The Profiles in History Lost Auction has finally come and gone, and to say the reviews were mixed would be an understatement.
Putting aside the obvious issues discussed here and at the Movie Prop Forum in recent weeks, collectors and fans still had high hopes that Joe Maddalena & Co. would somehow come through with an event that would shake the foundation of the movie memorabilia world.
They didn’t.
Prior to the first piece going live, I received several calls and e-mailing noting that the $500 Good Faith deposit (see: Flip-Flopping Profiles in History Removes ‘Good Faith’ Deposit) still appeared when users tried to log in using the Live Auctioneers software. Although collectors weren’t actually forced to pay said fee, it still caused for a brief moment of anxiety…a moment of anxiety that shouldn’t have happened because PiH had previously said they would remove all traces of that little speed bump.
Not everything was negative, however. If you’re a glass half full kind of person you can take solace in knowing that the prop collection world gained countless new members and had a huge influx of funds.
Other Positives:
- The auction brought a lot of top-notch media attention to the hobby.
- Some of the costume lots immediately got broken up and placed on eBay. This gave some of the other collectors who didn’t have a ton of money to spend a second opportunity on certain pieces.
Other Negatives:
- Starting the auction at 1:00 Pacific Time really put a hurting on those out East. With day one ending around midnight and day two ending early this morning, it was really too much for certain fans to take. Many collectors missed out on the opportunity to bid simply because they had to get up for work the next morning.
- At one point the auction had to be stopped so that collectors and fans could move their cars in order for others to leave.
- Many of the props and costumes being auctioned off weren’t on display or even on the premises.
- No sound. No video. For those watching live online, it was like torture. PiH should have set up a UStream account and broadcast the auction live similar to the way Propworx had done it for the Iron Man auction.
- Several additional catalog inconsistencies were discovered during the auction.
- What was billed as a “huge ABC special event” turned out to be nothing more than a sparkler. Of the many Lost cast members involved in filming over six seasons, the most notable to appear at this auction were Sterling Beaumon, who played Young Ben in five episodes, and Daniel Roebuck, who played Leslie Arzt in seven episodes.
Another negative, which was not Profile’s fault at all, was the new collectors’ misunderstanding of the estimates. Many new faces figured the estimates would be in their price range and had no idea how much over a high estimate certain pieces could go. Several fans who made their way to Santa Monica walked away extremely upset and empty handed because they just didn’t have the disposable income to compete.
Things that make you go “Whaaaaa?”
- The 13 Oceanic Airlines bottles of water sold for $1,400. Outside the auction area, 24 bottles of sealed Oceanic Airlines water were selling $36.
- Prior to the auction, a video was shown of Evangeline Lilly claiming to have stolen the original Sawyer Letter, only to have it lost in a house fire. Ironically, later in the auction “Sawyer’s Letter” sold for nearly $10,000. To top it off, it turned out the letter wasn’t hand written…it was all computer type.
- John Lock’e suicide note to Jack Sheppard was another big ticket item. Unfortunately, once fans got a look at the piece, they realized Jack’s last name, Sheppard, was spelled incorrectly on the envelope. It was spelled “Shepard.”
- One of the Spanish “Flash” comic books sold for $1,400; the other sold for close to $3,500. They were the exact same thing.
At one point late last night/early this morning, the internet at the Barker Hangar went down and fans were forced to continue their bidding by phone. It wasn’t the first time this has happened at an auction, as the internet also went down at the Propworx Iron Man Auction (see: Iron Man Auction Short Circuited at Lot 163) back in April.
Either way, if you’re Profiles in History and the fan experience means little to you, then you’ve got to be happy. The amount of money they pulled in from this auction in comparison to the estimates was astronomical. The rich have gotten richer and the powerful have gotten more powerful.
Unfortunately, that does little for the fans and collectors who were feeling “ripped off” as one put it. Others felt disrespected and competitors in the industry felt ashamed to be associated in any way with Profiles. Many felt it was a sloppy job from top to bottom, and that it’s done more harm to the industry than good. And while I understand those sentiments, as a member of the media going on seven years now, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that any publicity is good publicity.
Still, I’d like to see Profiles make a much better effort next time. I’d also like to see them do more for the fan experience as this auction fell far short of its expectations.
In the end, if Profiles was a student, the auction was their project and I was the teacher in charge of grading them, they’d be going to summer school.
Pro-Prop Blog Notes:
- The Prop Blog received a healthy amount of attention over the last two weeks because of the continuous Lost Auction coverage. Not only was my work and research mentioned Luxist and Wired, I also received a little notoriety from the New York Times last night.
About Dan Benton
Dan, thanks for your site! Awesome investigative reporting. I did participate and won some items in the auction…man, these things are expensive! I got all of Kate’s personal belongings except the passports (I let that go, but made the other guy pay nearly $5000, hahaha).
Anyway, do you think things like the drivers licenses are good? Unlike the squirrel thing ya know? Thanks!
Dan Benton reporting live from the Barker Hangar? Or “I heard from some guy who heard from some other guy”.
“Others” felt disrespected…. Who?
“Competitors in the industry felt ashamed….. Who?
“Many” felt it was sloppy….. Who?
Journalism is truly dead.
Dan
Thanks for a great review of the auction–I so agree with all of your positives and negatives. I especially would have liked sound and visuals as ws available for the recent Star Trek auction.
As a rather “small time” collector, I am always amazed at the amounts of money people bid on costumes and props, sometimes beyond all good reason. I can understand the chagrin of first time bidders who believed the catalog estimates and then were faced with the astronomical amounts actually bid for items. Why do auction houses list such unrealistic estimates when they know they are so off base?
I guess I too will head to eBay to try to get something from Lost within my budget.
I am glad the Lost auction helped me find the Prop Blog–I will continue to enjoy reading it.
Thanks so much
Marcie
Cal – Everything is production made, so that’s not at all a concern. So worst case scenario is you got legitimate Lost props. Best case they were all screen-used and you walked away with iconic pieces from one of the greatest TV Shows in the last 30 years. The only real questions that arose about Kate’s belongings were the airplanes. Other than that, and maybe a few mismatched clothes here and there (all of which appeared to be screen-used anyway), I’d say you’re good to go!
Marcie – I don’t want to be “that guy,” but the low estimates really got the attention of the non or new collector(s). Because so many were completely unaware of what exactly that meant, it resulted in a lot more people bidding than if the estimates were a little more accurate and realistic. Any collector who has experienced even one auction would have known those estimates were unrealistically low. Because of that, these bidders got into crazy wars, jacking prices up to ridiculous heights. There was so much that sold for far worth than it will ever be worth.
Thanks for your support! And good luck finding something on eBay. I am sure a ton of pieces will begin to pop up in coming weeks.
James – It’s not difficult to follow an auction whether you’re there or not. It’s also not difficult to follow the chronicles of a live auction by people in attendance. The Movie Prop forum was a fantastic way to get every detail of this auction from several people that were actually there. I recommend you sign up and read it all for yourself. You’ll undoubtedly learn quite a bit from their experiences.
Also, people in this industry are very reluctant to burn bridges, and rightfully so. When I’m told things, it’s often off the record and anonymous (or the request to remain anonymous).
If you think no one felt disrespected, no competitors felt ashamed and that the auction (the catalog especially) wasn’t sloppy, I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell you.
LOL
James keep trying
its over ,That you felt compelled to come on THIS forum
and make that statement guess what ITS ALIVE AND KICKING!
Dan keep it going .
“Any collector who has experienced even one auction would have known those estimates were unrealistically low. Because of that, these bidders got into crazy wars, jacking prices up to ridiculous heights. There was so much that sold for far worth than it will ever be worth.”
this can really be said for any auction, hell i just recently paid 4k for a hero legend of the seeker wardrobe, i regret spending that much, but at the same time, im glad i got it, as i know it was a rare opportunity.
I desperately wanted a hero bsg flight suit lol, but alas i couldnt compete against the uber fans :P
Kayman – Very true, and I do agree. But what I meant was that the new collectors, of which there were many, had no idea to expect that.I actually feel somewhat guilty for having not made that more clear to them. So many went to this auction expecting to be able to afford something, and unless they got one of the costumes on day one, they likely walked away extremely disappointed. In fact, I know a few who did.
And who knows, maybe a BSG Flight Suit will pop up some day in your price range! [fingers crossed]
Ya, PIH’s estimates were way too low, some one not knowing anything about the hobby expecting to get anything for the estimates im sure must have been really pissed off, specially if they were out of state or country (canada here). But in the end you can never truly judge what the superfan will pay for an item, 15,000 for a signed lost script = OMFG
hehe ya i think the one flightsuit i had my eye on, i stopped bidding at 6k lol
Mathew
Dan, thanks for the reassurance! That’s all I cared about anyway, being actual production props. :) I’m sure something in there I bought was on-screen, but it doesn’t matter too much if it was all of ‘em.
I was there at the auction both days (26 excruciating hours in the seat). Agree with the problems noted, definitely some amateur hour stuff going on. I will give them praise for the atmosphere and set-up of the props, allowing fans to get close for photo ops. One thing though…after the Swan Computer went for $18000 it was still in a diorama for fans to take a look at. If I was the winning bidder, I don’t think I would have liked several thousand people hovering over my property, pretending to punch in numbers for a photo op. They should have removed it.
Getting back to the estimates…they were obviously put low so they would attract the casual fan. I went with friends who thought they could pick something up for $100-200. They paid their money to get in, same as me, but they went home almost empty-handed when the bids started getting high (like they should have been properly estimated.) PIH made cash at the door because of this. The worst thing about it, though, is that bids started at $100 and had to work up in $25 increments until that $100 prop was going for $3500. Minutes were wasted on each lot and the cumulative effect was us staying until 3AM. I’m sure they lost money on the back end by not having some potential bidders hang around till the bitter end. The biggest sin in this lack of foresight though? Only arranging for 12 hours of internet time with liveauctions.com. When 1AM came around all internet bidders had to switch to phone calls. Picture 10 PIH staffers holding a phone up to each ear…madness. They definitely lost money there. Not that I’m complaining. The diehards on the floor picked up some sweet deals during this chaos.
I’m glad I went. I’m thrilled I got at least one of the lots I was going for. And I’m glad this site made me do my homework to make sure I was getting a real, filmed prop and not a back-up. Many thanks!
Dan — can you do a report of all the props to show which lot was actually on-screen? I know that would be a tremendous ordeal but somebody has to do it… lol. Thanks ;-)
With reading your blog I have learned to do my research before bidding on any “props”… I was one of the bidders on Locke’s suicide note and I was so geeked up over it I didn’t even notice the improper spelling of Jack last name on the envelope. I’m certainly glad I didn’t win that… But what is even more curious now that I am doing some research is that there is a photo of that very same item that someone took a picture of from what looks to be a display by PIH, but with an envelope that does have the proper spelling of his last name. The problem with that one is that both the envelope and the letter do not look distressed. http://lost.about.com/od/photogallery/ig/Lost-Memorabilia-Auction/Lockes-suicide-note.htm This person has several photo’s from items that went up in the Profiles in History auction… Seeing that photo of the suicide note make me think something shady is going on, again advising people to do research before bidding on things. I get that there might be multiple “props” made for a scene, but I think that the normal fan may not know this and thus we had crazy bidding going on thinking that they were getting the “only” one.
keep up the good work…
Cal – If I went one-by-one…my goodness, that would be a feat. Not sure I have that in me, but I imagine now that these pieces are in the hands of collectors, we’re going to start hearing a lot more about which ones screen-match and which ones don’t.
DJ – Spot on! Exactly what you just described has been my issue all along. These new/casual fans have no reason to doubt all items were screen-used as opposed to production made. They also may not realize that there were multiples.
I honestly feel bad for those collectors who get their piece and realize they don’t have the screen-used version or that several other people have the same production made piece they do.
DJ – In taking a look at that link, that’s yet another alternate suicide letter. I have now seen three different letters, two of which have Jack’s last name spelled incorrectly.
One spelled “Shepard” and this one spelled “Shephard”
I hear ya Dan, it would be nice to know for all the collectors. I think with mine, such as the wallet with ID and stuff, they had to go through quite a bit to produce them IMO, so just knowing that, it’s kinda satisfying I guess to own the two of Kate’s. ;-)
Anyway, as far as what DJ said, the letter stuff where they write….it is my opinion that those bidding on them think they were somehow written by the actors themselves or something. And for the handwritten notes, that could easily be done multiple times. Not so much with the IDs and credit cards, etc. ya know? :) Okay, I’m trying to justify my purchases. lol
Well, I just verified 1 of the 2 Kate personal belongings that I won was shown on screen, and a credit card of Claire’s that I won was also but only the backside, so who knows which one. lol. Oh well :) I just wonder why they go out of their way and make it look real with the character’s name and all when it may or may not even be seen (especially the latter).
It was most likely shot in several different scenes…probably ones that were just cut out. I know that Lost shot almost every scene several different times and several different ways so that the actors and actresses wouldn’t let the weekly story slip to family and friends. Even they didn’t know which of the scenes they shot were going to air.