posted 03-17-2017 05:35 PM               

Apollo astronaut's US flag secretly carried on the moon heads to auction

When Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott became the seventh person to walk on the moon in 1971, he wore a spacesuit adorned with American flags on both his left shoulder and atop his life support backpack. But as an upcoming auction has now surprisingly revealed, those were not the only two U.S. flags he had on him.

Unbeknownst to even Scott until after he returned to Earth, hidden behind the stars and stripes decorating his Portable Life Support System's Oxygen Purge System (OPS) was a pouch holding smaller U.S. flags in a secret stash.

posted 03-18-2017 03:53 AM              

But man oh man that #8216 - Apollo 11 Flown Command Module Columbia Rescue Arrow from Crew Hatch is incredible. Does anybody expect a battle over ownership for the arrow and #8217 - Apollo 11 Flown Command Module Columbia ID Plate?

posted 03-18-2017 05:44 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by freshspot:
It seems odd that a random engineer would have been officially gifted those items.

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posted 03-21-2017 12:23 PM               

Management did ask if they should fire the employee. Dave said that the man had suffered enough and management didn't fire the man. Management kept several of the flags, gave the rest to Dave. The crew did give the flags to various NASA people and friends as gifts later on.

posted 03-28-2017 07:56 AM               

For an astronaut on a mission to the moon, one of the upsides of almost complete isolation might be an escape from workplace pranks.

However, a soft-porn magazine centrefold and some strategically placed cartoon stickers up for auction next month reveal that even in space, an office prankster can hear you scream.

posted 04-13-2017 03:16 PM               

Unfortunately, the "RR Auction outbid notification" e-mails have been coming in thick and fast and my dreams are evaporating.

posted 04-15-2017 12:35 PM               

Some strong bidding on flown hardware. I wonder if we will see some new highs.

posted 04-20-2017 10:41 AM               

I've bought a lot since 1999... Now it's the first time I sell!

posted 04-21-2017 01:35 PM               

I'm really not a fan of these hidden reserves and believe they do a disservice to bidders and consigners alike. Bidders generally have a finite amount of funds to play with and if they know that an item they like is out of their price range they will often be tempted to spend that money on something else instead, boosting the prices realized for consignors overall and allowing the buyer to acquire items they might otherwise have had to let go. Alternatively they may be willing to stretch to the reserve if they know it in advance whilst in an open auction they might not reach that level whilst bidding against other collectors, all the while thinking they've won it.

An extreme example in this auction would be the Apollo 11 CM ID plate which apparently failed to meet a hidden reserve despite a high bid of $46,089. At the end of the auction the high bidder on this item presumably thought they were going to be getting an invoice this morning for $56,000 (with fees) and will have been surprised to find they didn't win it. If they had known last night that the hidden reserve was, say, $50k they could have made the decision from the start to go all-out and reach this reserve, or they could have taken that money and spent it on a whole array of other big-ticket items in the auction. Instead those funds have gone unspent.

As another example, in the Apollo 15 section there was a whole raft of flown items from Scott that went unsold despite what looked to me like pretty strong final bids - e.g. lots 8334-8339, where over $60,000 of collectors' funds went unspent on just these six items.

This seems to hurt RR (through lost fees), the consignors (through lost sales and lower bids) and the bidders (through missed chances to win great items).

posted 04-21-2017 04:50 PM               

Many times, a bidder will get caught up in the auction and the reserve is never an issue but I would not want to sell a truly rare item way under a fair market value as that is a disservice to the consignor.

I would bet a quick call to RR might work a negotiated settlement between the seller and the high bidder. Hey it never hurts to ask if you really want an item and you may have been very close to that reserve?

posted 04-21-2017 05:21 PM               

If the consignor chose to lower the reserve during the sale and this took it below the current high bid the high bidder could be informed by the auction house that their existing bid was now above the reserve.

posted 04-22-2017 05:30 AM              

What this means is that the bidder who is at, say $8k on a $10k item will get an outbid notice and every time they submit a new bid until they reach the reserve, they get an outbid notice as if they are battling another bidder.

You'd never be left hanging thinking you were going to win that item with a high bid that was lower than the reserve when the auction was in it's concluding minutes.

posted 04-23-2017 03:24 AM               

The notification you mention at the end of regular bidding does give the high bidder a chance to up their bids to try to reach the reserve, which is good, but doesn't fully resolve the issue that they could have bid on other items with their funds. At this point they can still place bids on other items they'd previously bid on but it would be too late to try to bid on something they'd not already bid on.

posted 04-23-2017 04:23 AM              

Bidding against the reserve is no different than bidding against another bidder. In either case, you have no idea how high the price will go, the main action happens after 7:00, and in either case it is your wallet and desire that leads to you pushing the button again (or not).

posted 04-23-2017 07:20 AM               

I love the 30-minute rule and wish that could be carried to all auction formats. It would stop the last 10 second rush on eBay and timed auctions.

posted 04-23-2017 12:26 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by freshspot:
With RR Auction, placing an early bid to ensure you can participate after 7:00 is the best strategy so you can figure out which item(s) you want to chase after 7:00.

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posted 04-25-2017 11:09 PM               

By the way, I thought the shipping has gotten rather high on this auction.