Great news for rock autograph collectors, and for that matter, all autograph collectors!

After years of lackluster sales, todays sales at Sotheby's have shown that the market for quality material has rebounded handsomely.

Here's an article about the sale of Bob Dylan's lyrics to "The Times They Are A-Changin' ". Personally, with our sale next week (www.alexautographs.com), I'm breaking out the champagne. Here's the text of the article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

"Can you say stocking stuffer?

Just in time for Christmas, Sotheby's sold at auction Bob Dylan's handwritten "The Times They Are A-Changin' " lyrics for $422,500 on Friday to a New York art collector and financier.

The manuscript of the early 1960s protest anthem by the Minnesota native is signed "by Bob Dylan" and written in pencil on a sheet of unruled, three-hole notebook paper, according to the auction house web posting.

The web posting notes the item has "some light discoloration and graphite smudging" along with other blemishes. Lost is the "Th" from the title word "They." On the other side of the paper are the first five lines of Dylan's more obscure "North Country Blues."

The new owner was identified by Sotheby's as Adam Sender, a hedge fund manager who bid by telephone and won out over a rival in the auction room.

Sender, 41, who began collecting contemporary art in 1998 and has loaned pieces to Minneapolis' Walker Art Center and some of the world's leading museums, declined to comment on his purchase.

Sender's more noted acquisitions over the years include a guitar John Lennon was playing when he met Paul McCartney and Andres Serrano's controversial photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine.

Sotheby's opened bidding at $200,000 to $300,000, with the bids roaring well beyond the starting point. The net price includes the final bid when the hammer came down -- which the auction house did not disclose -- and Sotheby's fees.

Dylan wrote the song during his breakout years in New York City. It was the title track for his 1964 album.

The most recent owner of this manuscript was Peter MacKenzie, who was a child in the house of Mac and Eve MacKenzie, where Dylan used to play occasionally and stay in his early Manhattan days.

The MacKenzies were friends with Kevin Krown, a fellow folk singer who introduced the Iron Range singer/songwriter to the Greenwich Village scene and owned the manuscript after Dylan parted with it".