Memorabilia

Last year Christie’s auction house helped CBS Paramount unload 1000 lots of memorabilia from the Star Trek vault in a highly publicized auction that brought in over $7 million. However, it appears one collector is not so happy and believes he has been duped. Ted Moustakis of New Jersey spent a total of over $12,000 for a uniform and a poker visor worn by Brent Spiner (TNG: Data) as well as a poker table used on TNG. Moustakis now claims that the items are not genuine and says that Spiner is backing him up.

Profiles in History, long known for their Hollywood memorabilia auctions, will be featuring 31 Star Trek lots in an Ebay Live auction on Thursday and Friday (the Trek lots go up on Friday). Included will be Picard’s Captain’s chair from the Enterprise “E”, which previously sold at Christie’s last year for $62,400 and an original Uhura costume from TOS. The auction also features a stunt Geordi LaForge VISOR, a nice Angosian ship model from TNG, a rare DS9 Klingon Tricorder, a mobile emitter for Voyager’s Doctor and a whole host of weapons. A list of lots available at Ebay Live Auctions. For a detailed analysis check out the Star Trek Auction Blog.

Week 15 of the Star Trek auction was not a particularly strong with a total of just $52,898. There were a couple of strong costumes, but otherwise there was a poor selection (especially with props). However, there were some great bargains on costumes in the $1,000 range. The two big costumes were a Klingon outfit worn by Neelix and Crusher’s old style navy uniform from Star Trek: Generations.The Neelix Klingon costume went for  $4,127.25, which is almost twice what the previous high for a Klingon uniform. This is certainly way overpriced considering what the previous ones have sold for. The Star Trek:Generations Crusher stunt costume went for $1,825 which was probably about right considering it is a stunt costume. It is a beautiful costume none the less and will look great in someone’s display. Too bad there was no hat with it.

Week13 of the It’s A Wrap Star Trek auction on EBay  was one of the biggest yet, bringing in $73,689. Much of this can be attributed to new bidders who drove Enterprise hero costumes up to ridiculous levels. All 5 Enterprise hero costumes went for over $3,600! The same Ensign Mayweather costume, which went for $1,500 at Christie’s sold for $4,606 on Ebay. That is more than even an Archer stunt uniform that went for $4050. The buyer had to be new and not familiar with what these costumes have been going for in the past.

This past week of the Its a Wrap Auctions on EBay was one 3rd lowest week for total sales with a total of only $37,688. On the upside it seems that reserves are a thing of the past (we hope). While week 12 was not spectacular, it had some interesting costumes, and a few nice props. It had a lot of inexpensive costumes and there were some real bargains in the $500-$800 range. There were a lot of Voyager items this week including Marquis rank pins selling very well. And again, we are seeing new bidders driving up prices. The big seller was a rare two piece B’Elanna Torres Voyager uniform complete with Maquis rank pin (rare as few of these costumes have rank pins). The costume, even though distressed, went for $2,300.

As expected the poor selection during week 11 resulted in a record low of $35,718.While the lack of reserves meant that every item sold, there were only 5 items that sold for more than $ 1,000. A Vulcan Musician’s costume was the highest selling item and a  Klingon costume from Star Trek: Enterprise was a good buy at $1,125. Although not as Iconic as a TNG uniform, it was a nice piece. The Admiral Jameson top went over $1,000, which was higher than when it failed to hit reserve a few weeks ago.

A new record for an item on the It’s a Wrap auctions was set when the Spock Space Suit from Star Trek: TMP sold for $ 10,100, almost $ 4,000 more than the Captain Kirk Commando uniform from Star Trek V sold for two weeks ago. Apparently the buyer wasn’t worried about the fact that there was a hole cut in the helmet and had no boots.This week’s total was $67,605, up from the dismal previous week total of $ 45,155. I am sure It’s a Wrap was hoping for some plug during the Star Trek special on the History Channel, but unfortunately (or fortunately for us bidders) it didn’t get mentioned. 17 items sold for over $ 1,000, but 64 items went for under $ 500. That is a big disparity and reflects an overall poor product mix. Last week was a poor week as well, and next week the auctions look down right awful.

Week 8 of the Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywood was the first week where every item sold. It is possible there were no reserves, or if there were they were easily surpassed. Hopefully this means It’s a Wrap has learned that reserves don’t help its sales, but in fact hurt them. The total for the week was $70,503, which is the second best week so far. Week 8 saw some big sales, much of which were from Star Trek V. The biggest item of the week was Captain Kirk’s Commando costume which sold for $6,253 even though it had the wrong undershirt, no belt and no boots. Another incomplete Kirk item (climbing costume from STV) went for $3,366, These were the first Kirk items to come up on the IAW auction and both went for more than similar and more complete versions sold for at Christies. The Spock Camping costume was very nice (sans rocket boots!) and went for $3,405. The same bidder won the McCoy Commando costume at$3,363 (and the Sybok robes!). The bidder is clearly a ST V geek (there had to be one) as he also owns the Kirk and Spock Commando

Week7 of the Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywood ended with arecord 96 of the 99 lots selling for a total of $61,374. The record low numberof items that did not hit reserve was due largely to It’s a Wrap’s judicious useof reserves this time. It seems that IAW is finally getting the message andreserves are becoming rarer each week. Some sources tell me there are only twooverworked (and presumably underpaid!) workers in the warehouse who are doingALL the work for these auctions. Not sure if that is true, but it would explainthe delay many buyers seem to have to endure in getting their items, as well asthe lack of a cohesive strategy and inefficient technology IAW is using.

The sixth week of the Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywoodended with 92 of the 99 lots selling for a total of $68,883.85, the secondhighest total for these auctions since they began and the the highest sellthrough Better selection, fewer unreasonable reserves. The top item of the week was the Admiral Janeway costume seen being worn by the former Voyager Captain in both Star Trek: Nemesis and the Star Trek Experience Borg Invasion show. A beautiful piece, it sold for $5,100, the most yet for a Star trek item in these auctions.[Editor’s Note: congratulations on winning this item Alec] The  Satan’s Robot costume sold for $4,628, which was the second highest price paid for an item so far. The robot featured in the Captain Proton holodeck scenes, this was also a rare and dynamite piece.23 items sold for over $1,000, which is second only behind the first week. If you ignore the first week as an aberration, because everyone was feeling out the auctions, then this past week was significant.

Week Five of the Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywood ended today with 82 of the 100 lots selling for a total of $45,918. It was a good week as there were many interesting items up this week, including costumes from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and a slew of cadet uniforms from the movies, Next Generation and Voyager. The top item of the week was the Seven of Nine Jumpsuit which was bid up to $5,032.99, but still didn’t hit reserve! This was just another example of over-estimation of the potential price by It’s a Wrap.Plus the costume was imcomplete (didn’t include the inner corset or the shoes).This is the second week in a row where a costume was bid up to over $5,000 without being sold, perhaps It’s a Warp will realize the rich people who were bidding at Christie’s are not bidding on eBay.

Due to technical difficulties with the site, we weren’t able to post the Week 3 results from the eBay It’s a Wrap Star Trek auctions, so this will cover the last two weeks Week 3 of Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywood ended with 84 of the 99 lots selling for a total of $45,921. This included several items from the first week that did not sell because they did not hit reserve were re-listed without a reserve this time. Unfortunately Its A Wrap have not learned their lesson as the listing for week 4 listings came out with more reserves than ever. This issue of high reserve prices is a real source of discontent with the collector community. The fact that two Klingon masks, one of which was listed week one with a starting price of $2,000, sold for just under $600 each, shows that It’s a Wrap greatly over-estimate’s the value of some of the items it puts reserves and high starting bids on.

The second week of Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywood ended like the first, with only 69 of the 100 lots selling.  There is a growing grumbling amongst Trek collectors over the minimum prices, with many feeling that It’s A Wrap lack understanding of the Trek collector market. The fact that 1/3 of the items are not selling due to overly high minimum prices seems to bear this out. However It’s A Wrap may be getting the message, many of the items that failed to sell due in week 1 have now appeared for week 3, but now without any reserve prices. The week of Christmas is always the worst sales week of the year on eBay, none the less, It’s a Wrap Hollywood used the week to put a lot of small, less desirable background props on this week’s auctions. 22 items, mostly bags and fabric went for under $100.

The first week of new Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywood ended yesterday, bringing in about $72,000. Surprisingly only 67 of the 100 lots sold, the others not hitting their reserve (or minimum) prices. These unsold items had received bids totalling over $24,000, but apparently CBS Paramount and It’s A Wrap wanted more. The item topping the sold list was a Captain Janeway Command Uniform which went for $4,150. However, this is less than half of what the same type of costume went for in the Christie’s auction. Other Voyager uniforms sold well, averaging $960 apiece. The big surprise was the price people were willing to pay for dress uniforms from Star Trek Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis; two of which went for $3,505 each (three times what would be expected for items worn by background players). Other First Contact uniforms also went for more than expected indicating that movie costumes were suddenly more in demand. Oh and remember those skants? Well a gold one sold for $739 and the red sold for a whopping $993!