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Author
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Topic: Maximizing sales for Apollo 8 artifacts?
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JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-19-2011 11:58 AM
   
I received the unsold lots back from the November Heritage auction of the Jerald B. Wilken Space Collection. I would appreciate some opinions on how and where I should list these items and how to price them so I can raise money to buy needed test equipment for my energy efficiencies business. Pieces of spacecraft are: Ablator plug, ablated heat shield fragment, thermal foil with RTV 560 silicone, thermal foil shielding tape, Kapton foil, conduit tubing with RTV silicone, and expansion joint material. I plan to place the foils in acrylic post screw frames with simple descriptions but am not sure if placing pieces such as the heatshield fragments in some sort of display will matter. Also please give me an opinion on artifacts with graphic display for what is more appealing to a collector; A Lucite encapsulating display or an acrylic post screwed frame that can be taken apart. |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 01-19-2011 12:37 PM
The screwed-together displays look cheap to me. I like the encapsulated displays. |
JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-19-2011 12:55 PM
My thought was that a collector had the chance to physicaly examine the artifact. |
MrSpace86
Member Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 01-19-2011 02:46 PM
I agree with Gary. The screwed on acrylics look cheap and unoriginal. Handling items personally by collectors only shortens the life of the item; encapsulating it in a acrylic is the best but good luck finding someone willing to do that. |
JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-19-2011 06:02 PM
It takes me a lot of work to make the displays by hand from a sheet of acrylic, I have to cut, drill holes, sand then polish the edges, and then place the display picture between the two pieces cut out the holes then screw it together. I then photograph the finished pieces and save it digitally and catalog them. This process takes more than twp hours, and my displays sell for about the value of the foil or less. Another thing that worries me about the post screw displays is that they can be taken apart and the foil cut up for micro-sized foil displays, the only advantage that remain limited displays should be worth more. I love designing the displays but plan on letting a company do the other work and possibly have a more professional display series. I thank all my buyers around the world that supported me this last year! Robert Wilken |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 01-19-2011 06:53 PM
Most collectors who are into acrylics prefer the types of acrylics that are "poured" around the artifact, creating the effect of the artifact floating within a solid piece of acrylic.However, there are also many collectors who would prefer to purchase artifacts that are not permanently sealed inside a block of acrylic...because it gives them the choice between being able to handle the artifact (giving a tactile connection to the piece) or the choice to encapsulate the item in acrylic to their own specifications. There are advantages and disadvantages of either option. Nicely-done acrylics can be attractive and are display-ready. But they also take time and money to prepare correctly...and their style will not appeal to every type of collector. |
capoetc
Member Posts: 2169
From: McKinney TX (USA)
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted 01-19-2011 09:16 PM
Out of curiosity, what is the long term prospect for all of these acrylics lasting long term? I have seen some pretty ugly looking ones from Skylab, and they are not all that old. Are the acrylics of today going to be the "oops-guess- I shouldn't-have-encapsulated-that" of tomorrow? Just asking ... not really an acrylics collector, although I hve one of the Liberty Bell 7 acrylics I bought from the KS Cosmosphere when they were first offered. |
MrSpace86
Member Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 01-19-2011 10:04 PM
Robert W, I wasn't referring to your acrylics directly. It was a general statement to some screw down acrylics I have seen in the past from other people that I believe are not members of collectSPACE. I apologize if I came off as rude though.  |
JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-19-2011 10:07 PM
Thanks for the feedback. I am talking with two companies, one uses Lucite and the other Acrylic. The old acrylics do yellow over time and believe the Lucite will not yellow. I have some large 3-5" pieces of spacecraft foils, tapes and am not sure how to offer them. The choices are, in a bag, a post screwed acrylic frame, or encapsulated Lucite. All will come with a letter of authenticity and wonder if I should use a large graphic and description or a simple graphic and description? |
JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-19-2011 10:22 PM
I did not take offense and it did not come across rude. Everybody has a preference and I have a lot of fans of my post screw displays, but am excited to do some Lucites. |
MrSpace86
Member Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 01-20-2011 11:52 AM
Alright.  And to answer your most recent question, I find the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation's Artifact Series acrylics very attractive. The Cernan Corp. Apollo 17 kapton display and the Cosmosphere's Apollo 13 couch acrylic are the same way. If you were to do an encapsulated lucite, I would go for those. I think a lot of the members here would agree that those are the most attractive. |
Joel Katzowitz
Member Posts: 808
From: Marietta GA USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-20-2011 08:11 PM
Just to toss out another thought, you could conceivably get the best of both worlds by having some of the encapsulated specimen exposed for "touching". For instance, you could pour a lucite around a heat shield plug and leave the burned end outside the pour. |
JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-20-2011 11:22 PM
I only have one heatshield plug and it is from Apollo 6, most all of the collection's heatshield material is ablated and rubbing the charred material would wear it down every time it was touched. Custom designs can be created by request. |
JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-26-2011 04:43 AM
I would like to get some opinions on pieces of the Jerald B. Wilken Space Collection's Flown Artifact we plan to sell. This piece of Kapton Foil has it all: Char, heat stress, double layer, seam sealent. This will be the best piece of CM/103 put up for sale. Dimensions are 1 1/4" X 1 1/4" x 1 7/8" measured as triangle.  
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garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 01-26-2011 07:49 AM
That looks like a nice artifact. I think you may enhance the value by having it framed in a way that "tells the story" of the artifact. One possibility is below. |
Rocket Chris
Member Posts: 342
From:
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 01-26-2011 09:10 AM
...just check this thread. I could also make a custom design for that piece. Just drop an offline mail. |
JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-26-2011 12:36 PM
It is my intension to mount the piece in a display with graphics that resemble your design, and Chris your displays are amazing you should realy offer limited displays for sale and would like to partner up with you to ad some flown artifacts from my fathers collection, I have been buying some coins to ad to future displays but yours are the bomb! |
JBWSpace
Member Posts: 60
From: San Diego, Ca, USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 01-27-2011 06:03 PM
How about a ballpark figure of value. Can anyone help? |
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