Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 06-24-2018 08:35 AM               

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People sometimes react with surprise at the amount fetched by some of the high-end items in space memorabilia auctions but I have to say that in many ways these prices are remarkably low compared to other memorabilia, e.g. antiquities, art, music memorabilia, and movie memorabilia.

Just as an example, yesterday there was an auction of movie memorabilia which included a prop blaster used by Han Solo in Return of the Jedi (1 of 4 used in the film). This sold with a hammer price of $550,000, or $670,000 with fees.

Even a non-hero prop gun — a resin pistol from one of the Imperial Scout speed bikers in the film — sold for $90,625, or $116,000 with fees.

Maybe the upcoming auction of items direct from Neil Armstrong's estate will push things in the space market higher but for now historic space artifacts have a long way to go before they ever catch up with collectibles from popular culture.

Posts: 617
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Mar 2011

posted 06-24-2018 09:14 AM               

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It's amazing what can happen when you pimp an old Mauser C96 9mm, cover it with "Greasepaint" and sprinkle it with Tinseltown glitter and stardust.

The Force is strong with this one!

Posts: 867
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011

posted 06-24-2018 07:10 PM               

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I'll never forget in 2009 Jim Lovell's Apollo 8 "CMP Checklist" went up for auction. With commission it went for $47,800. During the same year the model for the spaceship Enterprise (from Star Trek: TNG) went, with commission for — $550,000.

It just blew me away, here you could buy an extremely important, heavily marked up, checklist for Apollo 8, the actual first flight to the Moon, for under $50,000, or you could buy a spaceship model used for a TV show for over 11 times that price. It seemed little short of insane to me.

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-24-2018 09:57 PM               

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Is that a fair comparison, though?

One item is a highly visual, some might say iconic piece of art, and the other is a stack of paper that accompanied humans on a fantastic, albeit first-of-its-type voyage. What if instead of a checklist, it had been Jim Lovell's flown Apollo 8 A7L spacesuit? Ignoring the impossibility of that scenario, would the Enterprise model still have sold for more? Maybe, maybe not.

Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003

Posts: 354
From: Lexington, MA, USA
Registered: Dec 2005

Posts: 617
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Mar 2011

posted 06-25-2018 07:11 AM               

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One shouldn't forget that in November 2011 at Heritage Auctions market interest was strong enough to push Jim Lovell's Apollo 13 Flown LM Systems Activation Checklist to a record-setting $388,375.

As collectSPACE reported at the time:

The checklist drew the most ever paid for a mission-used document due in part to it being featured — in prop form — during Ron Howard's 1995 movie "Apollo 13" starring Tom Hanks as Lovell. "If this paperwork isn't right, who knows where we will end up out here," Hanks, as Lovell, says in the film, referring to the checklist.

Heritage previously said that an "East Coast collector" had purchased the artifact, but with its ownership in question, it is now holding onto the checklist.

This is a crossover case of a real space artifact with Hollywood credentials and serious global media exposure first in 1970 with the actual incident, then in 1995 with the film release, and again in 2011 with the space history and memorabilia auction.

One year later in November 2012 at RR Auctions, Dave Scott's Apollo 15 Lunar Surface EVA Cuff Checklist sold for $364,452.

Then in October 2015 at RR Auctions, serious horology collectors pushed Dave Scott's Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Bulova Wrist Chronograph to an astronomical $1,625,000.

Later that year in December 2015 at Christies, a Ron Evans Apollo 17 Flown Omega Speedmaster sold for $245,000.

Crossover space artifacts that generate and attract interest from multiple collector genres will usually command and realize exceptional prices at auction.

Posts: 1642
From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 06-25-2018 08:58 AM               

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You think this went for some bucks, in relation to your perception of value? Look into the auction for all the stuff from the Battlestar Galactica reboot, a few years ago. Single sheets of paper went for hundreds of dollars.

As for the Star Wars blaster, don't forget that George Lucas kept almost all the props and costumes from those movies, so anything screen-used is SO much rarer than anything flown in space. Think flown Apollo space suit in terms of rarity of coming into collector hands.

Posts: 1193
From: Shepperton, United Kingdom
Registered: Mar 2012

Posts: 436
From: Switzerland & France
Registered: Nov 2003

Posts: 617
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Mar 2011

Posts: 1193
From: Shepperton, United Kingdom
Registered: Mar 2012

Posts: 107
From: Norway
Registered: Jan 2014

Posts: 1193
From: Shepperton, United Kingdom
Registered: Mar 2012

Posts: 617
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Mar 2011

posted 06-25-2018 02:32 PM               

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Good grief! Contemporary masterpiece? More like an utter load of garbage and complete waste of $137.5 million.

Georgina Adam's Dark Side of the Boom about the excesses of the art market in the 21st Century and the irrational and exorbitant prices paid by investors lacking in art expertise is worth a read.

Then there are the doubts regarding the provenance and artistic authenticity and integrity of Salvator Mundi - would you drop half a billion dollars on an over-painted over-cleaned something that might have been by the hand of da Vinci?

Posts: 107
From: Norway
Registered: Jan 2014

Posts: 867
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011

posted 06-25-2018 07:28 PM               

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No matter what the type of collectible, markets wax and wane for all types. Right now the art market is very hot for modern (e.g. 20th and 21st century) material. If you have the scratch, you can get some of the great classical artists of western art for relative chump change.

Along those lines, is material from the MGA period just starting to catch fire, or is it at a peak, due to baby boomers, who grew up with the space program, being at the peak of their earnings potential? Obviously we won't know until 50 to 100 years hence.

Posts: 905
From: Perth, Western Australia
Registered: Apr 2015

posted 06-25-2018 11:51 PM               

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What you don't see are fragments of movie collectables, such as cartoon art cells being cut up and set in resin, with a COA stating that is the real thing, so that eventually people end up bidding on a single piece of confetti with no unique identity.

The fan base is also somewhat more extreme, with events like Comic Con demonstrating just how enthusiastic fans can be.

Events such as the 50th anniversary of a mission, or the release of a movie that generates interest bring a new batch of collectors with new found interest to the market, as "The Martian" movie.

It intrigues me why there is not a greater supply of replica space industry items available. Items such as replica Apollo flashlights and flight plans draw a limited amount of interest, and there would be a small market for accurate replica Apollo LEVA or bubble helmets, but these would not gain as much attention as replica Star Wars storm trooper helmets and similar items get world wide.

It would be interesting to know how the numbers compare of sales of NASA Tee shirts versus popular sports team shirts, and how the sales trend during major events.