was pressed this morning. For me, this is a band that I fell in love with thirty years ago. I got really excited about seeing that album.

Jacques: It is no secret that I started as a person who collected Kiss. We got in some 1975-1976 era T-shirts that are really interesting. Kiss had no money when they started out and when they started they had no merchandise. The only thing they could really afford were these iron on type T-shirts. We have ten, or so, of these early Kiss T-shirts.

Jacques: Logic dictates for me to say that one of the fifteen guitars Scott has is my favorite items in the auction, or maybe one of the ten amps, and I will admit it is super awesome to have these guitars. Scott used these guitars on the road and in the studio. He used these guitars to write music. There were a couple of things, two in particular that jumped out at me. One was a 1982 from Gildersleeves in New York, which is, as far as I have been able to find out, their first concert. Remember, at that time Scott was the only member that is still in Anthrax. If you go back through their history, their lineup changed weekly. Scott is the original founding member. That handbill is so fricking cool. It has a hand drawn logo that doesn’t look anything like the current logo. To me, it is just a five by seven handbill but it screams history. I get super excited about something like that.

The other thing that I really thought was awesome was something that took me back to the first time I saw Anthrax in concert. They were playing with Overkill and they had opening acts that changed. Helloween opened for them when I saw them. I don’t think they even had an album out yet. We have an original poster from Belgium. If it had been the Dutch poster, from the concert I saw, I would have freaked out. I would have been tempted to break my own rule. I do not bid on auction items because it is unethical. If it was the Dutch poster it would have been hard not to break my rule. This brought back so many memories for me.

Jacques: From day one, I wanted to be that auctioneer that you could call on the phone and talk to for hours about your collection and your passion. We only take items on consignment from the artist, or from a person who was legitimately in the business. When you get that item you know it is special. When you buy something from one of our auctions you get two for the price of one. The first thing you get is the item you purchased and the second thing you receive is peace of mind in knowing what you have. You know, for instance, that if you buy one of those guitars that it came directly from Scott Ian. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it; it is his stuff. It is not some guy who happened to know the guy who drove the truck for the band and he found some item left in the dressing room. What you get at our auction is the stuff that came directly from the artist or the industry professional.

We are a little bit of a different production house. I will come to you and I will help you pull it all together. I will look at everything you have. Most other auctioneers are only interested in the top five percent of the items that you have in your collection. They only want the most expensive items. While that makes for a very fancy catalog, the reality is that over 80% of collectors have a limited budget. Very few people can only afford to buy the most expensive items. They still want a piece of their favorite musician. I look at everything from the expensive items to less expensive things. I ask if they have any old laminates or tour itineraries. I ask if they have buttons or T-shirts or anything like that. I want to be able to offer something from Scott Ian’s personal collection that may only cost twenty-five or thirty dollars. I love selling the guitars as well but I also want to offer something for everyone who is a fan.

I will let the others chase the Eric Clapton’s of the world and I will be happy to get with these other artists as they have fans that are every bit as dedicated as those other megastars. The point is that we are the only auction house that wants to do this. I know how exciting it is and how rewarding it is to be able to obtain a legitimate piece from one of your favorite musicians. This builds loyalty as we have a lot of customers who have been with us since day one. I think that is all you can ask for. I think we have achieved this and it is one of the things that we are very proud of. We are always looking to expand our database as we need to reach out to as many people as we can, as we are a business. The more people that support us results in us being able to continue doing these types of auctions. I am really grateful the loyalty that our buyers have shown us over the years.

Jacques: I couldn’t agree with you more; you’re right on the button, as far as I am concerned. I want to add something to that, if I may. Being a Metal fan is not easy. You have to be dedicated to be a Metal fan. You’re playing music that people don’t want you to listen to, wearing T-shirts that nobody wants you to wear and your hair is probably too long for everybody’s liking. It can be your family, your neighbor or your employer, for that matter. You will never find more loyal fans than you will find with Metal.

In 1974, I will never forget this, it was my birthday. My parents bought me a turntable and I was so excited but the excitement only lasted ten seconds because there were no records. My mom saw the disappointment on my face and she said, “Let’s go to the record store and I will let you buy two albums.” I grew up in an apartment complex and all of the guys around me were a few years older than me and I hung out with them all the time. They were listening to Rory Gallagher, Deep Purple and Status Quo. I went to the record store and the first record I bought was Black Sabbath. I have never looked back. I understand the passion and the dedication. It is very gratifying to do this because I know that people are going to find something in this auction that is going to rock their boat. I can hardly think of another fan base that is so dedicated to their musical heroes than in rock and Metal. It is like a motorcycle gang; once you’re in then you’re in for life.

These items are hard to find as it is but they will be harder to find in ten and twenty years. I tell people to go to a used record store and look at what they have. You will find fifty Dan Fogelburg albums. You will probably find as many George Michael albums How many Iron Maiden albums will you find? Zero. It is not because they don’t carry Iron Maiden. The shop owner would love to trade his George Michaels albums for one Iron Maiden album. If they do happen to have one Iron Maiden album then it is the one album that was a clunker. You rarely strike gold.

I did strike gold though, so it does happen. I was in a used record store in Houston and I was looking around. You probably remember the demo days. Bands used to put ads in Metal magazines and they were advertising their demos. I was able to get the Metallica demos and the Merciful Fate demos. I saw an ad for a band called Americade. They were a band from LA. They had a demo and I send a letter with a couple of dollars and I got a letter back from the drummer. We stayed in touch and he told me that they were going to release an album called American Metal. I ended up getting the album and at some point I must have traded it or sold it; I can’t remember. It always stuck in my mind. Last week, I was in this record store and I went through everything and there was nothing in there for me. They had a bin labeled ‘various’ and I was mostly compilation albums and soundtracks. I decided to look through it as it was a small bin. Lo and behold, there was a sealed copy of Americade in there for two dollars and fifty cents. I would have paid fifty bucks – I probably would have paid hundred bucks for it. I really stuck gold.

Ninety percent of the fun is the hunt. It is going to record stores and flea markets and yard sales and bookstores in the hope of finding something. More often than not you’re leaving empty handed. A few times, you find something beyond your wildest dreams that is better than anything that you ever expected. I think that is what keeps me coming back.