An auction over the weekend from a private collector brought in millions, including over one million just for the Star Trek items, with a phaser rifle only used on one episode coming in at the top of the list.
Original Star Trek items demand top dollar at auction
Over the weekend Heritage Auctions held an auction for private collector John Azarian, with years of his accumulated Hollywood memorabilia. And the item that brought in the most was the Star Trek phaser rile first seen in William Shatner’s debut episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” The rifle sold for $615,000, far outpacing the other top items from the auction including George Reeve’s Superman costume ($350K) and Sylvester Stallone’s leather jacket from Rocky ($325K).
Phaser rifle in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”
This phaser rifle was featured in an excerpt from the recent book Star Trek – A Celebration, telling the story of how it was designed by legendary game designer Reuben Klamer, who kept the rifle until 2013 when he sold it at auction for $231,000. Bidding for the Heritage Auction started at $240,000 and rapidly climbed into a bidding war you can see online. $615,000 is one of the highest prices ever paid for a Star Trek lot at auction, and over twice as much as a TOS phaser pistol sold by Heritage for $250,000 earlier this year, or Picard’s Ressikan flute which was auctioned for $190,000 by Prop Store.
Phaser rifle sold for $615,000
Other Star Trek lots also brought high winning bids during the Azarian Auction, including an original signed TOS Kirk tunic and boots for $50,000 and a Spock tunic worn by Leonard Nimoy for $45,000. The auction included a number of additional original Star Trek costumes including one of DeForest Kelley’s Dr. McCoy costumes which sold for $31,250, and a tunic worn by Walter Koenig as Chekov went for $25,000.
Tunic signed by Shatner brought in $50,000
Spock tunic sold for $45,000
There were some other Star Trek props that brought in top dollar, including a chair from the TOS bridge set for $42,500, and a “walking tribble” for $10,625.
$42,500 for a bridge chair
Would you pay $10,625 for a tribble?
Visit ha.com to see more Star Trek items that brought in big money for the Azarian auction.
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For 615k id expect Bill Shatner to hand deliver it and magically transform back into his ’66 self and act out the finale of WNMHGB with deaged Gary Lockwood
Shatner already had Storyfile Life immortalize himself as an interactive AI, it is probably not as difficult to give you what you want as you might think.
Uhura was only willing to pay a measly 10 credits for her tribble! Does that mean a Star Trek credit is actually worth $1,625?
Taking in to account inflation that is probably about right!
Interestingly, the phaser rifle was featured prominently in Harlan Ellison’s early drafts for “The City on the Edge of Forever,” where Spock had to work to keep it concealed from 1930s’ prying eyes. It was replaced by the pistol later on, before others wrote it out of the script entirely.
BEZOS. ; |
that’s exactly what I thought.
I can’t believe that actually sold for more than the 6 foot Enterprise D filming model, or any other starship studio model for that fact *facepalm. Ahh to have ‘fuck you’ money.
LOL. Indeed!
easier to display than the 6ft model, but…if you’ve got that much money you’ve also got the room(s)
umm YA I’d pay 10k for the walking tribble! I know exactly which one it is from the episode too
I think all the buyers had previously invested in Shiba Inu.
There sure seems to be a lot of disposable income to toss around these days.
The may have invested in Voyager Digital the day before Prodigy came out :-) 100% in a day…
…and it looks great over my fireplace, too. ;)
No, I don’t think I’d pay $10,625 for a walking Tribble.
These prices indicate the franchise is VERY strong on the nostalgia front, even beating Superman! I expect Viacom to finally get that vibe. What I expect will happen in 2022 / 23 is a retur to a far more traditional Star Trek feel.
PIC S2 will reset the timeline in a far more radical manner. We may learn that S1 had already taken place in a significantly altered reality only worsened by what occured prior to S2. S3 will be set in the “real” future of TNG. Picard may get a refit of his old USS Stargazer as a gift from Starfleet for saving history.
DSC S4 will have a strong TMP look and feel, embracing exploration and science far stronger than in its previous seasons. If there is a S5, they may even return to a more episodic format if SNW is a streaming success.
LDS can continue its path, maybe diverting a little bit from its frantic easter egg bombardment in favor of more subtle storytelling.
PRO may eventually transform the young crew into “real” Starfleet officers, getting their own uniforms along the road.
And then there is SNW of course…
Why do I believe PIC will be changed? Well, mainly due to what happened on DSC… The new management seems to care A LOT about fan opinions. Thus we got Pike and Spock in S2, a look at the Enterprise, Klingon hair and ripped out holographic comms. They moved the ship to the future what fans were demanding from day one (of course they wanted the show to be set in the future from the start). We got new Trek-heavy uniforms for S4. And of course SNW was green-lit as a direct answer to fan demand.
I don’t see any reason they wouldn’t take our complaints about PIC S1 equally serious.
And that way, we can beat Superman :-)
The blue shirt supposedly worn by Leonard Nimoy does not have any braids on the sleeves. Leonard Nimoy never wore a shirt like that on the show. Somebody got ripped off big time for 45K!
That ain’t necessarily so. Costumes are like any other prop – they don’t build it once and let it collect dust never to be used for any other purpose again. If the production needs a shirt without braids and all that’s on the rack is one with braids, the costumer wouldn’t hesitate to remove them.