Memorabilia

Star Trek Auction Update: Weeks 3 & 4

By Alec Peters ⋅ January 17, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

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 top selling item of the week was a MACO Assault Kit for $2,425. Another kit went for $3,800 at the Christie’s auction showing how unrealistic for It’s a Wrap to expect to always get Christie’s prices for expensive items . Most items are selling at well below Christies auction levels, however some items, notably the background player costumes that are from TNG, are going at crazy prices.  The disparity between Christies and Its A Wrap/Ebay auctions is probably due to how the Ebay auction is mostly attracting just the hardcore collectors, whereas the Christies event was much larger and included many fans who were more casual collectors. But there are exceptions at this new auction, such as someone who paid $2,031 for an Engineering PADD, which is twice what it should go for (twice what a seasoned collector would pay).

Uniforms continue to do well
The 4th highest priced item of the week was a TNG yellow command uniform, which went for $1,921.89 also shows that some people are willing to pay way too much for some items. The Dax DS9 black and grey costume was a steal at $2,030.25 . Some collectors have been paying high prices for the very desirable black and grey uniforms which have been selling at about $2,000 in the eBay auctions from It’s a Wrap, easily twice the price a background costume of this type should normally go for.  Dana Hammontree, the winner of the Dax uniform said "That is a good price for that uniform.  It is about what it should go for now that there are so many available."  Hammontree, an experienced prop and costume collector feels that the prices have been too high for props, as in the Christie’s auction.  "The costumes are pretty much going where they should, with the exception of the background player costumes, which are really insane".

Scotty shirt controversy
The highest priced item not to reach reserve was a Star Trek: The Motion Picture "Scotty" shirt that was the subject of much discussion.  This shirt was never worn by James Doohan in TMP.  And the fact that it has the wrong rank insignia is suspect. Yet it has Western Costume tags that have Doohan’s name.  Speculation is that this might have been made for "Star Trek: Phase II", the aborted second TV show that became the Motion Picture.  This seems to be the most reasonable explanation.  Whatever the case, the reserve not being met at over $1600 is ridiculous.  The item is simply not worth that price considering its dubious provenance. 

Week 4…Almost all Enterprise and more reserve issues
The fourth week of the auction featured almost all items from Star Trek Enterprise and ended with 75 of the 100 lots selling and a total of $39,861. It also was a week when It’s a Wrap decided to put reserves on more auctions than ever, obviously not learning the lessons of the past weeks. No item better exemplified this than the "Phlox" space suit from "Enterprise", which failed to hit reserve and went unsold at $5,600 . Four of these sold in the Christie’s auction (Archer and T’Pol for $8,000 and Reed and trip for $8,500), and It’s a Wrap thought they would get the same for this one.  However collectors don’t consider Phlox as important a character as any of the ones that sold at Christie’s, and there is simple not as big an audience now bidding on these items.

Prices dropping on some items
Now what was really interesting, is that a Terran Empire costume that went for $2,225 the second week, only fetched $1,000 two weeks later!  And the Enterprise jumpsuits that were selling for $1,625 and $1,575 in Week 1, sold for $1,099, $910, $831 and $810.  The trend is obvious and not good for It’s a Wrap, which surely has many more of these. A Hoshi Sato costume at $1,800 was reasonably priced as was the Enterprise Phase Pistol and holster at $1,526.  At Christie’s these Phase Pistols went for $3,600 before the buyer’s premium. One of the highlights of this past week, which many collector’s missed, was the T’Pau costume from "Enterprise".  T’ Pau was an important character from the Original Series episode "Amok Time".  And her costume from that episode went for $45,000 at Christie’s.  Here the one from Enterprise (granted about 40 years younger than its predecessor’s) sold for only $1,225.  It is a significant costume from an important character in Star Trek lore. 

Top sellers: week 3

Top sellers: week 4

Many rare costumes up this week
This week (week 5) may be the most interesting week yet. Already a Seven of Nine costume is up to $5000.  And there are many costumes from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. A Guard costume from Star Trek III is a really nice and rare costume (only scene in that movie). It is missing the belt and has the wrong insignia, but none the less, very nice. There are many great costumes, but not a lot of great props this week. Probably the only one of note isWorf’s ‘Ninth Place’ trophy from "Parallels".

  
some of the more interesting items up this week

 Click here to see the full list of week 5 items on Auction 

Alec Peters has joined TrekMovie.com as our Auctions and Collectables Editor. Alec has been a Trek fan since the 60s and collector of memorabilia since the 70s (counting 3 Star Trek Captain’s costumes in his collection). As Founder and former CEO of f Auctionworks, he is also an expert in auctions and eBay. For more check out Alec’s Trek Auctions Blog