Sometimes I come across something that is so cool that I want to tell everybody. A while back I bookmarked a web site called wolfgangsvault.com with the intention of doing a column about it.

Since that time the site and its contents have been featured on CBS television's "Sunday Morning" and on National Public Radio.

Here is the story in a nutshell.

Legendary concert promoter Bill Graham of Fillmore East and West fame, not to be confused with evangelist Billy Graham, died in 1991, in a helicopter crash. His company was sold several times and was purchased in 2002 by entrepreneur Bill Sagan, who is now its president.

Sagan and his company, named Wolfgang after Graham's real first name, discovered a treasure trove in a warehouse that is nothing short of the rock 'n' roll equivalent of King Tut's tomb -- except Steve Martin didn't record a song about it.

They hauled out more than 20 semi-truck loads of material from the San Francisco site and discovered Graham had saved a little of everything during his 30-plus years of concert promoting.

Sagan now has his own three-story warehouse that holds the Graham collection, and the best thing is, much of the archive is for sale to anybody who wants to pull out their credit cards. Posters, handbills, flyers, postcards and tickets that have become some of the holy grails of rock memorabilia collecting are now available in mint condition, untouched for these many years.

The Who fans can now own everything from a $38 ticket to a 1968 Fillmore Auditorium concert to a $750 picture of Pete Townsend playing guitar in a cloud of smoke onstage in 1968 at the Cow Palace. If you want to super-size that print to 20- by 24-inches, you can double the price. It comes signed by photographer Baron Wolman.

Also, don't forget to pick up The Who concert posters from $688 to well over $2,500 each. Collectors on a budget will find an $85 necktie from a 1969 Fillmore East show where The Who performed "Tommy" for the first time live on U.S. soil.

There is a program from the original Woodstock for $845 or the famous "Three Days Of Peace And Music" poster for a mere $4,525. But, it is, after all, a first printing!

Pick a legendary performer from the period, and there is memorabilia: Cream, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Santana, The Boss, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, The Sons Of Champlin, Sonny And Cher, Sonny Rollins and Grace Slick.

There is a 1987 reunion backstage pass for The Monkees for $36 and an art print photograph of Thelonious Monk with Dizzy Gillespie and Gerald Wilson for $1,700.

For $550 you can own a 1970 onstage photograph of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at the Fillmore East, and concert tickets with a face value of only $3 will set you back from 20 to 80 times their original face value.

You can even purchase a 1988 performance picture of Frank Sinatra with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. for $125, and a mint ticket to that concert with a face value of $40 bucks will run you $110.

In the archive of tens of thousands of pictures, negatives and slides are a Jimi Hendrix fine art photographic print shot during a 1967 Oakland Coliseum Arena concert for $600 and a picture of Hendrix and original Rolling Stones member Brian Jones backstage at the historic 1967 Monterey Pop Festival for $1,200. Speaking of Monterey, you can own a picture of Mama Cass Elliott sitting in the crowd for $400.

While all of this is enough to keep collectors awake at night, the biggest treasures may be the over 5,000 performances that were either audiotaped or filmed by Graham and his staff. These rare, vintage glimpses into a time so very long ago are now valuable, historical documents.

The great thing is, Sagan is offering free raw, unenhanced sample audio tracks of these concerts under the title of Vault Radio, a streaming radio show at the web site. Every Tuesday, the playlist evolves with around five hours of historic tracks being offered each week.

How about Grace Slick and the Great Society playing "White Rabbit" at the Fillmore Auditorium in 1966. Check the timeline for The Jefferson Airplane and see how early that recording really is.

How many times have you heard live Taj Mahal tracks from 1969 or Bruce Springsteen from a 1973 concert? Add The Everly Brothers from 1969, Elvis Costello cuts from 1978 or Electric Light Orchestra from 1976. There is George Harrison in concert from 1975 or Frank Zappa And The Mothers singing "Happy Together" at the Fillmore East in 1971 during the period they recorded their famous Fillmore East album.

Graham booked Chicago, known in 1968 as The Chicago Transit Authority, to four nights at the Fillmore West in 1968 before most people ever heard of them. I've seen them live 10 times, and this is even before the first concert I attended. The tracks rock and are a better example of the live band then their well-known Carnegie Hall concert album.

If listening to streaming audio is not good enough for you, Sagan is working on selling download tracks by this summer with the possibility of CDs and even concert footage and DVDs later in the year. While I can't afford the posters and other memorabilia, I can tell you now that ''ll be in line with my credit card and a long want-list of concerts as soon as CDs and videos are for sale.

Visit wolfgandsvault.com and check it out yourself. I think that Sagan's investment of $5 million was well spent. After all, it is estimated that the stash could be worth as much as $100 million.

Our collective knowledge is a wonderful thing. I enjoy answering your questions and appreciate your input, as well. Thank you to Ron and Dean for dropping me e-mails to identify the artists who recorded the original 1968 version of "The Shape Of Things To Come" as Max Frost And The Troopers.

Note:

Our collective knowledge is a wonderful thing. I enjoy answering your questions and appreciate your input, as well. Thank you to Ron and Dean for dropping me e-mails to identify the artists who recorded the original 1968 version of "The Shape Of Things To Come" as Max Frost And The Troopers.

I mentioned the song in my column on rock songs being used in commercials. It has been included in recent Target television ads.

The group was a studio band, and I found references to the band possibly being comprised of members of Davie Allen and the Arrows and also that the lead singer was Paul Wybier.

Yes, that is the same Davie Allen and the Arrows of "Apache '65" and "Blue's Theme" fame. Allen has been called the king of fuzz guitar. He is said to be to '60s biker movies what Dick Dale was to surf guitar. Allen is still playing and releasing albums today.

Visit wcfcourier.com/pulse and look for the "Lost In The Sixties" logo for this and several classic columns from the archives.

Rick Chase can be reached at rick.chase@wcfcourier.com