An online auction of ABBA memorabilia, held last weekend, has attracted keen interest from fans. One fervent fan of Swedish pop group paid $6,600 for rare maxi single, more than double the asking price. Limited edition recording has been produced in 1981 by the group for their manager Stig Anderson’s 50th birthday. Only 200 copies of the single had been produced.
Some 25,000 items, divided into 442 lots from the legendary Swedish pop group have been sold by a private collector Thomas Nordin and reached 560,000 Swedish kronor ($86,000). Nordin amassed his ABBA memorabilia collection over nearly 40 years. He became a fan when he was 9 years old and watched the four-piece group on television, winning the Eurovision Song Contest.
Among items which have found buyers was a purple vest bearing the name of the group, which went for 31,500 kronor, more than seven times the list price. “We never imagined that,” said Beata af Donner, the spokeswoman for the auction house Stockholms Auktionsverk, which organised the sale. Bidders from around the world also went for ABBA Barbie dolls, bags, soaps, clogs, posters and an extensive collection of newspaper clippings.
For himself, Nordin was keeping just three souvenirs “which do not take up much space”. One of these items is a postcard signed by all four members of the group: Agnetha Faeltskog, Bjoern Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson. Items which did not find buyers will be sold at an auction in the autumn, with lower list prices.
