Profiles in History Auction Review Part 3

Well, one of the most important stats from this auction is that as of now, the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Forum has accounted for 47.3% of all sales at the Profiles in History Star Trek auction.

These stats are still being compiled based on members offering up their wins. I will post updated stats as we get more info.

29 members won lots
44.8% of all lots (131 of 292)
47.3% of all sold lots, not counting the 15 that were passed
38.5% of the total money spent ($200,675 of $521,025) (premiums/tax not included)

Thanks to Rik for compiling these stats!

Profiles in History Auction Review Part 2

My apologies for taking so long to get up Part 2 of last Saturday's Profiles auction, but the travel from hell took its toll and I went down with a cold. But I feel great now so back to blogging! Today I am going to review the top 5 best and worst buys from the Profiles auction.


THE FIVE BEST BUYS

1) Lot # 1251 TOS Chekov's Tunic and Pants $ 8,000.

A total steal at this price. And half where I thought it would go. This costume went to Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Forum member Dr. Brett and he did well at this price.


2) Lot # 1283 Geordi LaForge VISOR $ 4,500

Another prop that went to a forum member, this time Adam Schneider, who usually focuses on models. A similar piece went not too long ago for twice this price.


3) Tricorders!

Any of the below were good prices!

Lot # 1297.....$ 3,750
Lot # 1331.....$ 1,400
Lot # 1332.....$ 4,000
Lot # 1334.....$ 4,000
Lot # 1335.....$ 3,500

4) Lot # 1408 The Doctor's Hero Mobile Emitter

At only $ 2,750, this is a great price for the KEY prop from Star Trek Voyager. And this is the rare metal version.

5) Lot # 1448 Captain Proton's Jet Pack $ 600

Well, I have to admit I won this one. It went for $ 2,605 in week 33 of the IAW auctions. I was the under bidder then, but happy to save $ 2,000!



THE FIVE WORST BUYS

OK, this doesn't mean they are BAD buys, just overpriced. But as always, I must say that I have sometimes overpaid, and that is OK if a piece is important to you!

1) Lot # 1241 Balok head puppet $ 70,000

WOW! That is a lot of money for a deteriorating piece of foam rubber. Now, this is a historcally significant piece, and I am sure whoever bought it can light his cigars with $ 100 bills, but on balance, this is a lot for a piece that needs restoration and protection, and could easily still degrade. My reccomendation? Take it to Tom Spina STAT!

2) Lot # 1409 XSL "Endgame" Tricorder. $ 10,000

OK, my bad! I was the winner here at my maximum bid! Yeah, one more increment and I was out! OUCH! The highest priced Tricorder in the auction! So why did I pay so much? Well, I own all 4 main character costumes from "Endagame", Admiral Janeway, the Doctor, Captain Harry Kim and Miral Paris. Plus when I saw this Tric in person I was blown away! Total emotional purchase. GUILTY AS CHARGED!


3) Lot # 1486 Mark VII Tricorder $ 8,500

Well, if you waited till the last Tricorder you got screwed! Twice the price of the other similar Tricorders. Procrastination does not pay!



4) Lot # 1490 "Trials and Tribble-ations" Phaser $ 16,000

Well, $ 16,000 is a lot to pay for a DS9 Phaser, even if it is a TOS style. The thinking is this ois the closet to a screen used TOS Phaser you will ever get.



5) Lot # 1491 "Trials and Tribble-ations" Tricorder $ 25,000

YIKES! Again, the thinking is this is the closet to a screen used TOS Tricorder you will ever get. But $ 25,000?


Well, that is it for today. The review will continue Saturday!

Alec

Profiles Star Trek Auction Review - Part 1

Well, just getting to the Profiles in History Star Trek Auction was a nightmare for me. I had just spent two weeks on the set of Star Trek: Phase II in Port Henry, New York and was flying out of Burlington Vermont Friday. Well, they canceled my flight at 6:30pm and I was forced to drive 3.5 hours to Boston to get a 6am flight back, which would get me to LAX at 11:20, just n time to rush to Profiles! Well, that flight was canceled too! and I had to switch to American and that was a nightmare (I hate that airline), but was able to land at 11:00, get picked up and made it to Profiles in time! Whew!

MY RELATIONSHIP WITH PROFILES

Now, I have a funny relationship with Profiles in History. Even before I started Propworx, I was sometimes critical of what I considered sloppy authentication from time to time on Star Trek items. But I also am a customer and respect that they are # 1 in Hollywood memorabilia and they really have built this business. We owe Profiles a lot of respect for that. But that doesn't mean I am going to shut up and kiss their ass. Not my style (yeah I know, that is a shocker). I will always be fair with my criticism and give honest feedback and try and make the hobby better and safer for all.

Now I like Brian Chanes, my main contact at Profiles a ton. He has always been nice and accommodating, and even when he took offense at some things I said on the Star Trek forum, we were able to talk it out because I honestly am not out to screw with them and I want their Star Trek auction to be a success! Brian is a gentleman and so I enjoy my relationship with him. But sadly, Brian's father passed recently and he wasn't there most of the past two weeks. So when the whole Jem'Hadar ship thing went down, I got the feeling Profiles was pissed off and I didn't have Brian there to talk to about it.

Now Profiles should not have been upset. If someone can prove an item Propworx has in its auction is not as described, I want to know! The last thing I want to do is sell something that isn't what we think it is. It does not embarrass us because we work hard to prove everything is exactly as described. And if we are wrong, we will tell everyone! Heck, I would publish a blog article like the one I wrote on the Jem'Hadar ship if someone else did that on a Propworx item, because it makes the hobby better. It teaches us HOW to authenticate and what detective work needs to be done.

And I don't think Propworx is competitive with Profiles. First of all, we are tiny compared to Profiles! Second, outside of our Star Trek auction, we don't do multiple-consignor auctions like Profiles and probably never will. Not what I want to do. Propworx is about single-consignor auctions like Battlestar Galactica or Stargate. And while profiles jumped into that space with Lost, I honestly don't see them doing that much again since it takes WAY more work than their core auction business, and even Joe Madalena said it was a much less profitable business. So I don't see Profiles as a competitor. I see them as the grand-daddy of this business.

So, that being said, let me say this Star Trek auction was top notch. Overall I give it an A-.

THE REVIEW

Profiles always has their auctions at their offices in Calabasas, CA, about 30 minutes north of LA. I am not a huge fan of this, because they simply don't have a ton of room, but this time they did a really nice job decorating the entire room with curtains and a few items from the auction.

First of all, Profiles gave away very cool miniature TOS communicator key chains that actually opened up and made communicator sounds! A great idea and I told Joe Madalena that. It was a nice little promotional piece.

The only big problem was the rows of chairs were really tight and they didn't have that many people in attendance (typical for an auction these days, people all bid online!) and we were all very cramped. I would have liked Profiles to have loosened up the room layout after the very busy previous two days they had (where I am sure they had a lot of people). They had about 15 people for the Star Trek auction, which is what I would expect. And about half were people from the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Forum. Honestly, Profiles should rent out the Pasadena Convention Center's smaller spaces for their auctions. It is not expensive and would give everyone a lot more room.

The auctioneer is excellent. Profiles uses the same guy all the time, and he was really top notch and moves along nicely. He is very friendly and even intuitive. At one point there was an item I was ready to go to about $5,000 on and the bidding was going back and forth $100 at a time under $1,000 and the auctioneer looked at me and knew exactly what I was thinking (The look on my face gave it away I am sure) and said "You want to wait till they get done?" and I laughed. So he gets top marks.

The Buyer's Premium is 15% if you pay by cash or check, or 18% if you pay by credit card. No matter what, if you bid online you pay 18%. That is a little odd, because Live Auctioneers, the system Propworx uses also, charges the auction house a flat fee for using the software. None the less, Profiles Buyer's Premium is the lowest of the four major prop houses (Profiles, Julien's Propworx and Heritage) which is nice. If Propworx was doing the volume Profiles does, we could charge less too, but I applaud Profiles for keeping their BP low.


I find it interesting that profiles has so many phone bidding assistants. There were a lot of phone bidders bidding on sub-$ 1,000 items. While nice of Profiles to offer that service, it seems those bidders should get a computer and not waste Profiles time bidding on a $ 500 item! I always think of phone bidding as something for that really high dollar bidder!

And this time, Profiles got the famous German Star Trek savant Jorg Hillebrand involved to make sure descriptions were accurate. That was a VERY good move, one I suggested to Brian two years ago. And besides the Jem Hadar ship problem, they only missed one description, which they corrected on their blog.

So overall, a very well done event.


THE ITEMS

Well, let's start with the top 10 items:

Lot # 1241 Original Balock Puppet Head.....$70,000

Not surprised it went this high, but how does this look in 10 years? A beautiful piece but will deteriorate if not preserved.

Lot # 1491 TOS Tricorder from "Trials and Tribbleations".....$25,000

OK, this is insane. $ 25,000 for a DS9 Tricorder? I mean I wanted this too, because it is the closest thing to a TOS Tricorder most people will ever get. But $ 25K?

Lot # 1490 TOS Phaser from "Trials and Tribbleations".....$16,000

Ditto. I was the under bidder. DOH! Thank God I lost that one. I would have woken up with a bad headache this AM.

Lot # 1409 Mark XSL "Endgame" Tricorder.....$10,000

I won this. I overpaid, but it was an emotional purchase. I own all four main "Endgame" uniforms - Janeway Admiral, Doctor, Kim Captain and Miral Paris (and a cadet). So it made sense to put it all together. Plus it was absolutely the coolest Tricorder in the auction. When I saw it in person I was hooked. $ 10K was my max bid too!

Lot # 1527 EM-33 Pistol.....$8,500

WOW! That is a lot for a pistol, but this one was amazing and the metal pieces looked awesome.

Lot # 1251 TOS Chekov Costume.....$8,000

A STEAL! Certainly the buy of the auction.

Lot # 1486 Mark VII Medical Tricorder....$8,000

Even at this price, a fair deal.

Lot # 1261 Kirk TMP Uniform.....$7,500

I don't like this uniform, but it is a Kirk and a good deal at this price.

Lot # 1330 Away Team Medical Kit.....$7,000

Buy a Tricorder for this and you have one of the best props in the auction.

Lot # 1252 TOS Red Shirt Costume.....$6,500

A great buy on a TOS costume. The insignia was a repro though.


So, tomorrow, Part II and I start getting in depth into the items.

Alec

Profiles in History Auction Preview - Authentication and Provenance

On Saturday, June 12th, profiles in History will have the biggest auction of Star Trek items since Christie's. That will be followed later in June by the Julien's Star Trek, which is really more of an estate sale than a Star Trek prop & costume auction. The Propworx Star Trek auction will then follow in August.

What the Profiles in History auction offers is more hand props than the other two auctions combined. I will be an active bidder in the Profiles auction, while there is only one item in the Julien's auction I am after. I will be attending both auctions in person. Star Trek is my big collecting passion as most of you know, and so I have spent a lot of time and effort reviewing these items.

Profiles is the big dog on the block. They have been around for 15+ years and always have great stuff in their catalogs. I have won items before from Profiles, and I plan on bidding in this auction. That doesn't mean they are perfect and they clearly don't like it when I question them or their items. So can you trust their items? Mostly.

So I am going to spend this article writing about things you SHOULD be thinking about in ANY auction.


AUTHENTICATION

As you know by my last article, and previous articles about profiles Star Trek items, Profiles in History authentication is sometimes sloppy. They had to pull the Jem'Hadar ship as it was not what they claimed. Other items in this auction are causing a lot of controversy. They had to pull a bunch of Star Wars items, including a supposed Darth Vader light sabre that multiple sources said was fake. The Jeannie bottle is supposedly not real. The Robert Conrad Wild Wild West hat is not original as claimed and that is from an expert on that series who says Conrad never wore that style hat or had that type of trim on screen.


Now, other blogs are too busy promoting Joe to actually question Profiles in History. No real journalism is going on there. It is just blogging about props. Every major prop forum has questions about some of these items, but no one wants to say anything in public, lest Profiles get pissed off and deny them access in the future. So the collectors out there are not being helped in knowing what they can trust. In fact, they are being done a disservice because these blogs hold themselves out as authorities in the hobby but they don't do any real investigative journalism and warn collectors about what is widely considered suspect.

Well, my responsibility is to my readers, and most every major Star Trek collector out there reads this blog. I have received so many thank yous from people who are happy I did the detective work on the Jem Hadar piece. That is not because I am trying to screw with Profiles, I am very happy they are around and respect the size and quality of their auctions. In fact, my calls to CBS and to Paramount to make sure they were OK with all the "appropriated" items in this auction (they say they are not going to do anything as these items disappeared form their warehouse years ago), has put a lot of readers fears to rest. This means Profiles will be getting MORE bidders thanks to my efforts.

I only want the truth. And the more careful Profiles is with their authentication, the better for all of us. Frankly, I would help them for FREE, just to make sure Star Trek collectors, don't get taken. And my collector friends know this is true. I want Profiles to have very successful Star Trek auctions as that is good for the hobby. They just need to be better and not take offense when I catch them when they are sloppy.

The problem is Profiles just takes people's word for what an item is often without doing any independent verification. That being said, Michael Moore, from HMS, the company that made a lot of props from TNG through the beginning of Enterprise, handles most authentication for Profiles and he is as good an expert as any. My concern is previously Michael has not authenticated items that have appeared in Profiles auctions. So do they even listen to Mike when he says something is not real? Brian Chanes has showed me items they have rejected before. But how did items get in an auction that Michael didn't authenticate. I pointed this out in previous articles I wrote about profiles. And who authenticates the TOS items? Not Greg Jein. He used to but doesn't do that anymore. So we are supposed to take the word of the person who is consigning? I would like to know who the authenticators are. I certainly will discuss the process of authenticating Propworx items in detail with anyone.

We all know there are tons of fakes out there. That means that EVERYONE needs to do it better and cleaner to make sure that no one gets taken.


PROVENANCE

Provenance is the cornerstone of this hobby. And while others will say this, no one forces the auction houses to revel the provenance of items. Every single item in the Propworx Star Trek auction will have the provenance clearly stated on the COA. You will know where this came from and how Propworx got it. Profiles usually refuses to reveal this.

And the statement "I got this at XYZ auction house" is NOT provenance. Auctioning an item doesn't magically authenticate it. Heck, a black and white TOS phaser was sold by an auction house, and then bought by a major prop company who tried to sell it. Well, most TOS collectors will tell you that ALL the TOS Star Trek phasers were repainted grey in season 1. There are no real black and white phasers, they are all Mark English fakes. And so after a while the item was finally withdrawn by the seller. So you can't use the sale of an item as proof of its authenticity!

Profiles lists this as a "HERO" and it clearly is not. A HERO version of this rifles illuminates. I know as I own one.

COAs

Anyone worth his salt will tell you a COA is only as good as the company behind it. A good COA simply tells you that you can get your money back if the item is proven fake. It doesn't guarantee that the item is real, it guarantees you a refund. Premier Props sold items from "Dream Girls" that were not even from that movie! And that is from one of the producer's himself who was horrified at what he saw (Maybe why Paramount no longer does business with Premier Props, nor does Marvel or Universal). Whether this is intentional or not, those items had COAs.

What about other COAs? It's a Wrap is obviously legit as all the items came from the Paramount warehouses. Propworx is officially licensed from CBS (who now holds all Star Trek licensing rights), and the Propworx items all have solid provenance (Doug Drexler, Mike & Denise Okuda, etc.). Christie's didn't give out COAs but they did give out letters from Paramount, which are only good if you have the invoice and tags IMHO.

Profiles doesn't give out COAs, but you can REQUEST them. Not sure why they do this, but you should definitely request them when you pay for your Profiles items. At least you will be able to track back the sale and that is much of the reason for a COA. I am sure Profiles would refund your money if you ever had an item that turned out to be fake, to do otherwise could jeopardize their whole business. So I am not worried about that. Just always keep good records.


CONCLUSION

Buying Hollywood memorabilia is a crap shoot. If you don't have provenance, that most auction houses won't give you, then you need to authenticate the prop. I would never buy anything that wasn't Star Trek from Profiles unless I got a LOT of information and I felt sure that an item was independently verified. Some of the Battlestar lots for example I know are from a top collector, and so I am good with them, but I got that information from him. I have independent verification of their authenticity. That cubit lot - I wouldn't go near it as it is suspect.

But for Star Trek, and this auction, I think, with a few exceptions, you are good to go. I will be there live and have a couple items I want. Tomorrow I will tell you about some of the items and how to plan your strategy.

Alec

Profiles pulls Jem Hadar ship

My email to Profiles in History got no reply, but Profiles has pulled the Jem Hadar ship from their auction. Lot # 1487 is no longer available online.

Alec

Profiles Jem'Hadar ship NOT from Christie's

The Jem'Hadar model, lot # 1487, as offered by Profiles in History is not the screen used model that was sold by Christie's in the 2006 Star Trek sale. It is most likely not production made either. Here is what I can tell you for sure.

When I visited Profiles in History to view the Star Trek lots, I got to see the Jem Hadar model . Joe Madalena was there and said it was the one from Christie's. I inquired about that as I knew it was a model I had been offered in 2007, but he insisted. Now I knew the telltale was that the Profiles one has wires, and the real screen used version, sold at Christie's, didn't have wires. SFX models never do. That are mounted on poles or motion control rigs.

In the Profiles picture above, where you can see the wire in the front nose of the ship sticking up. In the photos below you can see the wires very clearly.

I can say positively that the Profiles version is it is not from Christie's. It is unclear if this was even production made, though it supposedly was made by the effects house that made the screen used one that Christie's sold. The owner got the model from the effects shop around 1999. It may have been made at the same time as the one delivered to Paramount, but never delivered to production.

How we know this is not the Christie's Model

First of all, the collector who offered it to me said it wasn't when I contacted him Saturday. He was just the broker at the time, but he is very solid and represented the seller.

Second, the Profiles version doesn't match the image from Christie's. There are a number of tells, most notably that the Profiles version has wires for hanging the model. The Christie's version had no such wires. Joe Madalena claimed that the wires were for hanging the model for effects shot, something stated in the description:

Star Trek never hung models like this, they were mounted on a pole for motion control and filming.

Here is an image of the real model that Christie's sold being filmed for DS9. (courtesy of Doug Drexler). Note the ship is mounted upside down so they could shoot the bottom of the ship, which is the angle we most often saw.


Not only does the real model not have wires, but there were a lot of white marks on the leading edges of the wings on the Profiles model (seen on the left wing in the Profile photo above, but very noticeable in person). The colors seem very different, but that might be the lighting in the photos.

Also, the Christie's version was lighted and this one is not. There is no question these are two different models.

Here is the real, screen used model, sold by Christie's:


The photos below are of the model in the Profiles auction, taken by the owner and sent to me when the owner was trying to sell the model in 2007. You can clearly see the wires.


What is this model?

This model was not found at Paramount they way every other Star Trek model was. While props and costumes went out from the studio (some through the front door, some through the back door), models were closely guarded and every major model was accounted for either in the Christies or IAW auctions, or are still property of CBS and on the Star Trek Tour. All were crated and put in storage. There is no way a model like this, if it was delivered to Paramount, wasn't kept there. And never were there two of the same size model made. They didn't make "Back-ups". Star Trek never ordered two of the same ship model. In fact, look back at the Christie's auction and all the other models and there were only one of each size made. (There were 3 Enterprise "D", all of different sizes for different shots.)

This model was bought by the owner directly from the effects shop around 1999, which is when Deep Space Nine finished filming. It is highly doubtful that if the model was made for the production, that they would have sold it. That is asking for a major lawsuit and would be theft. But, if the shop made it for their own use, then that would be no problem.

The photo below show the ship as it hung in the effects shop that built it.



Conclusion

This model is not a screen used piece. It most likely wasn't made for Paramount either, but instead made by the model shop for their own display purposes.

I assume Profiles claimed this was from Christie's because the consignor told them it was. That bothers me a great deal. Why would someone lie about this?

Well, if you answer that question, you will understand the inherent problem with this hobby.

Alec

Profiles in History Auction Preview Part 1

Yesterday I got the chance to visit Profiles in History to examine some of the Star Trek props myself and others have expressed an interest in. I had arranged this with Brian Chanes, Joe Madalena's right hand man, but sadly, Brian's father passed away on Monday and our prayers are with Brian and his family. In Brian's absence, Ryan Dohm and Fong Sam greeted my friends and I and showed us the goods. Joe himself came out and answered questions as well. So we were very well treated and got to see everything we wanted to see.

This is the biggest Star Trek live auction since Christies in 2006 and there is a huge selection of hand props. A lot of people on the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Forum have been asking me where all these props came from, especially since much of this should have been in either the Christie's or It's a Wrap auctions. Well, there are multiple consignors, but the majority of the hand props are from a well known LA prop collector. He bought most of this from someone who worked at the Paramount warehouses and sold them out the back door to him over a period of years.

Because of this, a lot of collectors have been worried about buying these items. So I spoke to the people in charge at both Paramount and CBS to make sure there would be no repercussions if people won these items, and both basically said the same thing: that it happened a while ago and they have no intention of doing anything about it. So you need not worry about Paramount or CBS coming for their property!

Of course a lot of people don't want to talk about this, but it is the dirty little secret of the Hollywood memorabilia hobby: much of it walked out the back door! And the studios usually haven't worried about it, since previously they never really valued these items much. But now things are different. Because of the Christie's Star Trek auction or the Propworx BSG auction, studios now realize they have a real asset on their hands. The head of asset management at Paramount has made it very clear that if anything from the new movie gets out, they will go to whatever lengths to recover it (the items in Julien's auction were cleared for auction for charity by JJ himself). So this situation won't be happening with Star Trek again.

So back to Profiles. I examined over 50 lots and none failed to meet my expectations. This really is a good selection of items. There are so many great props that I think everyone will find something they like. Over the next two weeks I will be highlighting some of these items.



Let's start with the Tricorders! I mean there are TWELVE of them! You wonder why Christies or IAW had none? Well, here they are.

What I did was make a spreadsheet of them all.


So if you want a Tricorder, this is your best chance. There are so many that the prices are bound to be lower. Last Profiles auction a medical Tricorder went for a hefty $ 10,000. I think that is way too high. There have been two working Tricorder sales in the last year for $ 5,000 each, and I think $ 5-8,000 is about right depending on the version.

So keep checking back, and I will be posting more thoughts on all three Star Trek auctions.

Alec