Over the weekend Julien’s Auction held their “Bid Long And Prosper” Star Trek auction which we previewed last month. The final hammer prices for many of the items were well beyond original estimates, including record-breaking numbers. In total, the auction of over 200 lots of Star Trek memorabilia brought in $3.6 million.
Star Trek memorabilia brings in $Millions
On Saturday, Julien’s Auctions concluded their Star Trek memorabilia event with a live and online auction, held at the Infinity Festival in Hollywood, California. The event set new world records for highest selling Star Trek props sold at auction.
The most eye-catching prices came in for props and costumes from Star Trek: The Original Series, especially those used by William Shatner’s Captain Kirk. His “long-lost” hero phaser sold for $910,000, over nine times the estimated price, and setting a new record for a Star Trek prop sold at auction. Coming in at a close second was a Captain James T. Kirk communicator which sold for a record $780,000, nearly eight times its original estimate. For comparison, three years ago at two separate auctions, a different TOS phaser prop sold for $250,00, and TOS rifle sold for $615,000.
TOS costumes were also big items at the auction. William Shatner “Captain James T. Kirk” iconic burnt yellow velour tunic and Starfleet Command Bridge trousers worn in the first season of TOS sold for an outstanding $455,000, seven times its original estimate. A red velour female engineering duty uniform as worn by a member of Starfleet (and may have been intended for Nichelle Nichols as “Nyota Uhura”) from the TOS sold for $114,300, thirty-eight times its estimate.
Also from TOS, a USS Enterprise Helm and Navigation Console sold for $260,000, over five times estimate.
But it wasn’t just TOS memorabilia getting attention from collectors. An original Deep Space Nine space station miniature from the television series production fetched $254,000, five times estimated price. Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Kathryn Janeway Star Trek: Voyager Bridge Command Chair sold for $41,275, almost seven times estimate.
“The immense popularity and fandom of Star Trek that continues to grow and capture the imagination and wonder of the franchise’s millions of fans and collectors fueled the highly successful results of Julien’s record breaking ‘Bid Long & Prosper’ auction,” said Martin Nolan, Executive Director/Co-Founder of Julien’s Auctions in a statement. “It was an outstanding auction and we want to thank our fantastic partner Infinity Festival and the legendary William Shatner for making Star Trek history once again.”
Other highlights from the auction included:
- Original USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A model from Star Trek: First Contact ($44,450 nearly fifteen times its estimate of $3,000)
- Original bridge chair used on the set of the USS Enterprise during the production of the original television series ($44,450)
- Leonard Nimoy “Spock” robe and headband from film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ($45,500 four and a half times its estimate of $10,000)
- An original two-piece ensemble of white uniform-style jacket and trousers worn by Jonathan Frakes as “Commander William T. Riker” in Star Trek: Insurrection and during the wedding scene of Star Trek: Nemesis ($22,225 seven times its estimate of $3,000)
- An original harem outfit and costume illustration for France Nuyen as “Elaan of Troyius” in the episode by the same name in the original television series ($19,500 well over its estimate of $6,000
- Jolene Blalock “T’Pol” gray and brown Vulcan uniform worn in the television series Star Trek: Enterprise ($19,050 over six times its estimate of $3,000) and her orange-colored velvet “T’Pol” jumpsuit version ($19,050 nine and a half times its estimate of $2,000)
- An original tribble prop as used in the production of the episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ($1,300).
You can see a full list of everything from the “Bid Long And Prosper” auction at juliensauctions.com.
And in case you missed it, here is William Shatner before the event talking about some of the props up for auction.
Find more news and reviews of Star Trek merchandise.
Lots of wealthy trekkies about..
Notice how much more TOS stuff goes for than the spin offs, TOS is THE Star Trek , and the one ppl still want the most..
The majority of TOS trekkies are seniors who would rather waste money than let their family get any of it.
Mind blowing prices! Original USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A model from Star Trek: First Contact – is this one of the gold models that Picard’s trashes in anger?
It appeared to be.
Ok…the thing that shocked me the most, was $1,300 for a Trials and Tribbleations Tribble. I happen to have one of those. I was on the set when they were filming that episode and one just wanted to go home with me. :)
Don’t feed it!
He absolutely should, if they go by those prices :D
Were any of the estimates legit or just meant to drive up bids?
The estimates were commensurate with what items have gone for before, but the realized prices are (to me) wild. 450K for Kirk — half a dozen of those (in better shape) have been sold in the past year for less than a third of that. But, if you have the dough, who’s anyone to say what you buy.
I don’t think any of the estimates at Julien’s are legit. If they have a reserve price on them, the low estimate is the reserve. But most of the lots didn’t have a reserve, and even then the estimates were way too low to be plausible. Some of the no reserve items sold for the most money, but had tiny estimates. The reality is the fans will always know better about what something is worth, but even Julien’s must know that they lowball their estimates, and probably have a good reason why. Whatever that reason is, it certainly seems to be working for them!
I really feel like this emphasis on estimated price is kinda misleading. Estimates don’t mean anything – they’re just decided on by these auction houses as a way of selling their products. Julien’s in particular will consistently underestimate things, more so than any other auction house. Why they do it, I’m not sure, but maybe to give people a sense that they actually have a chance at winning.
I know that Julien’s is almost custom designed to get record prices for big ticket items. Unlike others like Heritage and Prop Store, the increments at Julien’s are off the charts – after it crosses six figures, it starts going up by 50k per bid, ridiculous. After 500k, it starts going up by 100k. That’s how DS9 and the phaser and communicator went so high – because each bid was enormous. It would’ve taken twice as many bids or more at Heritage to reach similar prices.
I was super lucky to get two of my must-win lots from this auction. Of course it never feels good to know that I found out later it was some of my prop collecting internet friends who I was bidding against – it would’ve been nice to coordinate and keep the price down. But hey, I’m walking home with what I wanted, and to me it was still worth it.
I agree with the other commenters that TOS stuff commands the highest prices because it is still the most legit and most historic of the series. But I think the prices we’re seeing now has mostly to do with two factors: that TOS geeks are the millionaires and billionaires of the world (looking at you Peter Jackson and Jeff Bezos) and that after the pandemic, everyone seems to have gotten into the prop collecting game, leading to a lot of disposable latinum driving up these prices. I know that’s where my interest came from, having saved money and wanting to get the things I’ve always wanted from my favorite show. If it wasn’t for me bidding, a lot of these lower ticket items would be selling for a lot less! And if it wasn’t for the boomers being so rich, we wouldn’t be seeing a phaser go for nearly a million dollars either. But today’s ceiling is tomorrow’s floor, so I guess time will tell if the inflated prices continue trending up, or if the TOS generation is reaching its spending limit/age limit and there will be less interest as time goes on. After all, every collecting hobby has its cycle of growth and contraction, and it’ll just be a matter of time before there is no one left alive who watched TOS in its original run.
Must be nice to have more cash to spend on a prop than the equity in my house, still by far my biggest asset.
I’m thinking I might take a deep financial dive (for me) and drop ten bucks for a used TOS communicator xmas ornament. It could sit atop the three old TOS DVD clamshells that I fit my TOS blurays into, next to the TAS dvd clamshell. That would be my ‘trek tos art installation.’ Alternate would be to find somebody capable of reproducing the wide view from planetside of the refit burning up over Genesis, I’d like that hanging above my desktop setup. But again, dollarz.
Just saw that a special colored vinyl double album of TMP is coming anytime now Enjoy The Ride records, for something under 40 bucks, which in this day and age seems like a bargain (assuming you can afford a record player and have space for it and some good speakers.)