Comments and emails.....

Hey all:

I have been getting a bunch of email as of late from y'all (as we say here in Atlanta) and I love reading the email and appreciate all the great comments. I will respond to every email I get and I have made some great friends from doing this.

Please do me a favor though, and if you want to ask me a question, in addition to emailing me, please post the question here as a comment, so, in addition to answering your email, I can also answer it here for all to see. Blogs are meant to be a dialog, not just an article, and I want everyone to get used to being part of that dialog.

Thanks!

Alec

It's a Wrap eBay auctions - Week 16 Results

Week 16

This was a funny week in that there were some surprises in prices that were higher than they should be and some that were way less than you would think they should be.

The Garak costume was the top item and sold for $4,250. What is it with Garak? His last costume went for an astounding $ 3,250 which we all thought was crazy at the time. This one went for $ 1,000 more than that! Now, many of you know I have been after a Garak costume and so I actually was the under bidder on this one as it was from my favorite Garak scene. I came to grips with the fact that I might have to pay what the last one went for, but when I got outbid on this I was SHOCKED. I really wanted this one, and so I am bummed, but heck, I got my Kirk costume for less! This was an insane price to pay for this costume. (yeah I would have been calling myself out if I had won this at a price near where it finished!).

The Chief O'Brien Uniform went at a healthy $ 2,493, which was $ 443 more than the last O'Brien that was identical to this. Itr was a nice costume and I think the gold operations color always makes these costumes look great.

The Borg costume at $ 2,279 was reasonably priced and a really nice example. These will look awesome on display. Just keep that latex out of the sunlight!

The TNG two piece Operations Uniform was way high for a background player costume. There seems to be a high demand for these and they have been going high, but I don't see these holding that value.

The Cardassian Solider Costume at $ 2,158 was pretty reasonable and won by the same guy who won the Garak. It was a beautiful example of what is a great costume (I was underbidder on this too!....not a good week for Alec).

The Ensign Nog costume was another I lost out on, but I didn't bid higher because I know there are more of these, and I wasn't happy with the neck on the under shirt here. I already have the cadet Nog and simply didn't want to overpay. These are kind of cool, because they are really the size of a tall child. I have my Nog next to the Sisko and it is quite a display (photos to follow).

The Hierarchy alien costume was a bit of an enigma. I just saw this Voyager episode, and it is quite funny, but I think that was a strong price for an alien costume. It did have a gun prop and so that certainly contributed to the price.

The Rom costume went for a healthy $ 1,025 which I thought was high for a Rom, but he was a strong second tier character and so the price is not unjustified.

Similarly, the Kai Winn costume was really nice and went for a respectable $ 860. I know this will make an awesome display as the fabric and color really pop.

I have to say that the DS9 Starfleet Uniform at $ 675 was a steal. When you can get an original Star Trek uniform for a price like this, you really made out!

Similarly, I like the Starfleet Academy Cadet Costume at $ 661.51. These are just very reasonable prices for very nice costumes.

The Neelix at $ 600 was an absolute steal! Neelix costumes just don't bring very strong prices.

As far as props go:

The DS9 PADD went for $ 1,287.85 and was the top prop this past week. It is a working model and lights up. I think this was a fair price for this piece as PADDs are going in the $ 1,000-1,500 price range.

The Kira Sniper Weapon was pretty sharp and went for a reasonable $ 1,225. Supposedly one of a kind, we saw Kira use this in the episode "Shakaar". It's a little beat up but pretty cool.

The Transport Pattern Enhancers were a good deal as the winner got 3 for $ 1,204. There are some nicer ones out there, but you can't beat this price.

I think the Grand Nagus head appliance was WAY overpriced. It is latex, and already shows signs of deterioration. This is basically a used piece of make up. So I think the buyer paid too much, but if di9splayed right, will look good with a Nagus costume. Better get it treated though so it lasts.

The Krenim PADD at $ 811 was also a nice piece. This was one of the best Voyager episodes and this PADD shows the time line as the Krenim saw it. I didn't find this a visually striking prop, but I did think it relevant and so I think the buyer got a good deal.

My good friend Jason snagged the Enterprise Energy Carbine at a very reasonable $ 636.






So here are some awards for the week:

Best Costume of the Week: OK, I am very biased I will admit, but the Garak costume was a beautiful piece and was the basis for the 9" action figure. I think the costume is beautiful and in my favorite Garak scene in DS9. But as you will see below, it was a ridiculous price.

Best Prop of the Week: Not spectacular, but the pattern enhancers at $ 1,204 were a great deal and the best of the lot in a weak selection of props.

Best Buy of the week: Hirogen Hunter at $ 840 was a great deal. This costume looks great in very photo I have seen, and this one has boots.

Worst Buy of the week: The Garak costume at $ 4,250. Yeah it was the best costume, but $ 4,250???? That is INSANE.

Sleeper of the Week: The Niners pennant went for only $ 315 because most of us didn't read the fine print and thought this was your typical felt pennant. It was in fact the big one that was on the Dugout! We need to be very careful about reading descriptions!


And here are some prices realized:

5 HIGHEST PRICED ITEMS THAT SOLD

DS9 Garak Costume $ 4,250

DS9 Chirf O'Brien Uniform $ 2,493

ST: First Contact Borg Costume $ 2,279

TNG Two-Piece Starfleet Uniform $ 2,225

DS9 Cardassian Soldier Costume $ 2,158


Special thanks to Aaron Carlson, who every week, compiles all the stats on that week's auctions.

Additional Spock Space Suit info

From Jeff Kula of Uhrichsville, Ohio:

A while back ItsAWrap had auctioned off Spock's spacesuit from Star Trek:TMP. In describing the helmet it was mentioned that it had a hole/slit carved on the top.

I was over on TVLand's website and caught an interview with a few of the cast members (Takei, Nichols, & Koenig). In Part 3 of the Live Chat Walter Koenig said what they did was they had to cut a hole on top of the helmet to be able to drag/manipulate the worm going across the face. Cool piece of info. Here's the link....

http://www.tvland.com/shows/startrek/

(Click on Pre-Recorded Live Chat located on the left)

Part 3 talks about the helmet / worm.

Final word on the Doohan Shirt

I had a discussion with Anthony Pascale, who runs the Trekmovie.com web site the other day and the topic of the Scotty Shirt came up. He shed some new light, confirming the origin and explaining that both of James Doohan's sons, (Chris and Montgomery) were in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He had the photo below in an article he wrote which you can read here:


So the shirt was screen-used, just not by James Doohan. :-)

It's a Wrap eBay auctions - Week 16 Preview

Week 16 Preview

There is a good selection of hero items this week, as well as three great alien costumes. The prop selection is weak, but there are a few good items.

The First Contact Borg costume is a real beauty. The detailing is amazing and am sure this will look amazing on display. At Christie's, one like this went for $ 3,840 (before buyer's premium) and the the last one went for $ 1,625 from It's a Wrap. The only thing to remember is that these are made from cast latex, and so they will deteriorate if not well preserved. If you win this, let me know and I will introduce you to an amazing artist who specializes in creating and preserving these items.

There are both a Dr. Bashir black and gray uniform and a Chief O'Brien black and gray uniform. The last Bashir like this went for $ 1,843 and the O'Brien that was sold that was identical to this one went for $ 2,050. The O'Brien is interesting in that it has a sewn in rank insignia for a Chief Petty Officer as opposed to an officer who has metal pips. These are beautiful uniforms and display great. I think both will go over $ 2,000 as new bidders have been bidding up hero costumes recently.

The Garak costume is already at $ 1,225. Now the last Garak went for an amazing $ 3,250, which is quite high. The winner had emailed me and told me it was the last costume he needed to complete his collection, and he knew he bid high on it. That costume was from the best Garak episode "In the Pale Moonlight" when Garak gives his ending monologue to Sisko after getting hit across the room. There are plenty of Garak costumes out there as none were sold at Christie's and, like Quark, we saw Garak in a ton of different costumes.

The Cardassian Soldier Costume is a beauty. These generally go in the $ 1,500-1,800 range, and this one could easily top $ 2,000 as it looks in great shape and has boots.

The Hirogen Hunter costume is cheap right now at $ 500, but should go around $ 1,200-1,500. This one has boots and looks great. See my comments above regarding latex costumes though.

There are a number of distressed uniforms from DS9 and Voyager main characters. These should go at very reasonable prices, so keep an eye on them if you are on a budget. There is a Kira, a Chakotay, a B'Lanna Torres and a Paris. The Harry Kim Racing Jumpsuit is beautiful, buts hows signs of mold, so be careful there.

Other costumes of note are the Kai Winn costume, which is quite striking, The Mila costume from The Dogs of War, is intriguing for you DS9 and Garak fans and there is a fine Neelix costume as well. There is also a great Kess costume from her last appearance on Voyager.


As far as props go:

The Romulan Senate stools and chair are nice and have been on before. Two stools went for $ 1,125 in February and $ 699 two weeks ago. No reason to pay high for these as there are a ton fo them! The Romulan Senate was a big place!

The Kira Sniper Rifle is nice and different from other Bajoran weapons. This is the best weapon in the auction this week, and should go around $ 1,000 -1,200.

The Starfleet Energy Carbine failed to hit reserve at $ 609 last week and so is up again. No clue why IAW is still using reserves on average items.

There is a DS9 PADD which lights up which should go in the $1,000-$ 1,500 range. These keep showing up and the price will be dropping on these after a while I think.

The Voyager Pattern Enhancers are pretty nifty. There are three of them, which would look cool set up around your TV room!

There are also two pennants from the DS9 baseball episode "Take me out to the holosuite". be careful here as there are a LOT of these and this is the perfect example of why you should be patient. I would love to have a set, but I am not going to pay $ 300 for a pennant!

Finally, there is a latex "Grand Nagus" head appliance. This is very cool, but you can see the problem with latex as this is already starting to deteriorate. If you didn't win the Grand Nagus costume that was on a few weeks ago, don't bother!

Thanks for all the emails and compliments I have been getting. Feel free to post them on here as well.

Good hunting!

Alec

The Scotty Shirt Mystery solved.

Jay Combs was the poster who noted the probable history of the James Doohan shirt in last week's auction. As I noted in my last post, Jay posted a comment about the likely explanation of the origin of the Doohan shirt. He said:

"...if you look on page 104 of Grace Lee Whitney's biography "The Longest Trek", you will see a picture of one of James Doohan's sons wearing a shirt that looks exactly like the one being auctioned in a candid photo taken during the Rec Deck scene from STTMP. Doohan and Whitney are posed with their respective sons, all three of whom are extras in uniform in that scene."

And he just emailed me the photo from the Whitney book. Here it is:



And the photo of the shirt at auction:

Of course this isn't definitive, but it looks like the best explanation. Thanks Jay!

It's a Wrap eBay auctions - Week 15 Results

Week 15

I mentioned that it was a particularly strong week, and outside of two strong costumes, that observation was pretty much right on. The total for the week was only $ 52,898, which is weak compared to most weeks which are in the high $ 60,000 to low $ 70,000 range. Props especially didn't do well due to the poor selection, but there were some great bargain s on costumes in the $ 1,000 range.

The Neelix Klingon costume was the top item and sold for $4,127.25. Is the fact that it was used by Neelix in an episode reason for it to go for almost twice what the previous high for a Klingon uniform did? I guess so, but this is certainly way overpriced considering what the previous ones have sold for. The last two Klingon Warrior costumes have sold for $2,850 and $2,225. Before that the were selling about $1,850 or so. The previous high also had boots, which this one did not.

The James Doohan "Class B" shirt mystery may have been solved by the person who posted a comment on my last blog entry. I am going to repost that comment for all to see here:

"I'll offer another theory - if you look on page 104 of Grace Lee Whitney's biography "The Longest Trek", you will see a picture of one of James Doohan's sons wearing a shirt that looks exactly like the one being auctioned in a candid photo taken during the Rec Deck scene from STTMP. Doohan and Whitney are posed with their respective sons, all three of whom are extras in uniform in that scene."

The poster didn't leave their name, but this is some AWESOME detective work, and solves an important question about this costume. it also shows that the costume went WAY high for what it is.

The Star Trek:Generations Crusher stunt costume went for $1,825 which was probably about right considering it is a stunt costume. It is a beautiful costume none the less and will look great in someone's display. Too bad there was no hat with it.

The Dr. Zimmerman costume from Voyager went way below my expectations at only $ 1,075. This is an important costume in that it is the one worn by Dr. Zimmerman of Starfleet Medical, on who the Doctor's holo-matrix was based. I think the winner got a smoking deal here!

Another steal was the Jem'Hadar costume that went for only $ 1,146.51. This costume had boots as well and I almost bid on this myself. These are the type of great deals I think are there to be found every week.

Another great deal was The Terran Empire MACO Uniform which sold for a paltry $ 885! This was VERY cheap for a great uniform that will look awesome on display.

The Starfleet Cadet Future Uniform was in line with previous auctions at $ 590 and I think people should look at these. They show very little wear as they were only used in one episode and they look great AND come with a Comm badge! $ 590 is a steal.

The Blue TNG Scant went for a strong $ 1,130.89. These are probably pretty rare, so that price doesn't surprise me.

I said in my preview that I thought the Feature Film Vulcan Robes and Hat were being overlooked, and I was right as they sold for only $ 865.

The Dixon Hill hat and shoes sold for only $ 620. I am not sure what you do with the shoes, but the hat alone was worth that price.


As far as props go:

The Ferengi Disruptor Rifle (also used by the Romulans) was the top prop at $1,650. I actually bid on this, but felt, though it is a beautiful piece and would go great with the Romulan pistol I just won, was a b it more than I wanted to spend.

The Starfleet PADD went for $1,534 and was well worth it. It has a great graphic and was rather large. It also works, which is an important consideration for these. Working PADDs are rarer and well worth it.

The 24th Century Computer went for $1,454. i think that was a good price and as I have said before, there are a lot of great props that sell around $ 1,500. Any one of them will make an awesome centerpiece for a collection.

The Electronic Starfleet PADD went for $966 but was a bit beat up. I really didn't like this piece because of its condition, but reasonable since it lit up.


The Star Trek: First Contact Type III rifle went for $916.99. It was foam, so it was a reasonable price.



The Enterprise Starfleet Energy Carbine was a rubber version, and for some bizarre reason had a reserve. It failed to hit that reserve at $ 609. IAW had stopped with reserves, so I am not sure why an average prop like this had a reserve.

As predicted, the The Klingon PADD went reasonably at $815.99. I think that was probably one of the deals of the week. When you can get a great prop under $ 1,000, you have done well. It doesn't light up, but most alien PADDs didn't.


So here are some awards for the week:

Best Costume of the Week: Tough one as I don't think there were any standout costumes. The Neelix Klingon is just like any other Klingon costume, the James Doohan wasn't used in the flim (at least not by Scotty) and the Naval uniform was a stunt version. SO I am giving my costume of the week to the Dr. Zimmerman costume. Pretty cool and this went cheap!

Best Prop of the Week: The Ferengi Disruptor Rifle The detailing on these is very nice and this is a clean resin copy.

Best Buy of the week: The Starfleet Cadet Future Uniform at $ 590 is just too good a deal to not win this award this week.

Worst Buy of the week: The James Doohan "Class B" shirt for $3,450 is a really bad buy as the costume was never used onscreen by Doohan.

Sleeper of the Week: The Jem'Hadar costume at only $ 1,146.51 was pretty hard to beat. Complete with boots and cool detailing, this costume was a great deal.


And here are some prices realized:


5 HIGHEST PRICED ITEMS THAT SOLD

Voyager Neelix Klingon Costume costume $ 4,217.25

ST:TMP James Doohan Shirt $ 3,450

Dr. Crusher Stunt Naval Uniform $ 1,825

Ferengi Disruptor Rifle $ 1,650

24th Century Electronic PADD $ 1,534


Special thanks to Aaron Carlson, who every week, compiles all the stats on that week's auctions.