Concert was a priceless experience

How much is nostalgia worth?
More than I can afford, apparently.
As my wife will tell you, I am an inveterate noodler-around when it comes to eBay.
It’s not so much a question of buying things. I’ve been relatively restrained in that regard (at least that’s my assessment, she may have other thoughts). But I enjoy the hunt.
And one of those hunts led me to a piece of my past.
Searching eBay one night, for some reason I put “Jimi Hendrix” in the search spot. Like a lot of folks from my generation, I’m a fan. And I had the extra connection of having seen Hendrix in concert in — of all places on the face of the earth — Muncie.
So you can imagine a bit of my excitement when I encountered an item that said “Jimi Hendrix 1968 Original HULLABALOO Unused CONCERT TICKET **AWESOME FIND**.”
Now, as far as I was concerned, whether it qualified as an “awesome find” was still yet to be determined. But I knew for sure that the eBay seller liked capital letters and had some trouble with normal punctuation marks.
Just the same, I clicked on it.
And it was the Muncie concert. The very same one I’d been to so many years ago.
Hullabaloo was a teen rock show on TV, started in response to another show called Shindig. Both featured weekly appearances of rock music stars performing their stuff. Most of them were lip-synching, though my memory is that Shindig actually had a few people sing into a microphone.
Someone had the great idea of putting the Hullabaloo name on a concert tour. Someone also had the not-so-great idea of re-naming a barn at the Delaware County Fairgrounds as the “Teen American Building.”
That was the venue for the concert, and by my memory it was a good one. A group called Soft Machine opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and the place rocked nicely.
Four of us made the trip from Earlham to Muncie and hooked up with one of my Jay County friends who was studying at Ball State.
But now, here I was, something like 46 or 47 years later, looking at an unused ticket to the performance at the Muncie fairgrounds.
Was I interested?
Sure, I’m as nostalgic as the next guy when it comes to remembering the days of our youth.
And then I saw the price.
Any guesses out there as to what a vintage Jimi Hendrix in Muncie ticket might cost?
You sir, you with the comb-over, what’s your bid? How about you, the guy who thought bell-bottom pants would be a permanent fashion statement? Any guesses?
How about this: $826.99.
That’s right, more than $800 for a piece of paper with Jimi’s photo on it twice along with the date and time and location.
Oh and then there’s shipping and handling: $19.95.
It was about that time I remembered that I hadn’t spent $19.95 on the ticket in the first place back in 1968. And the ticket price I did pay got me a couple of good sets from a great guitarist.
But then I noticed something else: The ticket was unused.
The real loser in this transaction isn’t the person who would pay more than $800 for a piece of paper; it’s the person who bought the ticket back in 1968 and missed the show.
That’s priceless.