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Giant Paramount Auction of Star Trek Items
Alien54 writes "The first official studio auction of memorabilia from all five 'Star Trek' television series and 10 movie spinoffs, to be held from October 5 to 7 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the original 'Star Trek' series, was announced by Christie's on Thursday. CBS Paramount Television Studios is cleaning out its vaults for the sale, comprising more than 1,000 lots totaling some 4,000 items. Items to hit the block include props, weapons, prosthetics and set dressings unearthed from five Paramount warehouses, as well as many special and spectacular items highlighted in the various shows." Update: 05/21/2006 14:57 GMT by SM Several users have provided us with the direct link to the auction site for easy viewing.
I want Shatner's toupee.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
7 of 9's cat suit. :-)
I call dibs on the Enterprise!
You must think in Russian.
A warp core. No wait, a transporter. These things are in working condition right?
Oh You POS
Just to see the time-travelling aliens bid furiously on the tox'utat, or however it's spelled.
Can anyone else imagine the smell in the auction room with lots of nervous Star Trek fans?
There must be something about joining an **AA, lowers IQ or something. This is a pretty valuable collection. Sell it once,you get one pay day. Open a museum, add the props, have movie showings, interactive kiosks, etc, host conferences, what-ever, and have 365 paydays a year, for a *long* time.
'nuff said.
However, I am not a fan of Star-Trek conventions. 99% of the content of a typical convention is whoring (a.k.a. selling) memorabilia: photos with the aging actors, cards, spacecraft models, etc. The entire convention is lined with booths hawking memorabilia.
Yet, the best part of "Star Trek" cannot be bought. It is a story about how humankind transcends the suffering and limitations of life in the 20th century and 21st century. The Enterprise's entering warp is a metaphor for our breaking the bonds of our limitations as we soar to a greater, better future.
The best part of "Star Trek" is the message of hope. (I have read the profiles of many felony convicts and have yet to come across one who is a Trekkie.)
Hope is not what Christie's auction will sell. This auction is a bigger, more expensive version of a typical convention.
President Bush got word of this... It seems he now wants to purchase 20,000 shield generators to protect the mexican border, "some of those shuttle thingies" for NASA, and by presidential decree, NO ONE is to sell Dick a phaser.
-JDS
You know, they usually take telephone bids. You don't have to be there in person. But you're right, that flute is going to go for way more than they think.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Anyone buying one of these things remotely will be rather surprised, maybe sorely disappointed, when they receive them in the mail.
They're very shoddily built. Almost laughably unartistic. Nothing like the realism and solidity and quality they seem on the television.
An acquaintance of mine, who worked for a company building props for ST:TNG, explained the illusion this way:
Seeing something on TV is like catching it out of the corner of your eye going 60 mph in a rainstorm.
So, since time is their least resource, they don't bother with fine detail that would just disappear, and they don't care about alignment, overspray, or fit, which you can't measure or even apprehend, nor durability, since almost everything is used for a very short time in a zero-stress environment by someone whose standing orders are "don't break the props".
Much of the "metal" will be painted foam or extruded plastic. Controls won't operate. The costumes will appear cobbled together from the cheapest possible fabric and will have strange and coarse alterations, plus any damage that's accumulated since it became junk. Literally all the value left in these items is bragging rights, sentimentality, and ego boost.
Which is going to have to do.
Because I want a pair of Spock's ears. Bad.