This flyer, possibly for the first of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests, had a rather bad trip on eBay this week.
As a collector of counter culture ephemera, like others I see the Acid Tests of the Mid 1960’s as being seminal events…the jumping off point for the 1960’s. On Feb 14th, a very interesting piece popped up on eBay. Here’s what Ken Kesey’s son Zane had to say in an email to the clueless seller.
ZANE KESEY: Here is what Ken Babbs said when I showed him, “Holey Moley, that’s a poster for the first Acid Test at the “Spread” where I lived outside of Santa Cruz. It even looks like something I might have drawn.”
Understand that this is the FIRST Acid Test! others sell for 10K up to 75K (if painted)
This is the only poster I have ever seen for the first Acid Test!
I think this is the only Acid Test poster I know of to list the Warlocks
Good luck with this auction, It should get very exciting in that last hour.
I wish I could afford it!
Zane Kesey
Title: psychedelic acid test handbill old
Subtitle: warlocks grateful dead? acid test
Even so poorly listed, some of the right people were obviously finding it as bidding was up to about $750 with a few days left to go. Then on the morning of 2/14/09, the seller pulled the listing citing an “error in the listing or reserve price” and promptly relisted it with a $5,000 “buy it now” option. I was off with the family, came back, saw it had been relisted and promptly snatched by the first person to re-check the listing. So in the end, one of the most significant pieces of counterculture history and one of the earliest Grateful Dead posters sells for a measley $5,000. I’m sure I speak for others when I honestly confess I had a robo-bid set up on the original auction for over $10,000 and I’m not one of the trust-funded or drug-fortune funded high rollers who I’m sure were prepared to go much higher.
In a fair and well run auction what would have this piece fetched? I’ll go ahead and pitch a number out there just for shits and giggles. My guess is a minimum of $25,000…possibly reaching as high as six figures. The most recent “comparable”, if you could call it that, was sold a few months back for $15,000 (see Acid Test Poster Sells for $15,000). That poster is hardly comparable, as it was professionally printed on an offset press, in a reasonable quantity, with a number of known survivng quantities for an event much later in the timeline for the Merry Pranksters Acid Tests. Additionally, in my research the only Acid Test piece to list the Warlocks, which was the Grateful Dead’s original name.
The only thought that eases my mind and will let me sleep tonight is that maybe Zane Kesey or someone else in the Pranksters family ended up with this relic. However, my guess is we haven’t seen the last of it. If anyone has more information on this item please add it in the comments section.
Until then, I’ll be cuddling my own two original Acid Test newspaper ads.
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