posted 03-04-2026 04:36 PM            

I'm young enough that I could wait 10 or 20 years for the market to catch up but I think it's possible some billionaire might be willing to pay up for it. Are rare or unique items worth more if they are publicly unknown to exist?

What might be a good intermediary to try to secretly shop this around for me? What kind of fees or percentage might I expect to pay What sort of penalties might I expect them to agree to if they or a prospective buyer are found to break confidentiality?

posted 03-04-2026 05:19 PM               

A few things to maybe keep in mind:

• Rarity alone rarely determines demand.

  For example, you can have a one-of-a-kind item that flew on the space shuttle, but unless it has some intrinsic value beyond having flown, it will likely never be worth more than an item that was one of several hundred that flew to the moon on Apollo.

• Provenance is often more important than population.

  You might say you have Buzz Aldrin's watch worn on the moon, but unless you can prove it was his and you can prove you legally own it, it is not worth anywhere close to what you think it might be worth (and it might very well be worthless).

• Secrecy can be suspect.

  Unless you think what you own is illegal to sell (in which case, you should not be selling it), I cannot think of any reason to keep the item secret. Publicity can only help draw interest, whereas secrecy can raise unwarranted suspicion.

• Listen to those more experienced.

  You have come here to ask advice (great first step!). Now be prepared to listen to the advice given. You don't have to accept it, but we have had people come here and fight against the advice because they suddenly think they know better than the very people they came to to seek advice. Remember, no one has to offer their help; if they reply, they are doing so out of an interest to benefit you.

posted 03-05-2026 05:44 AM               

How big precisely is this mysterious object?

Also, I'm a little dubious as to any provenance you could supply. I ask myself, "what could be so rare as to not be known to exist?" And honestly, the only answers I can come up with are space-related examples similar to the Piltdown Man or Hitler's diaries.

posted 03-05-2026 02:48 PM            

It's in its original box. In fact the box itself is what I believe to be worth a large amount given some of the unique stickers and stamps on it.

I'm not yet convinced that the wealthy wouldn't be willing to pay more to blow their friends minds showing it off privately with it being unknown to exist to the public. These guys love secrets, exclusivity, and rare or unique collectibles.

Should I just contact an auction house to ask about private sales? I have heard it's bad to auction with a reserve as it then sets a psychological ceiling for later attempts to sell if reserve is not met.

Is there a known go to intermediary for high end stuff?

posted 03-05-2026 06:20 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Sumdumname:
...showing it off privately with it being unknown to exist to the public. These guys love secrets, exclusivity, and rare or unique collectibles.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sumdumname:
...to maybe start to get to a price I wouldn't feel like a complete moron selling it for.

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The space age began 70 years ago. The market for space artifacts really did not take hold until 35 to 40 years ago. I would not expect to see any major swings in what people are paying for at least another 50 years, and more likely, longer than that.

posted 03-05-2026 10:28 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Sumdumname:
Is there a known go to intermediary for high end stuff?

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And auction houses are not going to be amenable to this, either. For one thing, they aren't going to send unsolicited spam offers to their most high-end clients. And in addition, auction houses make their money by taking a percentage of the final total. If you own something special, they won't want to privately offer it to an individual person. They'll want as much competition as possible. They'll want to publicize it.

In short, there are no companies or professionals out there who are going to accept your emails and pass them on to Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk. It just doesn't work that way.

And if anything, trying to go that route is going to make you less desirable as a potential business partner, because that type of Black Market secrecy is generally only used when the item is genuinely illegal. There is a huge underground network for selling stolen art, government property, and illegal materials. But it's always a risk to use those networks, and so they're avoided whenever possible. It'd be like hiring your heroin dealer to pick up groceries. You generally only contact those people when you absolutely need to.

And I don't mean to be harsh, because all of us here are trying to help. But more than anything, your insistence on secrecy just feels like complete naivety on how things really work. And that leads me to conclude that this item probably isn't nearly as special as you might think.

Especially because the market has already seen some of the most special, one-of-a-kind space items in the world being sold. Buzz Aldrin recently sold the flight jacket he wore to the moon, and the pen he used to compensate for a broken circuit breaker on the lunar surface. And a few years back, Heritage sold pieces of the original Wright Flyer that Neil Armstrong took to the lunar surface, meaning that they were flown on both of the two most important moments in aviation history.

posted 03-06-2026 02:43 PM               

First, even if you have a million-dollar rarity that's one of the greatest space collectibles in the world, you have to remember that space collecting is still a very niche hobby. The major auction houses sell billions of dollars of rarities every year. And of those, the annual space sales generally make up less than $10 million of that. It's probably under 1% of their totals. There are lots of things that billionaires like to collect. Fine art. Ancient coins. Classic cars. Luxury wristwatches. Rare bottles of wine. Historical autographs. Fossils. Gemstones. And on and on.

And that's why billionaires don't use public intermediaries. If they allowed regular people to send them private offers, it'd just be a nonstop outpouring from every direction. You may have the greatest space item in the world. But someone else has a Rolex that belonged to Paul Newman. And someone has a car that belonged to Steve McQueen. And someone has a previously-unknown painting from Rembrandt. And someone has the original Darth Vader lightsaber from Star Wars. It's just endless. And that's why secrecy wouldn't be a viable option. Even the greatest item in a specific field is just a drop in the bucket of what goes up for sale every year. Billionaires don't want to be getting daily emails with sales pitches from all over the world. They'd rather just watch the major auction houses as a hobby.

So if you want to get an idea of what your item is worth, your best option is to ask about it here, because the biggest space experts in the world congregate here. They'll be honest and helpful to you.

But if you're still insistent on keeping it a secret, then your next best option is to get it appraised by a major auction house. As mentioned earlier, no auction house is going to try and facilitate a secret private sale for you. However, they will give you an estimate on what they think the item is worth. And they will keep that private. You simply need to give them detailed notes and pictures, and they'll give you an estimated auction price range. And after that, you can choose to not consign the item, and they will keep your secret. The public will remain unaware that the item exists.

If that's the way you want to go, then the big three space auction houses are Sotheby's, Heritage Auction, and RR Auctions. Sotheby's tends to have infrequent small boutique space auctions. Overall, they tend to fetch the highest prices. But they also don't sell many items. So that might be a good start for your one-of-a-kind item.

Heritage holds multiple space auctions per year, and they're the biggest space auctioneer out there. They handled the private collections of Neil Armstrong, John Young, and many others. They're considered the go-to for major space auctions. So in your case, that'd probably be the second choice.

RR is nearly as successful as Heritage. They also hold regular space auctions (as well as space-related items in nearly every one of their regular auctions). And the prices tend to go for around the same range as Heritage. You can't go wrong using them, but they aren't quite as well known as the other two.

posted 03-06-2026 08:31 PM               

If you are convinced that billionaires will want to fight over it, an open bidding war will drive competition.

Two of the richest people on earth are space nuts. One even funded projects to recover Mercury and Apollo items from the ocean, made movies about the recovery efforts, and shares these with the public. His space company offices have space artifacts on display, and he proudly lets people check them out.

posted 03-06-2026 09:05 PM            

I already know the market is not where it would need to be for me to sell it right now for whatever the estimated value might be. I’m not losing anything keeping it private.

It’s true worth is whatever a buyer is willing to pay that I would reluctantly accept. This price is way above an assumed estimated value right now for me.

As for the intermediaries I'm not sure I follow the logic. The entire point of them is to filter out the garbage and nonsense for the wealthy buyers so they are not sent thousands of offers a day.

I would obviously send pictures going this route so long as it's kept private. I would think they have trusted people in the space collectibles market that send them info on items they might want to buy and are used to dealing with confidentiality.

I'm curious for comparison what Buzz Aldrin's suit sold for. I’d have to assume his suit would be viewed as a higher end item so it would provide some perspective as to how much over market I’m wanting.

Again I might change my mind and post pics later but for now I'm playing things safe. As I said I want more then what capsules sell for and I would consider this item to be less high end as them or Buzz's suit. It's shocking to me that one high grade 1952 Mantle is worth 5 to 15 early flown historical space capsules.

I would never even think of selling my item for the number in my head right now if it wouldn't be life changing money. Who knows what people with 12 figures that own their own space companies might pay? Probably sadly for me whatever it's appraised at because they didn't get rich "overpaying" for things. I don't mind waiting years though for the market to catch up if no one agrees with my price.

I probably will go ahead and contact one of the auction houses someone suggested above for them to appraise it. I'll let you know what they say if I do. I don't expect it to appraise for millions even though I'd never even consider less.

posted 03-06-2026 09:32 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Sumdumname:
I'm curious for comparison what Buzz Aldrin's suit sold for.

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posted 03-07-2026 07:22 AM               

As someone who buys and sells memorabilia full-time, I get these kinds of emails quite frequently. The simple truth is that, most of the time, the mental value attributed to the artifact rarely meets the financial reality.

I have seen people ask for tens of thousands, and on occasion, millions of dollars for items that have no financial value. Explaining that historical or sentimental value does not translate to financial value is tiresome and rarely ends well. I have even, on occasion, been called an expert and, within a few exchanges, been called a scammer because my reply didn't meet their expected reality.

Here is my advice to our community: Don't engage. Whether the OP has an article of significant value or not, it is quite clear from their original message that they have no intention of revealing it, so we simply can't assess its value as it stands today, and so there really is no point in engaging. Best to just live in the hope that one day we may receive a wonderful surprise reveal at an auction or in another setting.