Star Trek collectors went far beyond the final frontier bidding on memorabilia from several Star Trek movies and TV shows at the "Bid Long & Prosper" hosted by Julien's Auctions last weekend.
Julien's Auctions is a Beverly Hills-based auction house founded in 2003 that specializes mostly in auctions of film memorabilia. The Bid Long & Prosper auction held in Hollywood included more than 200 original props, costumes and other memorabilia from Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1968), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: The Voyage Home, and other films and TV shows.
Final sales for these Star Trek props went far beyond the original estimates listed on Julien's website. Not surprisingly, the most expensive sales were for props used by Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) in Star Trek: The Original Series. This screen-matched phaser used by Captain Kirk sold for a whopping $910,000, the most ever for Star Trek memorabilia. The initial estimate for the phaser was only $100,000.
This screen-matched communicator used by Kirk in the Original Series sold for $780,000 roughly four to eight times the original estimate ($100,000 to $200,000) on Julien's website.
Kirk's phaser and communicator accounted for nearly half of the total sales; in total, the Bid & Prosper Auction of over 200 lots of Star Trek-related items brought in an astounding $3.6M.
Julien's also auctioned other one-of-a-kind studio props such as bridge control panels from the Enterprise (sold for $19,050), Kirk's iconic yellow uniform and black pants (sold for $455,000), the helm and navigation console on the Enterprise used by Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu (sold for $260,000), and the original miniature of the Deep Space Nine space station (sold for $254,000). The original estimate for the Deep Space Nine miniature was in the $50,000 to $70,000 range.
Not every item was unattainable to the masses. Over two dozen items sold for less than $500 including panels from the Enterprise D, costume design sketches that were used for for Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a production script for Star Trek: Insurrection.
Even though the Force was exceptionally strong for these sales, they still can't compare to sales for props from Star Wars films and TV shows. For instance, a model of an X-Wing fighter used in Star Wars: A New Hope sold for $3.1M just over a year ago on Heritage Auctions. A similar X-Wing fighter model sold during a Propstore Auction in 2022 for $2,375,000. And this Storm Trooper costume sold for $645,000. Clearly the market has answered that age old question: Star Wars vs. Star Trek?
