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Some of the most iconic concert posters of the '60s landed at Half Price Books, which is selling them for a song

Seems to me that if you're going to offload 69 historic rock-show posters from the 1960s, many in near-mint condition, you'd take them to, oh, I dunno ... Oak Lawn's Heritage Auctions, let's say, where you can sell them to the highest bidder, because they tend to go for a small fortune. But instead, someone took their stash to ... the Half Price Books in Cedar Hill. Which is why Half Price is about to offload the collection for the proverbial song.

The posters come from shows produced by promoter and Family Dog founder Chet Helms, the University of Texas dropout who helped make Janis Joplin a star and became "the father of the 'Summer of Love,'" as the Los Angeles Times called him upon his death a decade ago. As the Times noted, in San Francisco in the mid- to late 1960s, there were two go-to promoters: Bill Graham, who earned his keep by filling the Fillmore, and Chet Helms, who did most of his shows at the Avalon Ballroom. Most of these posters come from the Avalon, though there are a few from Denver.

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"Chet's visionary use of psychedelic posters to promote Family Dog events helped popularize the counterculture aesthetic that would symbolize the era," per the Family Dog official bio. "But Chet's greatest achievement was in putting on some of the greatest rock and roll events of all time. The list of performers is who's who of music legends like Blood, Sweat & Tears, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Charlatans, The Doors, Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Love, Lovin' Spoonful, Moby Grape, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Carlos Santana Blues Band, Steppenwolf, Velvet Underground and many, many more."

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More than a few of those acts are represented in the collection, which Half Price will put on display Friday night at the Northwest Highway mothership from beginning at 5:30.  The sale will kick off Monday at 10 a.m. -- and it's online-only.

Two more for your rec room
Two more for your rec room
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"We wanted to make the collection available to people across the country," says Half Price spokesperson Emily Bruce, "as opposed to just people in Dallas."

Fair enough. There are quite a few steals -- like, say, that Blue Cheer-Captain Beefheart offering from artist Tom Glass priced to move at $125. And that Spirit -Sir Douglas Quintet poster by Stanley Mouse and Arnold Genthe feels like a steal at $150. Most of the offerings are around $100-$250. The highest-priced poster, not surprisingly: The Doors-Captain Beefheart two-fer by artist Bob Schnepf, priced at $1,650.

Browse the catalog below.

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