Bids currently stand at £8,0777 ($12,945) with five days left (at the time of writing) for a guitar consigned by Radiohead star Ed O'Brien.

Bid A: guitarist Ed O'Brien has put his Fender guitar up on eBay

The rock musician has agreed to auction his Fender Telecaster on eBay. It was used during the band's landmark fourth and fifth studio albums, Kid A and Amnesiac, and will sell to aid The Billie Butterfly Fund.

The fund has been set up to raise funds for the ongoing treatment of four year old Billie Bainbridge, who suffers from an inoperable form of brain stem cancer.

Both Kid A and its successive LP, Amnesiac, divided Radiohead fans' opinions upon their releases in 2000 and 2001.

Audiences and critics acted with surprise - and annoyance in some quarters - as the group seemingly abandoned their claim to U2's global arena rock crown to instead plough a leftfield furrow of non-commercial songs and synthesizer experiments.

The guitar has been autographed by the whole band which also comprises singer Thom Yorke, lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, Jonny's brother Colin on bass, and drummer Phil Selway.

An accompanying handwritten message from Ed reads: "To whoever ends up with this Tele… It was bought in the summer of '98, just prior to us going into record the albums which came out as 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac'.

"It was pretty much the only guitar I used at that time. It's also been gigged a lot, up until and including the 'In Rainbows' tour. Hope you enjoy it."

A band's ongoing legacy is all-important to the value of their collectibles, and many of Radiohead's '90s 'Brit rock' contemporaries have been gaining value on the collectors' markets in recent times.

These include Britpop bad boys Oasis. Noel Gallagher's song lyrics and concepts which brought £4,140 at Christie's in 1998. We also have a rare Oasis drumskin, autographed by the group's original line-up, for sale at Paul Fraser Collectibles.

Ed O'Brien's guitar has been signed by each of Radiohead's members (above), after previously being used to make the band's 'difficult fourth album', 2000's Kid A (pictured bottom)

Considering that Radiohead and the Kid A/Amnesiac albums continue to delight and perplex audiences to this day, O'Brien's guitar will likely continue to attract enthusiastic bids over the next week.

What's more, guitars with celebrity provenance have continued to prove themselves as the 'most bankable collectible assets' in 2011.

Christie's recent sale of The Richard Gere Guitar Collection achieved $936,438 and was 96% sold by lot and 91% by value.

The top lot of the sale was a 1960 solid-body Les Paul electric guitar by Gibson Incorporated, Kalamazoo, MI, realising $98,500.

Watch this space for more news on the Radiohead guitar sale.