I've got a song to ... sell: Mary Travers' passing and the pricetag of celebrity deaths

The Hollywood cliche is that artists experience new life in the afterlife. So expect a lot of selling and swapping in the days ahead, as collectors check their record bins and sellers scour the Internet for Peter, Paul and Mary valuables.

Take a quick cruise on eBay on this morning of mourning, and you will see evidence of Mary Travers' passing in the new tems up for auction -- everything from the Peter, Paul and Mary "Moving" album signed by all three members ($32 and counting) to a signed Travers photo (at a "buy it now" price of $20).

"When Michael Jackson died, there were people who did go out and tried to buy up all his stuff," says Roger Voegele, owner of Harbert Antique Mall, in Harbert, Mich. The mall, open for 15 years, remains a top-flight destination for vacationing Chicagoans and Michigan residents in search of collectible treasures.

Voegele says that when an artist dies, it leads to what he calls a "stampede effect."