Merchandise

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!