This work product is part of the ongoing series of articles about Superman costumes in the marketplace, tracking public auction house, dealer and dealer websites, and public eBay listings of costume items attributed to use by Christopher Reeve in the Superman films of the 70s and 80s (see category Market Watch | Superman).
What I have attempted to do is catalog the costumes offered for sale to the public by auction houses and by prop dealers on their commercial websites. This is the first time in which the two separate matrices (one exclusive to eBay, one archiving other sales outlets) are both featured in the same article – hence the “2.0” designations.
As noted in the previous articles, I have tried to capture as much of the key details of these offerings as possible to populate a matrix in an effort to share information with collectors about what has been offered for sale and the attributes of those costumes and costume parts as well as sources and stated provenance. This also offers an opportunity to compare and contrast some of the characteristics of these costumes. Some also appear to have been sold and resold (based on matching wardrobe tags, for instance), as noted in the document, to the best of my ability.
With regards to eBay listings, many of the items have been relisted one of more times, sometimes with changes, so this is summarized as thoroughly as possible. Also of note is that I did not begin to significantly archive eBay auctions until very late in 2007, so the tracked data is extremely limited in scope.
Obviously, I am at the mercy of the quality and accuracy of the information used to market these pieces by auction houses and their consignors, dealers, and private parties, as applicable. In some cases, the information provided is vague and imprecise, so I would ask anyone using this document to please keep all of this in mind and to perform your own due diligence and verify all information to your own standards. I have not verified any of the information presented or claimed via the marketing and advertising of these pieces beyond what was noted in the applicable auction catalog and/or website.
This latest draft of each matrix is named “Version 2.0”, marked with today’s date, as I see this as a “living document” with many updates, revisions, edits, etc.
If anyone has any information to share or changes/edits or any other input, please contact me, as my goal is to make it as accurate and comprehensive as possible.
Please note that each of the two matrices are maintained separately, in that different variables apply to eBay compared with other sales venues.
Superman Costume Matrix: eBay Listing Public Offerings ver. 2.0
Superman Costume Matrix: Auction House/Dealer Website Public Offerings ver. 2.0
Offerings following the publishing of those articles can be found by searching the Superman costume-related articles found in the Market Watch | Superman category.
Jason De Bord