Yesterday at the Creation Star Trek con in Vegas, Propworx held a Star Trek prop and costume auction and both big wallet collectors and bargain hunting newbies were able to take home some nice pieces of Star Trek history. There were also some surprises, like Data’s painting of Spot fetching $7000. More details on the event below.
Star Trek auction attracts high-end collectors and first-time bargain hunters
Propworx, in conjunction with CBS held their Star Trek auction at Creation Entertainment’s Official Star Trek Convention at the Las Vegas Hilton and live online at www.LiveAuctioneers.com. Props, costumes, production artwork, concept drawings, model spaceships and set décor drew fans bidding live and online from all over the world. As expected bidding was intense on many items, like the only surviving translight screen (backlit panel) from the original Star Trek series bridge (Lot #3) which sold for an $14,000 and some 1960’s Leonard Nimoy Spock ears (Lot #2) fetched $3,000. However the most surprising subject of fierce bidding was was the TNG era Data Painting of Spot in the style of Pablo Picasso (Lot #70) which finally gaveled down at $7,000.
Data’s painting of Spot was subject of fierce bidding
Other lots of note included Lot #37, the Klingon Warrior Costume at $6,000, Lot #22, the golden Observation Lounge Model of TOS Enterprise at $7,000, Lot #11, the Captain Kirk spacesuit filming miniature from Star Trek: The Motion Picture at $8,000 and Lot #5, Sulu’s tunic at $4,000.
Although there were a number of high profile (and priced) items at the auction, over half of the lots sold went for less than $500, with many going for $50, including an original prop flask, of crew gifts from Mike & Denise Okuda and original drawings by Rick Sternbach. Many DS9 and Voyager ‘translight’ panels sold for bargain prices as well.
This TNG flask was one of many lots that sold for $50
During the event Robert Picardo, The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager, showed up to talk about his Doctor’s Sickbay Chair (Lot #203) which sold for $2,250. Speaking of chairs, Lot #96, Enterprise-D Observation Lounge Chair from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is believed to be the only remaining chair with original upholstery, reached the $4,000 mark.
Bob Picardo (and his "Voyager" chair) at the Star Trek Auction
For the fans of the Star Trek: The Experience ride from the closed attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton, signs were the big winner, with two versions of Quark’s Bar signs fetching over $10,000 total (Lots 286 and 287). But bargain hunter’s could also find ST:TE items, like exit signs that went for $350.
2 Quark’s signs from Star Trek: The Experience sold for $10,000
A full list of lots and what they sold for can be found at liveauctioneers.com
The auction is over, but you can still pick up a copy of the hardback catalog, which is full of interviews, behind the scenes photos and more from Star Trek history. It is available for $30 at startrek.propworx.com/order-our-catalog.
And if you are a fan of Stargate or Kevin Smith’s Askewniverse, you should check out upcoming auctions from those properties www.propworx.com
$7,000 for that chromo!
(a million quatloos to the first one who gets that movie reference)
I wonder who really painted Picasso Spot? “Pointilism” would have been a good choice, too.
Some folks have more dollars than sense.
Hopefully, the economics of the future will be somewhat different.
“How do we know it’s not a fake! It looks like a fake!”
haha Great Stuff to sell….WIsh I had any moolah to get a cheap obscure piece from the Experience….wonder what some of the other stuff went for….350 for the exit signs is about what they were selling for on e bay every time I checked…couldnt see why it was worth that much then heheh..
I will always treasure my experience souvenirs…t shirts glasses coffee cups, shot glasses, light up cups, etc…
I paid A LOT (to me anyway) for two of the glasses issued the last weeks before they closed with the opening and closing dates on e bay…
I wonder who got the replicator…and maybe the Gorn and Salt Vampire dummies hehe
@ 3 CmdrR
“Hopefully, the economics of the future will be somewhat different.”
LOL. hopefully… But i doubt it. I still envision the future as the “Blade Runner future”. This is why i love/watch Star trek… so that i can feel a bit better, within my own pessimistic view of the world.
Data’s painting is making me dizzy…….
I have been looking for that painting
by Data for years….I would have paid
10,000 bars of gold-pressed latinum
for it. What are these “dollar” things
you keep talking about? Are they
currency? What’s the exchange rate?
(insert joke here)
$7000 for Spot? Well, it probably didn’t hurt that the painting was also featured on the wall in Data’s ready room in the Countdown comic. The new owner should try to get Brent Spiner to sign it as Data.
So that was the spot-price, eh?
The experience stuff is junk, it was not screen used, and is useless, though it is awesome, and I love it, it is not worth the prices they were asking and got. My family went to the big warehouse sale, and the stuff was going cheap. For like $100 they got me a headrest, Ent D hallway panel, an LCARS panel fairly good sized, looks great backlit, and some other small items. Honestly, these auctions, nothing ever goes for cheap. To show how backwards things are, at the lightspeed benefit back in Dec. a poster for ‘Of Gods and Men’ signed by Koenig only and a dvd went for $450. The original script of VOY ‘Caretaker’ signed by everyone down to the stage hand, and had Picardo’s personal line notes, and Picardo was even auctioning it off right there in his hand, and no one wanted it even for $400. These auctions are never the reflection of true reality, people go crazy, and there were only a few good items like the Phase II Enterprise or Sulu’s Costume from TOS, and stuff like that.
Interesting so were there a lot of items that did not sell at all because the starting bid price was too high?? Or did everything sell for something?
#11: “These auctions are never the reflection of true reality”
On the subject of memorabilia, I think there is no “reality” to begin with, at any scale … it’s all fetishism (and I say that with all due affection for the stuff being fetishized).
Spot looks like an artsy rendering of Bill the cat.
#1… movie reference was from “North by Northwest.” Right?
#3 – The value and meaning is subjective to everyone. Just because that seems expensive to you, doesn’t mean it is expensive to another person who has so much money, they can spend it. Has nothing to do with brains, just wealth and individual interpretation of value.
Well at least the proceeds credits,latinum. Went to charity so that’s a good thing. Would have loved spot. In my livingroom. The salt vampire. At my front door. The Gorn on my porch having Hi! Think I would not dare do it!
I was in the room when that Observation chair went for 4 grand. I knew that was not the place to be for me. However, I wanted to get one of theSTTE exit signs but I was not able to be in the room all day as I had photo ops and shows to see in the main room. I really did not relish the thought of sitting in that room from 10 am to 6 PM.
#15
Right on, Frederick! The reference was a little too obscure, I know, but it’s good to see another NBNW fan on here. Kudos to you, sir!
#2–Longtime TNG/VGR art dept. illustrator Wendy Drapanas did it. I totally thought that would be a hot item in this batch.
#11—Many, many people have no emotional tie to ST The Exp. But there is a huge mob of regulars, local and around the country, who loved it and mourned its passing. They treat the artifacts, the staff, the place and the character-actors who had a throughline story going for 11 years as if STTE is the sixth series. This didn’t really hit me until the shock and anger at its closing mushroomed…and continues to this day. That $$ amount doesn’t shock me at all. And the signs are in great shape.
I wish whoever bought the Quark’s signs would get it duplicated. Imagine if Roddenberry.com sold copies.