Profiles in History has 17 Star Trek items up for auction Friday, December 16th. The Star Trek items are listed here.
By now you all know that Profiles had to pull the two alledged "Kirk" Maroons because they weren't what Profiles claimed. So why does this happen? Because they are selling so much stuff that they just take the word of the person consigning an item and list it. They don't verify the provenance or screencap items. And I think if you are going to sell something, you need to know it is real and what you claim it is.
On to the other 17 items. Overall, a nice collection. A few items jump out at you. And there are a few bad deals.
Lot 1082 TOS Type I Mid-grade Hand Phaser
Wow! A great item that OPENS at $ 30,000. OK, I don't think that is unreasonable and this easily hits $ 50,000. But remember 3 years ago the Klingon Disruptor only went for $ 35,000. The market is moving up. I think this is a great item with good provenance.
Western Costume tags and the very large size of this maroon make it look legit. A good find for a collector. Opening bid at $ 6,000 puts this at $ 7,200 to start. I think this is a $ 10,000 costume max. But that is just me! Maroons aren't slowing down. Everyone wants one and for good reason. If you are a Scotty collector, then this is a good investment. I just don't like how big it is. These uniforms look best when they are slim and structured.
Lot 1093 Voyager Costume Collection
Frankly, this should be broken up into separate lots if you really wanted to get the most money. I think the Christie's auction proved that where all the "collections" were great deals, whereas costumes got their best prices when sold seperately.
There are 6 costumes in this group, Janeway, Chakotay, The Doctor, Tuvok, Neelix and Torres. They all look good, have comm badges and appear in good condition. However, I think this is priced high. The opening bid is $ 15,000. That is already pretty high when you add in Buyer's Premium. Here is how I break these down:
Janeway........$ 5,000
Chakotay.......$ 3,500
Doctor...........$ 3,500
Tuvok............$ 3,000
Torres............$ 3,000
Neelix............$ 3,000
$ 21,000 total So that means the high bid should be no more than roughly $ 18,000.
The actual title: " Rare science officer tunic from the Star Trek: The Original Series first episode, “The Cage”. But there is nothing to prove this claim. Are the stitch marks for the insignia of the smaller "Cage" style insignia? I would like more details before I attributed this to The Cage. And the whole thing about Spock wearing it is total crap. Ultimately the faded color and the lack of insignia and braid are what make this less than a great example of a TOS tunic. Still, it is original. So a good starter tunic I would think. But not at much more than $ 3,000.
BAD BUYS
Lot 1081 Section of V'Ger ship from Star Trek: The Motion Picture
WHAT? You can't even screen cap this and you have an opening bid of $ 6,000? This is crazy. The famous "space lips" piece of V'Ger, which is the most recognizable piece that survived, went for $ 4,000. PASS
Lot 1094 Articulated Whale Puppet from Star Trek IV
OK, interesting, but an opening bid of $ 5,000? PASS
Good hunting!
Alec