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Author
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Topic: What drives prices for shuttle crew autographs?
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schnappsicle
Member Posts: 396
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted 07-10-2015 02:45 PM
   
After collecting all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronaut photos I can find, I've begun my quest to purchase autographed shuttle crew photos. I probably have about 20 in my collection so far (STS-1 through 8 and scattered others). I notice while searching several sites that there are some shuttle crews that are considerably higher (in price) than others. I know why the crew photos from the two failed (Challenger and Columbia) missions cost so much. My question is what about the others? Since I know very little about the shuttle missions, or the people who flew on them, I would like to ask the cS community, which crew photos are selling at a premium price and why? STS-135 is obviously higher because it's the last one, but what about some of the others? |
MrSpace86
Member Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 07-10-2015 04:21 PM
A common price driver would be an astronaut who rarely signed to begin with.Other would be if the crew contained a Columbia or Challenger astronaut. Space shuttle crew signed items are really volatile in pricing. You can see an 8x10 signed by seven astronauts go for $25 and that same crew on a slightly different item go for $150. |
Mike Dixon
Member Posts: 1397
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003
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posted 07-10-2015 07:46 PM
The last 15 - 20 missions are much higher in price. Don't ask me why but supply / demand is a factor. They simply don't come up all that often. |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2031
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 07-10-2015 11:53 PM
Mike, I think the most telling factor in obtaining crew-signed lithos for the last few missions and their high price in the market was the annoying fact that by this time a whole bunch of serving astronauts had decided against doing any CB signings, unlike almost all of the earlier crew members. As well, while there had been autopenned lithos sent out beforehand these now flourished, and this was also combined with many mailed requests being ignored. |
Mike Dixon
Member Posts: 1397
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003
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posted 07-11-2015 07:44 AM
Colin, I concur completely. Yep, there are some earlier missions in the program that are hard to get (STS 71 for example) and you'll pay a premium to obtain them, but the $200 / $300 you'll often see for the later flights are a little steep. Now that the mail office has closed, I expect a few collectors will be scrambling to complete a series. |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 07-11-2015 02:50 PM
The later missions had a higher percentage of difficult signers, including astronauts who rarely, if ever, responded to mail requests. It's worth remembering that the shuttle astronauts in the early part of the program were encouraged to sign autographs for the public, as part of an effort to promote the program. The later astronaut classes were not given the same directive, therefore there is less obligation to sign... indeed, the awareness of the marketplace (including eBay) has led several astronauts to avoid signing. While some would still sign in person, they would ignore all mailed-in requests.Crew-signed lithos exist for all of the missions, but the later ones are in fewer numbers. So the collectors who need those lithos to fill in their collection are paying a lot more to own them. The time and expense required to complete a shuttle crew-signed litho collection should not be underestimated. Most of the collectors who have successfully done it have been collecting for a long time, often since the early 80s. |
Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 07-13-2015 07:29 AM
While the 135 crew appeared en masse at one event or another, outside of JSC in my experience only 5 of the 134 crew were together (at Johns Hopkins, less Chamitoff and Feustel, the latter of which was out of the country.) I was fortunate to get Chamitoff in-person at an event within a month of that, and Feustel last year (although he did make an appearance and signed at this year's Family Day at Udvar-Hazy.)Of the remainder of the last five missions, Poindexter of 131 is deceased, and contains two difficult signers - Wilson, who does make in-person appearances, and Yamazaki, who is now in Japan. 132 has Good (who one might have been able to catch at Family Day, although he wasn't part of a formal signing) and Antonelli, who did sign at an event earlier this year or last year and 133 has Barratt. Lindsey, when approached at the Discovery transfer event, said he would sign only one item. Boe has not responded to me via JSC. So out of the last five missions, I have only crew-signed photos of 134 and 135. And with many of the others leaving NASA, I haven't even tried to start crew-signed photos of 132 or 133, opting instead for individual pictures. |
Bob M
Member Posts: 1745
From: Atlanta-area, GA USA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 07-13-2015 01:43 PM
quote:
Originally posted by mjanovec:
The time and expense required to complete a shuttle crew-signed litho collection should not be underestimated. Most of the collectors who have successfully done it have been collecting for a long time, often since the early 80s.
I was one of those who pursued shuttle crew signed lithos, along with shuttle crew signed covers, from the early '80s.The standard way for most of us was to mail a request to each crew sometime before each flight. But those who lived in the Houston-area could attend two post-flight public crew appearances (crew return at Ellington AFB and later at Space Center Houston) where often the crews would sign in person for their admirers. Complicating things, though, were the Shuttle/Mir flights and later the Shuttle/ ISS flights involving various astronauts/cosmonauts going up on one flight and coming down on another. And some reluctant signers would either not sign with the others or have their autopens added. So incomplete crew signed material has always been a problem (for example, it sure would be nice if Lisa Nowak would someday sign my two STS-121 crew signed covers autographed by the six other crew members). Many negative factors were involved, with possibly the commercialization of shuttle autographs being the main factor, which discouraged many astronauts from signing at all. So generally as time went on, fewer and fewer complete crew signed lithos and covers were made available and prices rose. And the practice of mailing in or waiting to meet individual astronauts in person in hopes of completing crew signed material one astronaut at a time is a slow process, and is often ended by astronauts passing away or by those refusing to sign or can't be found. |
mach3valkyrie
Member Posts: 719
From: Albany, Oregon
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 07-13-2015 05:37 PM
It's becoming increasingly difficult to obtain unsigned crew lithos, let alone signed ones. For a complete collection, I mean. |
SpaceSteve
Member Posts: 428
From: San Antonio TX, USA
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 07-13-2015 09:16 PM
I collect signed covers, and am missing 60 astronauts, all of them from the shuttle era. Of these 60, 40 of them flew for the first time on STS-116 or later. |
Mike Dixon
Member Posts: 1397
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003
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posted 07-13-2015 10:30 PM
quote:
Originally posted by mach3valkyrie:
It's becoming increasingly difficult to obtain unsigned crew lithos, let alone signed ones.
...and it's only going to get harder. You'll see the occasional flurry of offerings but nothing like it was a year or two back. | |
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