posted 03-27-2008 08:41 PM               

It's history undoubtedly raises it's value and interest, but viewed as a spacesuit artifact it didn't appear to contain any genuine B.F.Goodrich hardware.

Cheers,
Matt

posted 03-28-2008 05:19 PM               

Regards,

posted 04-04-2008 06:59 PM               

1. Explicitly list the item as something that it isn't, preferably something very valuable.
2. Suggest authenticity by referring to very nebulous associations with people/places in space history.

And that's it. Happy selling!

Cheers,
Matt

posted 04-04-2008 10:53 PM               

My bid was $250 which I thought was generous.

Unbelievable.

posted 04-04-2008 11:31 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Matt T:
It's a masterclass in eBay selling...

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posted 04-05-2008 06:28 AM               

I don't know why I didn't see this sooner. During the 1964-65 N.Y. World's Fair a few Mercury mock-up suits were made( Gemini hadn't flown yet). This is one of those suits. It was part of a display in the "Hall of Science" hanging from the ceiling. I got a chance to look at one up close. The whole thing is a knock-off.

Ray- Your right about the patch, it's the only thing that I see that's real.

posted 04-05-2008 07:53 AM               

He never claims it to be flown or to be an actual suit used in training, at least from what I can tell in reading his listing. If if it was, it would be worth a whole lot more than $6K, which is what the top bid was for.

And if it is a suit that was made for the World's Fair display in the mid-60's, that's pretty cool in itself, isn't it? I mean, it puts it at over 40 years old and I'm sure they weren't many made and thus very few in private hands. It seems that other space items that ar less interesting and rare have been selling lately for more than the top bid for this suit.

Even if it isn't an authentic NASA suit it's a great conversation piece and displays well.

Any anyway, it didn't sell and ultimately the market will set the price, both with the seller's expectations and bidders willingness to pay. And the guy does have some other space items and I tend to believe the story about his dad (maybe I'm naive).

So, if I'm missing sometime please let me know, otherwise I don't see what the bid deal is.

posted 04-05-2008 11:55 AM               

Thanks to Lou Chinal for giving me a direction to research the history of this suit. If anyone can find pictures of the display please post the location.

I'll even thank Matt T for giving me one of many opinions on the suit. I have conversed with people all over the world in the last week and each has had their own opinion of its past and its value.

The truth is I have never known the full history of this suit and have never professed to. I'm excited that I now may be able to research its history. The history as I knew it was not its full history, but was the only part I knew. My father was killed in 1976 in a motorcycle crash. I was 13 yrs old and he had never told me anymore than I related in the auction.

I'm glad that I found this site again and will be posting pics of other items that I have for your opinions. Many have Marshall Space flight center plaques and will hopefully restore some of my credibility.

I do need to sell the suit, but will give full discloser of all that I know to anyone that wants to buy it. I want it to find a good home and I need the money. In the next week I would have to put it in storage.

By the way, the reserve was more than it could have possibly sold for and was intended to generate interest that would gain info such as Lou has imparted in this thread. I'd say it worked...

posted 04-05-2008 03:37 PM               

Here's the deal, during 1964 the N.Y. Worlds Fair opened. One building was the "Hall of Science" (it's still there). One of the displays was a movie about space flight. It showed a small shuttle docking with a space station. The movie ended with the two craft about 50 ft. apart. The curtains then opened and showed two life size models making the final docking (it looked cool to a little kid-me).

I made sure I got there the day Scott Carpenter was there. The real Aurora 7 was on display in the rocket park nearby.

Carpenter even commeneted how real the suits looked (they were hanging about 30 ft. over our heads). It was the first time I got to talk to an astronaut!

Many years later I found out most of the stuff had been given to "The Cradle of Aviation", in Long Island. That's when I saw them up-close.

This may be a long shot but try calling Josh Stoff at the "Cradle of Aviation".

Hey, from 30 feet away in a dark movie house they fooled Carpenter. Unfortunately I know they are not real.

posted 04-06-2008 05:13 AM               

A 'Mercury Spacesuit' (your auction listing heading) is a suit made by B.F. Goodrich for use in the Mercury program. Anything else is NOT a Mercury spacesuit - it's that simple. One could argue that rival pressure suits entered in the Mercury suit competition have some claim to the title, or that later Goodrich 'advanced' suits did before their re-classification as Gemini prototypes, but you don't have any of these things.

Mercury Spacesuit - Carpenter

Mercury Spacesuit - Glenn

Nor do you have the next most desirable item, a B.F. Goodrich display suit made for NASA. There are several of these in the Smithsonian's collection, where they are referred to as 'anthropomorphic suits'. These are cosmetically high fidelity copies of the real suits, and the difference between these items and your suit is instantly apparent.

Anthropomorphic suit - Grissom

Anthropomorphic suit - Schirra

What you have is a copy/replica/mock-up/fancy-dress costume of a Mercury spacesuit. And not a very accurate one. For example the helmet appears to have been taken from a fuel handler's protective suit. Taking your history of the suit and Lou's recollection as correct in pertaining to this item then it's an interesting vintage copy/replica/etc but still nothing more.

Cheers,
Matt

P.S. Mike - The reason for the strong reaction - it's like someone listing an Armstrong autopen as an autograph. Experts may know the difference but others may not. For example the helmet of this copy suit is from a fuel handler's suit and is typically worth no more than a couple of hundred dollars on eBay. The price this suit reached suggests that there were people involved in bidding on this auction who were similarly confused/misled by the auction title and description.

posted 04-06-2008 02:24 PM               

Where are the Schirra and Grissiom suits on display? I know the flown Grissom suit is in the AHOF, Fla.

Just for your info. Amanda Young (from the Air and Space Museum) told me they put the Carpenter suit in storage. This was about three weeks ago.

You are right about this whole thing. For the bid to get up to $6300, two people (at least) had to be bidding against each other.

That means at least two people were misled by this business.