Firsthand Account of the Christie's Star Trek Auction

DustCollector writes to mention a Scientific American blog post about the highly successful Star Trek auction at Christie's on Thursday. The props, from many different shows, went for far more than was estimated. From the article: "The auction board flickered in perpetual motion as dollars changed along with the equivalent in euros, British pounds, Hong Kong dollars and Japanese yen (what, no quatloos?). Picard's Enterprise-E captain's chair, estimated to sell for $7,000-$8,000, went for $52,000. Two prop wine bottles of 'Chateau Picard,' estimated to go for $500 to $700, sold for $5,500. 'That's probably a record for empty wine bottles,' the auctioneer quipped. The sale prices so exceeded the estimated price that absentee bidders--those who place a maximum and hope for the best--hardly stood a chance: I counted only two successful absentee bids in the first 124 lots."

obviously

[macadamia_harold]

The high bids made me wonder just why people were willing to pay thousands of dollars for cast resin and foam.

It's not just "cast resin and foam". It's "cast resin and foam" that was in Star Trek

Funding

[PresidentEnder]

So... wait. People are willing to pay a grand total of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the old props, right...?

How much does it cost to make a season of Star Trek?

Estimates are bogus.

[rolfwind]

The Summary:

The props, from many different shows, went for far more than was estimated.

Appraisers working for auctions routinely set estimates lower than what they really expect the item will fetch at auction - both to encourage bidders to step up to the plate early on and so the auction can claim to get "much higher prices" than expected, thus enforcing the Christie's premium name to sellers/estates who are thinking of consigning items there. Afterall, they have to compete with Sothebys.

And if it turns out to be a very bad auction, at worst, they'll probably just hit estimates - and that doesn't sound as bad P/R wise than missing estimates entirely.

Must be nice to have such high standards..

[Lactoso]

"Well, considering Shatner is Priceline's whore for about $6 million"

'whore'? I think you need to hold either the higher moral or economic ground to make that kind of statement. I 'whored' myself out to former employers for considerably less. :-(

Re:Forget all the props, I'd be happy...darn geeks

[isometrick]

You are clearly not enough of a geek. Majel Barrett would totally be a score, just get her to record some kickass login sounds for your PC. Or record all of your PBX prompts:

"This phone will self-destruct in 5 seconds."

You'd be the envy of Slashdot.

Re:This auction shows... That people are idiots

[Gnostic Ronin]

This has nothing to do with ST being still a good brand-name. This is about idiots willing to drop $45,000,000 for bits of sets. The Ent D seats look almost exactly like minivan seats, yet they go for $200,000.

It's a feeding frenzy based on the idea that "rare" is the same as valuable. Same as what happened in St. Louis when they tore down old Busch Stadium. You could buy just about anything -- and people did. I don't know exactly *why* people were paying thousands of dollars for used urinals from old Busch, but I guess they figured that urinals go UP in value once the building they were housed in comes down. And much like this auction, I think the value is highest right now. The grandkids might say "Daddy, what's a Vulcan" and simply not get it. Beanie babies are worth all of about $10 now, even though at the height of popularity, people were paying hundreds of dollars for them.