OVER the years, I have accrued, for one reason or another, bits and pieces of what some might call memorabilia, and others might call tat.

They include a hand-written postcard from Alan Bennett, one box of signed Jerry Hall tights (unused I hasten to add) and a teaspoon bent by Uri Geller.

These might fetch a few quid on eBay but they're hardly going to spark a bidding war between auction houses.

Having said that, memorabilia is big business these days with collectors willing to pay thousands, sometimes millions, of pounds for a guitar once owned by a rock music legend, or handwritten lyrics from a memorable song.

It's not just wealthy individuals who are buying these things, and the fact the Victoria and Albert Museum has reportedly just paid £51,375 for the original artwork of The Rolling Stones' iconic lips and tongue symbol, suggest it's more than just a fad.

Tomorrow, what is believed to be the only record of Elvis Presley's fingerprints in existence will go under the hammer at The Fame Bureau's It's More Than Rock and Roll memorabilia auction, at the Idea Generation Gallery in London. The fingerprints, part of a 1970 gun permit application, are expected to fetch as much as £75,000. Among the other items up for sale are a corset worn by Marilyn Monroe in the film Some Like It Hot, a Jim Morrison notebook given to a friend days before his death and Brian Epstein's personal copy of the first fully signed contract with The Beatles, valued at around £250,000.

Ted Owen, memorabilia expert and managing director of The Fame Bureau, says our fascination with rock and film memorabilia has grown over the past 25 years. "It started off with the sale of rock stars' guitars and then the big auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's jumped on board."

Owen has been involved in the sale of some of rock music's greatest memorabilia, including The Beatles's All You Need is Love lyrics for £750,000, and the piano John Lennon used on the song Imagine, for an astonishing £1.5m.

"In the last 10 years we've seen prices rise and rock memorabilia and film props and artifacts are no longer seen as trivia, but more a part of our social and cultural history. So we now have Hunter Davies's Beatles lyrics next to the Magna Carta in the British Library," he says.

"There's been a shift in people's attitudes and The Beatles are seen as the new Shakespeare, and consequently the price of memorabilia has increased dramatically, which is why various funds and organisations are now looking at it for investment purposes."

He says a new generation of collectors has emerged in recent years. "There's people of a certain age, between 40 and 60, with conspicuous amounts of money who have their own guitar heroes – there was an Eric Clapton guitar, for instance, that was bought for £1m, and there are people out there willing to pay this. We're also seeing different strata of collectors, some people only collect posters or vinyl and others will only collect memorabilia linked to one particular artist, like Madonna or The Who."

Memorabilia isn't just about wallowing in misty-eyed nostalgia, it can also be a smart way of raising money for good causes. The department store Selfridges, for instance, is holding an auction later this month featuring, among other things, a pair of stilettos donated by Kate Moss and a suit worn by Jude Law in the remake of Alfie, with the proceeds going to the charity Breast Cancer Care.

There are, of course, some truly bizarre things that end up for sale. Perhaps none more so than the slice of Royal wedding cake that sold for £1,200 last week. The 27-year-old slice of marzipan and icing, decorated with the Royal coat of arms, was made
for Charles and Diana's wedding and was one of 22 shared by Royal staff.

Some people might scoff at paying so much money for a cake, no matter how regal it is, but Jon Baddeley, head of collectables at Bonhams auctioneers, says it boils down to what someone is willing to pay. "Memorabilia puts people closer to their heroes or someone they're particularly interested in. So in this case whoever bought it may have been around when Charles and Diana were married and have fond memories of that particular time.

"But memorabilia goes back throughout history and people are still fascinated with anything related to Lord Nelson, or William Shakespeare. It's not something that has suddenly happened, there's always been an interest in famous people and famous names."

We like to think that some things in life are priceless, but in the world of memorabilia at least, everything has its price.