Twentieth Century Fox is doing something novel, and giving away key props and costumes from a popular television series, rather than auctioning them off. How I Met Your Mother , the popular CBS sitcom, ended it’s nine season run earlier this year, and now fans have a chance to win free props from the show for free via a special Tumblr page called the “Prop-erty Vault”. All of these efforts go toward promoting The Whole Story on DVD, which goes on sale next Tuesday. [Read more…]
Profiles in History’s latest auction catalog, “Hollywood Auction 65”, is now available in print as well as online, via their official site. This sale is scheduled for October 17th-20th at their Calabasas Hills facility. While with their last big Hollywood Auction sale they seemed to change course on their reserves/estimates strategy on much of the catalog, and steered away from the hopeful jackpot estimates that have plagued their sales more and more in the past few years, that old philosophy is still somewhat present with this sale (see Gilligan’s Island costume with a $30,000-$50,000 estimate), though on balance, things seem to be more reasonable than not, relatively speaking. But they continue to lead the industry with phonebook-sized catalogs, this one weighing in at 630 pages, with a mix of new material and material that has been up for auction in past sales (some many times). [Read more…]
Prop Store will be holding their first live auction event in London on October 16th. The auction catalog is now available online via a PDF download and interactive catalog via their official website and collectors can bid through PropStore.com. Prop Store has been one of the few “quality” dealers in this market for many, many years, with a reputation to match, so seeing them get into the live auction “event” side of the business is a very positive development in my personal opinion. They have put together an excellent assortment of items for this auction (many of which have not been seen before and/or auctioned in public before) and the reserves are very, very reasonable (no “jackpot” reserves/estimates as I frequently complain about). The catalog is impressive (in design and layout), and they are including a standardized COA with each item. The online listings show many high quality images of each item. I think if you read the letter at the front of the catalog, you will see that Stephen Lane and Prop Store have a different set of experiences and perspectives on collecting compared with most other auction houses – there is passion and understanding as collectors. I wish them the best in their new endeavor. Hopefully their entrance to this arena will motivate other auction houses to improve their own businesses. I think collectors have been complaining about a number of facets of this business, and Prop Store has listened and addressed many of them with their first big auction, and I know that they are receptive to feedback and will build on what I expect will be a successful first event. [Read more…]
Premiere Props have listed their next auction with online bidding partners iCollector, Invaluable (formerly ArtFact), and proxibid (replacing LiveAuctioneers) as part of their “Hollywood VIP Auction III”. The two-day auction is scheduled for August 23rd. As with past auctions, the sale includes a mix of original props, costumes, and other film and television artifacts, as well as general Hollywood Memorabilia, all in no order or rhyme or reason apparent as to sequence or grouping. “Movie Props DNA (MPDNA)”, which seems to come and go with these sale events, is no where to be found in the lot descriptions this time around save for two lots (Lot #183 and Lot #224) out of more than 500. [Read more…]
Heritage Auction Galleries has published on their latest online catalog and listings for their upcoming event, “Entertainment & Music Memorabilia Signature Auction – Dallas #7092”, to be held on August 23rd in Beverly Hills. The bulk of the 649 items includes music and rock and roll items and vintage/classic Hollywood stars and personally owned items/estate items. [Read more…]
Next up for ScreenBid and their official online memorabilia auctions (following auctions for Breaking Bad, Psych, and Californication) is their sale for HBO’s True Blood. ScreenBid will be selling original props and costumes and other production material from the series in an online-only auction that runs through August 20th – August 25th.
Four days ago, Original Prop Blog published an article (LINK) noting the Daily Mail wrote a piece promoting a Stormtrooper helmet auction in the Nate D. Sanders auction concluding this coming Thursday. The helmet had been described as a “prototype” from the original 1977 Star Wars film, with provenance from Andrew Ainsworth. Original Prop Blog has published a number of articles about these “prototype” helmets sold into the marketplace over the years, and reported in June that Christie’s withdrew one of these from their auctions at the time. Now, Nate D. Sanders has withdrawn this one from it’s own auction (though, as reported, it failed to sell in their March auction and in subsequent eBay auctions). [Read more…]
TMZ and other media outlets are today reporting that the Michael Jackson Estate has filed a Federal lawsuit again Hollywood movie prop and memorabilia dealer Premiere Props; that the auction house was “duping potential buyers with a get-rich-quick scheme”. Per the article, Premiere Props offered concert photos for sale of the 1984 Victory Tour, and that Michael Jackson had originally hired the photographer and owned rights to the photos. According to TMZ, “[t]he Estate claims Premiere Props put the photos up for auction, and misled buyers into believing they would also own copyright on the pics — a huge selling point, because the buyer could make a fortune by reprinting and selling the pics”. [Read more…]