posted 04-24-2016 06:04 AM               

What is the opinion from you unless it is a material change. Autographs, photographs, lithographs and contemporary material, too?

posted 04-24-2016 06:38 AM               

I'm a retailer, but as a collector I buy flown items because I love the history. I'll sell them all one day, and on that day I would like to see a significant return (who wouldn't?) but collecting is a passion and one that I thoroughly enjoy.

In truth, for me it is more about the preservation of history — for instance, I would never sell a piece to someone with a history of damaging artefacts, i.e. dividing up checklists, because the historical value is more important to me than the financial aspect.

posted 04-25-2016 06:15 AM               

For instance when I look at a flown piece I think of where it has been and its purpose to the mission and it sparks my curiosity. When I look at autographs I think of the person that signed it and what they have accomplished. I suppose it's way to live vicariously through the items cause I know that I may never get to space. To look down on earth from above.

posted 04-26-2016 02:34 PM            

Interestingly, Uncle Sam is on my side currently tax wise. (Any accountant types out there please correct me if mistaken.) As I understand current tax law, if I sell at profit now, the capital gain on appreciated collectibles, no matter how long held (i.e., no long term discount for greater than one year) stands at 28 percent. However, if it remains part of my estate through the lives of me and my wife, the cost basis is no longer the purchase price, but becomes the value at the time of the death of the surviving spouse.

Of course, that means the heirs would need either to get an appraisal at that time or else sell soon after dispersal. I have left detailed instructions in these regards to our grown children, and now sit back and enjoy the collection until either: (1) I croak, (2) Congress changes the law, or (3) our taxable estate exceeds $5M. So now I'm a "hoarder with a plan!"

Off topic a little, the guy who led off this post, Daniel Lazecky from the Czech Republic, is a superb fellow. Though his English is a bit fractured, he is a dedicated space collector with very interesting stories. He grew up when his country was ruled by communists, and was punished for his U.S. space collecting efforts, yet put together a nice collection.

posted 04-27-2016 06:18 AM               

Here in former Czechoslovakia were not many options. As a little boy I collected and edited out of newspaper and magazine articles that appeared in our country. My first letters were directed to request an autograph were sometimes in 1980. This was the first letter to NASA and Star City. From the first NASA lithograph crew of STS-1 Columbia Autopen. From Russia it was G.S.Titov real signature. Then came a few letter from NASA and I was very cheerful and happy. I have about 4 years did not know that I come from the US Autopen. I strongly believed that it was all authentic. For us, this field is almost not collect. Over time, everything changed for the better until the present day as well.

My problems began when I wrote Mr. Glenn J.H. and H.H. Schmitt. Here are my correspondence became interested in the state police as well. Both envelopes had come to press Washington, D.C. White House. And it was a fuss. Both shipments had to take over and open under police surveillance. Then it began interfering with my correspondence to the US. Of shipments in large envelopes were collected materials. Sometimes it came only a blank envelope with a stamp patched back. I hope that I understand how you must be gathered with us, and how easy it was there for you.

Here was a great connoisseur of Space Flight. He named Antonin Vitek. This is a very wonderful man, but is no longer among us. I am of the opinion that when people routinely corresponded — corresponded, it was better. Everything went like by itself. I knew many collectors colleagues who have mutually exchanged things, and also got a lot of help without financial reward as well. It was very friendly. I still very much appreciate such friends.

posted 04-28-2016 07:26 AM               

I got his address when my mother drove me by his house a week after he returned from the moon. He was standing in his front yard wearing only shorts talking to his next door neighbor, Richard Gordon. My mother refused to stop to let me get out and ask for an autograph. Instead, I wrote down the house number. I already had the street name memorized.

After I got home, I put the photos in an envelope and mailed them to his house asking him to sign them for me. Several weeks later, I got a letter in the mail. When I opened it, Scott had signed all three of my photos. Had he not been so generous, I most likely would not be a collector today.

After that, I flipped through my phone book and wrote several other astronauts. Every one of them was very willing to sign my photos, all except for one.

My lucky break came when I sent photos to Rusty Schwieckart. He sent the photos back unsigned with a card that said something to the effect that he doesn't sign anything sent to his house. He provided his NASA JSC address and said he would be happy to sign them if I sent them to that address. I did as he requested and he signed all the photos I sent him, some of them twice. I wish I still had the card he sent me in his initial response. I would love to have him sign it.

Using the address I got from Schwieckart, I continued to collect through the mail for the next four years. The last thing I got was a full ASTP autographed crew photo. I still have every one of those photos.

It wasn't until about 10 years ago that I realized my collection had value. I didn't think of it in those terms before that. When I saw what was available for sale at places like Astronaut Central and Farthest Reaches, I began buying photos that I could not get when I was a teenager. It has only been recently that I've been able to appreciate how lucky I was to get them when I did.

I have at least one autographed photo of the first 43 astronauts (Shepard's Mercury flight to STS-1) to fly in space. I have most of them hanging proudly on my wall. They greet me when I come home every night. I can't look at them without smiling.

I'm happy not only for my collection, but I vividly remember the moment when most of those photos were taken. They take me back to a time when America could do anything. A time when space was new and every mission stretched the limits of human endurance and knowledge.

I've been lucky in that my daughter also appreciates my collection. She's asked me many times the story behind this photo and that photo. Why did you want that one? What does it mean to you? Those are the questions she's asked me, and I was more than happy to answer them all.

I even took her with me to Spacefest 3. When we left Tucson, she said she felt like every astronaut there was her grandfather. They all treated her like their own. She got far better treatment than I did, and I couldn't be happier for her.