Profiles in History has its 43rd Hollywood memorabilia auction today and tomorrow (Dec. 17 & 18) and it really is a great selection of props & costumes for all genres. And after the disaster that was the Piece of the Past auction yesterday, Profiles is a welcome breath of fresh air.The Star Trek items will be Saturday since they are later in the auction. What is cool is there are some good TOS and TMP items.
I think the TOS patch set is really impressive. It has an estimate of $ 2,500-3,500 which I think is reasonable and it comes from William Theiss' personal collection, so the provenance is good.
The William Theiss costume sketches, lot # 995 has an awesome Osira costume sketch from That Which Survives, which I love. It also has a "Lenore Karidian" costume sketch from Conscience of the King. I have come to really enjoy costume sketches, and the Kirk one I own, by Robert Fletcher, is hanging over my Mantle.
There are two TOS costumes. The Teri Garr "Roberta Lincoln" costume from Assigment Earth and the "Lenore Karidian" costume from Conscience of the King. Now the Teri Garr costume is awesome as it is from a well loved episode and worn by a famous actress. However, the estimates of both costumes at $ 20-25,000 seem way high to me. The Teri Garr costume I see in the $ 10,000-15,000 range, and the Karidian costume in the $ 5,000 range. The Karidian is just not that important a costume.The Original Concept Artwork of Vulcan Temple from Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a beautiful and very big piece by legendary artist Robert McCall. There is something to be said for owning a piece of Star Trek art by a famous artist (if you love their work). I bought a Bob peak preliminary for Star Trek III the Search for Spock and it is a beauty.
Sadly, my new apartment in California is much smaller than my huge townhome in Atlanta and my wall space is limited! Even my costumes are no longer on display in my home (thank goodness for my office). Anyway, I am a big believer that everything needs to be on display. and now I find that is always a factor in my purchases.
The Maroon is nice, but not a complete Sulu, so that will appeal only to a certain segment who don't mind paying a higher amount for a partial. I am not in the market for a Sulu, so I can't get too excited myself, but still a nice piece.
However, why is the jacket so wrinkled? You never see Maroons like this because the fabric is so thick. You can see this affects only the left side (as you look at it) and it is pretty clear that this wrinkle stops at the center seam. I would not be inclined to bid on it unless I got to inspect it because of this. The estimate is fair and I think $5,000 is not unreasonable.
Overall there are a lot of good items in this auction. I think what we are all seeing is there are so many good items out there (Propworx already has over 100 items for its March Star Trek auction, and that is just from two collectors!) that you have to be picky and you can afford to be.
Finally, Profiles in History has once again switched auction software providers from Live Auctioneer, which we at Propworx found had a serious bug in it, to iCollecter, which Profiles had switched to before, and then switched back to Live Auctioneer.
I would be VERY interested in hearing what you all think of the bidding experience between both providers as Propworx is thinking of switching to iCollector because of the bidding bug in Live Auctioneer (It sometimes shows you as the high bidder and then you don't win the item).
Best of luck to everyone bidding.
Alec