posted 04-01-2007 07:26 AM              

Also picked up the A15 LM plaque (lot 150) also for a bargain at $175 considering it was from Irwin's estate. All the big stuff I had my eyes on went higher than I was preparted to pay.

I have to say that after doing a bunch of auctions via ebay that being there live was great. You can see the actual items before the sale and can gague the interest in the room for items.

But the best part is sitting in the "peanut gallery" with other collectors who really enjoy this hobby but who don't take it too seriously.

posted 04-01-2007 08:13 AM               

I was running the auction live with Firefox... and it locked up at least 30 times... usually 5 minutes was the longest it kept working.

posted 04-01-2007 09:16 AM               

I thought some of the mini-portraits were good deals and quite nice display items. #39 Grissom and Young went for $700 and the Ap11 portraits (#128) went for only $1100.
I picked up the Anders and an ASTP litho signed by the US crew for $100.

posted 04-01-2007 12:49 PM               

I think Victoria once told me that eBay live auctions charges a significant fee to the auction houses which is why all the auction houses boost their buyers fees for eBay live bidders.

For Derek - if you place a bid via ebay live that matches an exisiting bid placed to the auction house in advance or submitted by a bidder at the auction itself the other bids take priority and if no more bids are placed the item sells to the other bidder. Never sit back and relax unless you are shown explicitly as the current high bidder on your eBay live screen.

My impression was that the prices realized were on the high side. Certainly all the big-ticket items I had my eye on went out of my price range pretty rapidly.

posted 04-01-2007 01:23 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by spaced out:
I think Victoria once told me that eBay live auctions charges a significant fee to the auction houses which is why all the auction houses boost their buyers fees for eBay live bidders.

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I don't doubt that, but it could come out of the auctioneers' "significant" profit .
My stockbroker doesn't charge me extra for buying my shares online as opposed to by phone or in-person AND he probably outsources the running of the I.T.
Internet technology reduces the cost of execution and increases liquidity, ie more buyers, more bids and more profit for the auction house.

posted 04-01-2007 04:28 PM               

Steve

posted 04-01-2007 08:27 PM            

I won two unflown Robbins Medallions - STS-1 owned by Tom Stafford and Skylab 1 owned by Paul Weitz. They went a little higher than I had hoped for, but I'm excited, especially with the provenence. I bid on one of the A11 flown flight plan pages, but it went much much higher than I could afford. I continue to be amazed at how much anything A11 related seems to be fetching. Also bid on the A7 and A10 flight plans but again, too steep.

I guess it's fortunate that I didnt win more - save a bit of money for Aurora or Regency!

posted 04-02-2007 05:17 AM               

I was logged onto the ebay live auction, with my mouse hovering over the bid button. When all of a sudden my cat jumped onto the laptop and walked all over the keyboard, so I jumped up and pulled him away, only to see he had registered a bid! And it was for about $2,000!

So for a few seconds my heart stopped beating, untill someone at the auction outbid him, and I was able to relax again...

I'm just glad he didnt decide to do it when that Apollo 11 LM Activation page was at $26,000. Now that would have been a tough one to explain!

Thanks

posted 04-02-2007 05:39 AM               

It was great to meet with many folks, some of which I previously have only known through email, including Gregg Linebaugh and a veritable who’s who of cS members including Larry McGlynn, Dave Scott (not the astronaut), Ray Katz, and others. It was a pleasure meeting you all.

The downside of attending live: With limited funds to work with and two more auctions just around the corner, I had to sit on my hands a good deal of the time. With eBay Live, all you need to do is disconnect the keyboard and mouse from your computer.

I did manage to get off my hands and pick up one item – the Fred Haise Apollo 14 Permanent Firing Room badge. This purchase completes my collection of manned Apollo mission Permanent Firing Room access badges (including all Skylab as well as ASTP). I have found that Apollo 14 is rather hard to come by on its own and the added provenance of the Haise piece is a definite plus!

I hate to admit that I was one of those “tired and distracted” at the end of the sale when Dave Scott came out of nowhere and walked away with that Alan Bean original. Good going, Dave!

I’m already looking forward to next year.

posted 04-02-2007 10:25 AM               

For some reason, the lot containing pictures of ejection seat testing was bid up, eliminating me. I also put in a naive, but hopeful bid of $3,800 for the Skylab jacket. There was a brief pause when I though I had a chance...

I DID get the Gemini 7/6 Group Achievement Award and a lot containing signed litho drawings of the crews of 7 and 6.

Also, I enjoyed meeting Bill (413). I was very happy that he won the Apollo 14 ID badge he was going for.

posted 04-02-2007 11:48 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by mmmoo:
I was logged onto the ebay live auction, with my mouse hovering over the bid button. When all of a sudden my cat jumped onto the laptop and walked all over the keyboard, so I jumped up and pulled him away, only to see he had registered a bid! And it was for about $2,000!

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What did your cat almost buy? I can imagine someone trying to explain that to their spouse. "But the cat bought it!!"

I always make sure to keep the mouse pointer far away from the bid button when I'm watching auctions I don't plan on bidding on. Otherwise, an accidental muscle twitch could end up being VERY expensive!

posted 04-02-2007 02:01 PM            

You should also keep the cat away from the mouse.

posted 04-03-2007 03:10 PM               

quote:

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Preliminary Results of Sale 2109, March 31, 2007: Space Exploration

Sale total: $419,430 with Buyer's Premium
Hammer total: $348,730
Estimates for sale as a whole: $290,580 - $385,075
We offered 427 lots; 380 sold (11% buy-in rate by lot)

Top lots, Prices with buyer's premium:

• 107* Flown Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Checklist, with mission notes by Buzz Aldrin made while on the moon, inscribed and signed by Aldrin, $31,200
  
• 155 Flown Apollo 16 Lunar Orbit Chart, carried to the lunar surface, inscribed and signed by Charles Duke, $19,200
  
• 112 Flown Apollo 11 United States Flag, 4 x 6 inches, signed by Buzz Aldrin, $18,000
  
• 89 Apollo 1 Crew Signed Portrait, color photograph of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, 1966, $14,400
  
• 108 Flown Apollo 11 Lunar Module G and N Dictionary, used in the coelliptic rendezvous sequence, inscribed and signed by Buzz Aldrin, $14,400
  
• 105 Flown Apollo 11 Flight Plan sheet, with data entries made by Neil Armstrong during the mission, inscribed and signed by Buzz Aldrin, $11,400
  
• 146 Flown unauthorized Apollo 15 Postal Cover, taken to the moon’s surface, and signed by Al Worden, David Scott and James Irwin, $10,800
  
• 222 Shuttle Wind Tunnel Model, 18-inch stainless steel scale model of an early space shuttle design, $10,200
  
• 106 Flown Lunar Module Activation Checklist sheet, with steps from the rendezvous radar self-test, inscribed and signed by Buzz Aldrin, $8,400
  
• 133* Flown Apollo 13 Lunar Module Contingency Checklist page, used by James Lovell during the emergency situation to record critical circuit breaker settings for the Lunar Module, $8,400
  
• 109 Flown Apollo 11 Flight Plan sheet, with the steps required to secure the Lunar Module’s ascent stage, inscribed and signed by Buzz Aldrin, $7,800
  
• 65 Lunar Landing Mission Profile, with an 85-step diagram showing all critical steps involved in an Apollo lunar landing mission, inscribed and signed by Apollo 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 17 astronauts, $6,720
  
• 138 Flown Apollo 13 Cloth Crew Emblem, with a letter signed by James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, 1970, $6,480
  
• 285 Flown Skylab 3 Jacket, worn by Ed Gibson onboard the Skylab space station, with a Typed Letter Signed by Gibson, $6,480
  
• 10 First Day Issue Mercury Postal Cover, signed by all seven Mercury astronauts, 1962, $5,520
  
• 1 Robert H. Goddard, sheet with a pencil drawing and notes for a liquid nitrogen rinsing valve, $5,040
  
• 399 Paul Calle, Neil Armstrong, limited edition lithograph, signed by Calle and Armstrong, $4,900
  
• 144 Flown Apollo 15 Shamrock Postal Cover, carried in the Lunar Module to the moon’s surface, inscribed and Signed by Jim Irwin, $4,560
  
• 156 Flown Texas State Flag carried to the moon on Apollo 16, 4 x 6 inches, signed by Charlie Duke, $4,560
  
• 340 STS 107 Flight Crew Briefing, a distribution document to the Shuttle Columbia crew, signed by the complete crew before the tragedy that took their lives in 2003, $4,410

KEY: *=Auction Record

Gregg Linebaugh, Organizer and Cataloguer of the auction, said, “These results indicate that buyers recognize the importance of obtaining significant artifacts from the two most remembered lunar missions, Apollos 11 and 13. And, the astronauts who consign material from these missions recognize that Swann’s expertise in this new field of collecting is instrumental in achieving these results.”

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posted 04-03-2007 07:13 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
Does anyone know if Swann made such an announcement, or even the possibility that it might not be a LM-flown item, as the cover was auctioned off?

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Ken -

To my best recollection no such announcement was made at the time that this piece was on the auction block.

posted 04-04-2007 09:24 AM               

I placed an absentee bid with Swann as I was enjoying a holiday in Venice on the 31st. Almost the first thing I did after arriving home on flying back to the UK on 2 April, was to check my computer (which refused to boot-up!)

I eventually got it to work and was delighted to find out that I had won the item within my bid ceiling. It will however be an expensive acquisition for me when Buyers Premium,Shipping andHM Revenue & Customs charges are added, but these are unavoidable when buying in auction items from abroad.

The downside is that I was after this item a couple of years ago and placed a request on the CS Forum. Randy C offered me a signed complete crew photo for what I think was a very good price (compared to what I had to bid)but due to the unexpected suicide of one of my members of staff at the time Randy contacted me I was unable to proceed as, of course, other matters took priority.

Other things then got in the way and the project I wanted this item for got put to oneside until recently. I didn't have the cheek to get back to Randy C after nearly two years to enquire if his was still available!

posted 04-17-2007 07:11 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by gliderpilotuk:
Anyone had their invoice (including postage) yet?

Paul

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Paul -

I received my invoice (in Virginia) about one week after the sale.

posted 04-30-2007 09:23 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by 413 is in:
To my best recollection no such announcement was made at the time that this piece was on the auction block.

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posted 05-28-2007 07:08 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by gliderpilotuk:
Has anyone else STILL not got their winnings?
Swann do not reply to my emails and I have no idea whether (like last time) they "forgot" to ship, or whether the item HAS been shipped and is with Customs.

Paul Bramley

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I would probably try calling them. I received my items about a month ago.

posted 05-28-2007 12:48 PM            

Customs in most countries (especially UK) seems to take perverse pleasure in holding things for weeks or months without telling ANYONE.

My guess is they have it.

posted 05-28-2007 02:19 PM               

Call Larry in the mailroom at Swann. Give him your customer number and he should be able to tell all about the history of your lots.

posted 05-29-2007 12:34 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Novaspace:
Customs in most countries (especially UK) seems to take perverse pleasure in holding things for weeks or months without telling ANYONE.Kim Poor

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This is very true. And then when Customs give you the ok to recover the tax and duty, the Post Office still levies an outrageous "service" charge for opening and mis-charging the VAT in the first place!

On this occasion, however, I am assured (by Swann) that the items have not even been sent, but are now on their way.

Paul