10 Concert Posters You Shouldn't Ignore At Thrift Stores And Estate Sales

Let's say you're poking through a cardboard box of old band posters tucked away into the back of a thrift store or hanging out on someone's lawn at an estate or tag sale. How do you know what it's worth? Some precious pieces of rectangular paper are worth way more than others and shouldn't be ignored, much like rare vinyls you shouldn't pass up.

It's kind of weird to think that a slip of perishable paper could go for thousands of dollars, but it's true. Even with tears, creases, etc., the Psychedelic Art Exchange says that vintage posters can go for $1,000 to $3,000 with damage and even up to a staggering $10,000 in perfect "museum quality" condition, as it's called. The gallery gets daily calls from sellers looking to make money, much like Dawsons Auctioneers, to whom you can submit a picture to get your piece evaluated. A poster need not even be that old to sell for multiple hundreds of dollars. One limited edition, hand-signed flyer from a Puscifer show at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado from as recent as 2024 sells for about $600 on Sold Out Posters as of this writing.

While there's no way to tell how many such posters are hanging around in thrift stores or estate sales waiting to be picked up and possibly re-sold (or just kept on the wall), there's bound to be some. So keep an eye out, especially when it comes to posters from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam, Primus, Tool, and more.  

What are the odds that you're going to come across a perfectly intact, 14-by-22-inch vibrant purple poster from 1968? Some 60-year-old people don't look too good, let alone a 60-year-old paper. Well, if you do happen to come across a Jimi Hendrix poster by artist Rick Griffin from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, hang on to it. Maybe don't tell the seller, either. If it's a first edition in excellent condition, it'll go for around $5,000 on Sold Out Posters. This is the closest to the OG shred king we're going to get.

Feeling high? That might be what it takes to pay $2,000 for a concert poster from tie-dyed extraordinaire the Grateful Dead, a band that's done more live shows than days many children have been alive (at least 2,300 shows). If you can get your mitts on a 14-by-22-inch first edition poster from one such 1973 concert, you can sell it on Sold Out Posters (or just keep it). The design, again from Rick Griffin, features a cawing crow circled in red, perhaps cawing at the injustice of so many underrated Grateful Dead rock songs.

If you spot a Primus poster with a sad block of butter on top of a pile of syruped pancakes from the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, Colorado, you might want to snag it. You needn't be a "South Park" fan, either (Primus did the show's theme song, remember), though if you are: bonus. The 18-by-24-inch poster, which dates to 2012, comes from South Park Studios. You can keep yours or sell it for about $600 on Sold Out Posters.

Who the heck is Captain Beefheart, you ask? Musician and collaborator with the likes of Frank Zappa, the Grateful Dead, and Jethro Tull, of course. So, if you're milling around a tag sale hoping to find part of next month's rent in a box, you can look for another 14-by-22-inch Rick Griffin poster from 1968 featuring a ... one-eyed, red, white, and blue bat wing thing? We're not sure, but it's from Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band at Crawford Hall in Fullerton, California. It goes for about $1,000 on Sold Out Posters.

So we all know how rabid Tool fans are, right? The Tool Army isn't likely to release its death grips on the band's sacred swag any time soon. But if it does, and you manage to get ahold of a first-edition, 18-by-24-inch Adam Jones-made poster from a 2016 concert at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, you can sell it for about $950 on Sold Out Posters. Or just cuddle up to it on the wall next to your bed. Either way, there were only 600 made. Hopefully you're also a fan of differently-colored, battling fleas.

Who doesn't like ole' "Evenflow" or "Jeremy" (hidden meaning included) from Pearl Jam? By 1998, however, the band's fame had started to wane, like when it played at Fiddler's Green in Greenwood Village, Colorado. Even so, a large 23-by-26.5-inch red-and-yellow poster from Ames Bros Brothers Design from that concert goes for about $1,200 on Sold Out Posters. It's all torn around the edges, too. But dang if the design isn't cool: Chromosomes, Aleister Crowley, some skulls and bombs, you name it. Grab it if you see it.

We might as well continue with another '90s band, Smashing Pumpkins, except with a poster from 2018, way after the group's heyday. This one might be hard to spot if you're flipping through a stack or rack of posters and not paying attention, as it's a pretty subdued, brownish design with a "Metropolis"-like angel on it (the landmark 1927 sci-fi film). Counterintuitively, the dark design comes from the band's "Oh So Bright Tour." There are no notes on the artist on Sold Out Posters, but the 18-by-24-inch first edition goes for about $1,000, damage included. 

"Step right up, step right up! Now's your chance to reclaim your lost youth and stick a Blink-182 poster on your wall." That can be your dream come true and/or your selling pitch after you snag a 2013 concert poster from the band featuring a crying Darth Vader head surrounded by yellow-helmeted, crying Stormtroopers with peace signs on their foreheads. The 18-by-24-inch poster comes from Frank Kozik and yet another Colorado venue, the Farm in Byers. With minor damage, it sells for $950 on Sold Out Posters. 

Maybe it's best for poster lovers to head to shows in Colorado, because our next poster, a 2018 Marilyn Manson offering, comes from The Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, again. This bad boy from artist Brian Mercer is hand-numbered and only saw 70 go to print. It features a skeleton priest dude walking across a red, enflamed sky and a landscape of empty banners. You know, typical Manson (his stage persona, that is — he's totally unrecognizable in real life). It goes for about $750 on Sold Out Posters.

We might as well end on a concert poster that looks like a crazed bubblegum horror exploded in your nightmares. The strangely large, 28.75-by-39-inch poster in question comes from 2022's Pinkpop music festival in the Netherlands. It goes for about $1,200 on Sold Out Posters, and it certainly lives up to the expectations of a pop festival named after the color pink. It's a lithograph, is one of only 1,000, and is signed by the artist, Mark Ryden. The poster is also apparently a licensed piece of Barbie merch and has a Mattel certificate of authenticity to prove it.