posted 08-20-2009 12:58 PM            

From the early aviation era, Regency-Superior is offering an extremely rare flown cover from Jeanette Piccard's 1934 Stratospheric Balloon Flight (lot 13). This cover is signed by Jeanette and her husband Jean (aide). This was her attempt to become the 'First Woman in Space' (as acknowledged later by Valentina Tereshkova). This cover is the Rolls Royce among ballooning covers, and is in pristine condition.

The Mercury and Gemini sections are loaded with great autograph lots, as well as flown and unflown items. Notable is an unusual Mercury 7 cover (lot 88) signed by all seven astronauts who added their ranks below their signatures. There is also a U.S.S. Lake Champlain Prime Recovery Ship cover for Alan Shepard's flight (lot 102). Gemini highlights include a great color photo signed by 13 different Gemini astronauts (lot 126), an Ed White & Jim McDivitt signed photo (lot 135), and a flown U.S. flag from GT-5 (lot 139).

The Apollo section includes many scarce and important items, including:

• Lunar Module Landing Strut Assembly from Grumman (lot 174)
  
• Lunar Module Landing Gear, Upper Segment (lot 175)
  
• nine different single signed Neil Armstrong items
  
• seven different Apollo 11 complete crew signed items
  
• Apollo 12 flown mission patch (lot 273)
  
• Apollo 13 flown and signed Beta Cloth patch (lot 289)
  
• Apollo 14 flown mission patch (lot 305)
  
• Apollo 16 flown flag (lot 340)
  
• Apollo 17 flown Lunar Surface Checklist (lot 352)
  
• plus thousands of covers and photographs

The entire auction is now available online for viewing and bidding at RegencySuperior.com. Free color catalogs are available by calling toll-free 1-800-782-0066.

For specific questions regarding this space auction, please contact Alan Lipkin.

posted 08-22-2009 05:26 AM               

• Lot 253
  
• Lot 254

posted 08-22-2009 10:10 AM               

Lots 238 and 242 - The Aldrin signatures displayed don't give me a lot of confidence. They could be rushed (238) or odd due to a thick pen (242), but I don't think they make a great investment (unless other signatures in these lots can be reviewed and appear to be more typical).

Lot 246 - A few details of this autograph give me pause for concern. Any potential buyer should research this one further.

Lots 248-249 - While there may be provenance to support these two items as being authentic, I personally feel they would be a terrible investment. Should you ever have to re-sell these items someday, you'll have nothing but trouble convincing others these signatures are real.

Lot 258 - The Aldrin and Collins appear authentic (and are most likely from recent signings). But the Armstrong appears odd and is likely a forgery, in my opinion.

Lot 262 - The Armstrong here appears to match an identified secretarial style that originated from KSC...or at least appears quite similar to that style. Regardless of it's origin, it doesn't appear to match an authentic Armstrong signature style.

posted 08-22-2009 12:12 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by cjh5801:
Any opinions on these two Armstrong-signed covers?

---

posted 08-29-2009 04:56 PM               

Lot 248 was signed on the 13th hole of the Doug Sanders Golf Tourney in Kingwood, Texas. Just as Armstrong sat down in his golf cart on the passenger side I handed him the picture and red pen and almost at that exact moment his playing partner started the golf cart and drove off. Well, I ran about 200 yards to get the item and my pen back and what you see is the result.

Lot 249 was obtained that same day on the 18th hole as Armstrong made his way off the green exiting through the crowd which was about 20 people deep surrounding the green. They were watching the golfers and Armstrong was all but ignored. The crowd control was terrible and as he fought his way through the crowd surrounding the green I handed him the picture and pen and he literally signed it above his head which was the only place he could hold the picture.

Armstrong played numerous times at the Doug Sanders Celebrity golf tourney and living in Houston he was here numerous other times back in the good old days.

In person signatures under "difficult" situations can be tough and one never knows what may happen.

I also want to correct some comments regarding three Armstrongs that I consigned in the April auction. Lots 224 and 225 also came from me and were also obtained at the Doug Sanders by my sister. Lot 234 was one I bought on eBay. Alan Lipkins's comments were incorrect when he said that Lot 234 was an in-person. What doesn't show clearly on that lot is where the pen had skipped several times in the signature making it look a bit odd but the handwriting is Armstrong's.

I am sorry the two Armstrongs are so ugly but they are 100% authentic and that is noted on the back of the lithos. In 1992 there wasn't all this fuss over what is real and what is a forgery as there was no eBay, Armstrong still signed for people and the world was a simpler place.

posted 09-05-2009 11:25 PM            

The catalog states that there will be live bidding for the auction, but not by what system. It points you to regencysuperior.com, which doesn't have specific information on it at this time that I can see.

posted 09-10-2009 12:44 PM               

We will hold down the speed of the sale to enable potential bidders to participate as much as possible. No rushing or closing lots before activity has been allowed to both the floor and the internet.

If you have any questions about registration or the bidding process please email Cathy Skinner: cskinner@regencysuperior.com any time before the sale. To speak with her call: 1-800-782-0066 (from overseas call:1-314-361-5695) prior to sale date. On October 7, auction date she can be reached at: 1-310-553-5475.

The entire sale is now up on our website with current opening bid listed. You may currently place a bid on our "book" or wait until Sep. 21st to register to bid live.

I hope that this covers the basics. We will be moving to a complete upgrade of our auction software from a company called SimpleSite (Blue Dog Software) this will be a great improvement in all aspects of the sale. I will try to keep you up to date on the progress. The new system will be live and interactive, your bids will be immediately entered into the system. We are really looking forward to this and other innovations in the coming months.

If you have any direct questions, I will be happy to answer them, my email address is: alipkin@regencysuperior.com

posted 09-14-2009 05:40 PM               

I also have a cover signed by Hollywood actress Ginger Rogers, but postmarked the day she died. The company that issued it was planning the cover to commemorate her winning the Academy Award, but before that anniversary came up, she died, and the company changed plans and had the envelopes postmarked then.

posted 09-20-2009 03:44 AM              

It is bad practice to force usernames as people either a) forget them and then lose out on spur of the moment bidding or b) need to write them down which is highly non-secure.

posted 09-22-2009 12:12 PM               

With the ever-losing US-$ vs Euro it should be interesting for Europeans again this time. (Not that I'm too happy as a seller...)

posted 10-03-2009 11:02 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Penney Kols:
The ASTP section is highlighted by an incredible 1975 flown Table Medal (lot 389).

---

It is a very light weighted medal (.5oz) and 2 1/4" (56mm) in diameter. It appears to be made of some kind of plastic with a silver coloured coating.

Depending on how the auction goes I might consider selling mine as well - and retire after that.

posted 10-03-2009 12:42 PM               

I own a flown medal from Alexei Leonov's collection that separates into two halves, which you can see him practicing the assembly of in NASA photo S75-24926. According to another crew member, these Apollo and Soyuz unified-in-flight coins are quite rare.

posted 10-03-2009 01:12 PM               

There appear to be a separate Soyuz and a separate Apollo each glued to the circular medallion. We can see where the pieces were glued to the backing, but do not have the equipment to photo it in enough detail.

posted 10-03-2009 01:21 PM               

So, if I am understanding this correctly, it was glued together in space?

And if you (and perhaps others) have the same medal, and you also believe yours to be flown, they glued together multiples of these medals?

posted 10-04-2009 07:07 PM               

I'm not saying that this isn't an insurance cover, but I do know that some insurance covers for other missions were signed after the crew returned, or the signatures were obtained by collectors who purchased unsigned covers. Because I want an Apollo 16 cover that was definitely signed before the launch I'm not sure whether to bid on this lot.