Memorabilia

Trek Auction - Week 7

By Alec Peters ⋅ February 4, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

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.

This past week saw a wonderful variety of uniforms, costumes and props from DeepSpace Nine. I must congratulate It’s a Wrap on these "themed" weeks as theyoffer the fan of a particular series a great variety of items. It is fun to seeso many items of one show. As far as what sold, this was a VERY strange week.The Sisko Commando style uniform should have been the top item in the sale. Itwas a uniform that could have gone over $4,000 with no problem, but it onlyfetched $ 3,100 to regular buyer filmwelt_Berlin. What is crazy is that thiswasn’t the highest selling item in the auction! That honor was reserved forMajor Kira’s Bajoran uniform, which went for an insane $ 3,601, which was 50%higher than the price these costumes realized at Christie’s last October! Thatis the first time this has happened in the 7 weeks of these auctions. It shouldbe noted that the buyer had zero feedback.

Garak’scostume went for $3,250, which was well over where it should have sold. This wasthe final costume Andrew Robinson wore in "In the Pale Moonlight" one of thevery best DS9 episodes, where Garak helps Sisko bring the Romulans into theDominion War. The scene where Sisko knocks Garak across the table and then Garaktells Sisko how saving the Alpha Quadrant was worth his self respect, is one ofthe very best scenes in the entire run, and shows why Andrew Robinson did such amasterful job portraying the Cardassian spy. Still $ 3,250? That is WAYoverpriced. This eBay member, has only won two other items in a year and a halfand one was an autographed photo of Andrew Robinson as Garak, so a true fan!

There were good buys out there as well. I really think this was the week whenpeople looked for the second tier gems. I got the Nog Cadet uniform, which isone of my Star Trek holy grails. I was totally fired up about that one. At$1,075 it was a good deal. A friend of mine won the "Ishka" (Quark and Rom’sMom) and he was excited to have won at under $ 800 (with a Versace bag that wasworth that by itself!). The Romulan Disruptor at $1,237 is a stunning prop. Madeof resin, the detail photo in the ad showed how sharp this weapon is. The lot oftwo Quark green costumes was a good deal also at $1,348, coming out to $ 675 percostume.

Only three items didn’t hit reserve this week. It was interesting that the firstJem H’dar costume went for $1,561, but the second didn’t hit reserve at $566.Limited audience there I would guess. The Romulan Phaser didn’t hit reserve at$400.25. Not surprising as it is a foam rubber one, and those are notorious forcracking and looking poor after a few years. The Jadzia Dax costume didn’t havethe grey undershirt, making this costume incomplete.

I think there are a lot of great alien costumes that are going in the $1-2,000range that will look awesome on display. This week there was a nice Cardassianthat sold just over $ 1235 and a female Klingon that went for $1,805. The Remanlast week was another, as was the earlier Xindi. All went for less than $2,000.All will make someone very happy as they are quite striking.

Alec’s Auction Awards of the Week:
Best Item of the Week: Captain Sisko "Commando" style uniform

Best Buy of the week: DS9/Voyager blue Sciences jumpsuit. Under $ 500? Asteal!

Worst Buy of the week: Garak Costume $3,250. An INSANE price for a goodcostume.

Sleeper of the Week: Quark costume $1,035 A truly beautiful costume.Amazing details and fabrics.

For more check out Alec’s Trek Auctions Blog