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  Crazy high prices for original NASA photos

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Author Topic:   Crazy high prices for original NASA photos
Blackarrow
Member

Posts: 3562
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 02-23-2023 09:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Every once in a while I check what's available on eBay under various Apollo missions. I am always astounded by the huge number of (I assume) genuine original NASA photos priced at totally ridiculous prices.

Would anyone, I mean anyone who isn't very drunk on a Friday night, actually pay (for example) $2,500 for a "red number" colour print of Jim Irwin, the LRV and Mount Hadley? It's a great photo (and I have one of them!) but common sense alone tells me that the seller is either deluded, naive, or cynically hoping that a Friday night drunk will trap himself by clicking "buy it now."

If anyone is interested, I could let my Apollo 15 "red number" go for a mere $1,000 + P&P. But maybe I should have waited to post this tomorrow night.

MartinAir
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Posts: 276
From:
Registered: Oct 2020

posted 02-23-2023 10:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for MartinAir   Click Here to Email MartinAir     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"Peanuts", we should have collected Pokemon cards/toys...

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 49999
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 02-23-2023 12:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Blackarrow:
...actually pay (for example) $2,500 for a "red number" colour print of Jim Irwin, the LRV and Mount Hadley?
Well, someone paid $956.25 for another print of the same photo at Bonhams in July 2021, and more has been paid for other "red number" prints (e.g. $2,550 for a photo of the Apollo 11 lunar module and Earth in Nov. 2021, also at Bonhams).

And then there is Buzz Aldrin's Gemini 12 "selfie," a "red number" print of which sold for $19,125 in December 2022.

Artificially created and inflated or not, the market for vintage NASA glossy photo prints has proven again and again to break what used to be the norm.

mode1charlie
Member

Posts: 1400
From: Honolulu, HI
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 02-23-2023 02:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mode1charlie   Click Here to Email mode1charlie     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I don't get it either.

rgarner
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Posts: 1402
From: London, United Kingdom
Registered: Mar 2012

posted 02-23-2023 03:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rgarner   Click Here to Email rgarner     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Photography has a huge collecting base, and the red numbers directly cross over from space collecting into their demographic. When you increase the demographic, prices rise, regardless of their value beforehand.

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