Prop collecting: Do you have an arm and a leg to spare?

Any collector of TV or movie memorabilia knows that these days, actual screen used props cost a mint: the more important or unique the prop, the more it costs.  I saw the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on sale in a memorabilia store by Disneyland for $10,000 dollars several years ago - and at that, you can't really be certain it was a real prop they were selling.  Remember, it's easier to make a certificate than a fake prop, so don't think a "certificate of authenticity" means much on it's own.  Consider who issued it.   A Certificate from PAramount Studios would add a lot of weight to the validity of the prop; one from the store just doesn't mean that much to me.  Enough said.

Sometimes, at least in Los Angeles, you can come across real props for real cheap - especiially if you're not too picky.  I bought the framed article above from a charity prop sale at a Major Motion Picture Studio about a year ago for the princely some of One Dollar.  It has a production number on the back, and was obviously created with a particular show and scene in mind, but I actually have no idea what show or movie it was in.  I just like it.  If you have any idea where this was used - probably in a TV show - I'd love to hear it.

This piece is now hung in a place of honor, right by the light switch in my bedroom, where I see it every day.

When the Collecting Stops

One year ago, one of my best friends passed away suddenly.

Bruce was a lifelong collector. If he knew about something he'd like, he had to have it. And his interests were varied. As a kid, he collected movie posters. Teenager, Beatles. He became fascinated with the JFK assassination, and had probably every book published on it, including one of his own, and a complete original bound set of the Warren Commission Report.

His house (above) was like a museum.  He collected Disney, Monty Python, Mystery Science 3000, Titanic (The real ship and the movie), Star Trek, Marx Brothers, WC Fields, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Apple Computers, and more things than I can think of to list here.

I got to know him in the last ten years or so, so I saw his interest in Harry Potter burgeon into full-blown collecting. All the books, the books on CD, the prop replicas, model trains (he collected trains too).  He set up a really great little display of his Potter stuff, with a full-sized broom hung by fish line underneath to look as if it was flying.

He had a complete collection of Mad magazine, or so he thought. When I asked about it once, he opened the first binder and showed me issue 1, issue 2, and... an empty sleeve for issue 3. "Oh yeah, I never got 3. I forgot about that." He looked at me. "Gee, thanks. I was perfectly happy thinking I had them all, now I have to find issue 3." Within a month or so, he had it off of Ebay.

After Bruce passed away, it fell upon me and others to help his family deal with all of his possessions. It was very sad to see many things that were so prized by him - as all a collectors collections are prized - now became so much less. A burden on his family, fodder for garage sales and Ebay, with, of course, treasured keepsakes scattered throughout.

I asked for and was graciously given his Mystery Science Theater collection, because I had great memories of watching the show in his (self designed and built)  home theater and howling with laughter.  (if you ever get to see MST3K on a big screen, do it.  The illusion that Joel or Mike and the robots are sitting in a theater with you adds to the fun).  Bruce had every episode from Season Two up on tape, and was in the process of making his own box sets on DVD.  I got his one of a kind sets for seasons 2 & 3 too, they will always be treasured.  (The "real" Season One was only shown on local cable in the midwest; clips of it can be seen on Youtube).  Crow and Tom Servo now sit in my living room, near my own big screen.

This all got me thinking, though, about how little collectors often are prepared for the handling of their prized possessions after they pass away.  If the family doesn't share the passion, they run the risk of throwing away valuable items unintentionally, or being ripped off by unscrupulous collectors.  I've heard tale of a well-known collector of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea memorabilia who, on passing away, had his collection pillaged by his most hated rivals before, as they say, the body was even cold.  Even if the family is aware of the value of a collection, it creates extra distress - at a time when there's already plenty of distress - to try to deal with a collection in the way their loved one would have wanted, or in a way that at least gets them the fair value and moves the items on to someone else who will appreciate them.

Out of this experience,  I've developed a short list of things that every collector should do to protect both their collections and their family when they pass away:

1) Write a Will.  I know this seems obvious, and may feel a little creepy, but it makes things a lot easier on your family.  If you want something to go to a friend who'll appreciate it, they know.  If something is so rare it should be sold at auction, they know.  If you want your collection donated to an (appropriate) museum or library, they know.  It can be as simple as writing it out on a sheet of paper and throwing it in your desk.

2) Label items.  My Dad puts an index card in the front of his books, and with other collectibles, that tells when and how he got it, what it is, and why it's an important part of the collection.  Nobody else in the world has his knowledge of Theodore Roosevelt or more so his collection, so this information is invaluable.  The metal post shown here would likely have been tossed away, mistaken for an odd lighting fixture, if Bruce hadn't once just remarked to me that that pipe over in the corner of his garage was one of the original security fence posts from Forbidden Planet, set up to protect the ship from the invisible Id beast.  Without that knowledge, it was trash.  With it, it may fetch a couple thousand dollars at auction, restored.

3)Get rid of clutter.  This one seems less obvious, but it's always good if you can take stock of what you're saving, and just get rid of stuff you really have no use for anymore.  I become acutely aware of this only when taking a box to storage.  Heading into the unit, it may occur to me I'm never going to come out here and dig out, say, one of these old VHS tapes to watch - so why pay to store it forever, and leave for someone I care about to throw out after I'm gone?  I like to donate such stuff to Veterans or other charities, or give them to any friend I know who'll appreciate it.

Well, this was a long one, but I've been wanting to put it up for awhile, and now's the time.  Bruce's dying, and helping with his collections, profoundly affected how I feel about amassing materials myself.  I'll have several more stories to tell relating to these experiences from now on, and more, as always.

Oh, and by the way - I purchased Bruce's Harry Potter collection for a fair price.  Not that I had previously wanted it before, but I didn't quite want to see it go.  Now much of it is displayed on a shelf in my dining room area.

Thanks for listening.

Insert Stuffed Mother / Stuffed Bird joke here

Back when Psycho III came out - 1986 - I couldn't resist taking home the key to Bates Motel Room 1, the location of the most famous shower in film history.  This was just a cheap little giveaway chatchki, but I like the effort they went to - or that they even thought of doing something so simple.  I'm pretty sure I paid a buck or so for this at a convention, but I don't know.  I may have picked it up for free in a comic shop or movie theater in Ithaca NY, where I went to college.

The key is just an old key I added to complete the image, and it was residing in a box in storage until now.  I think it's time for this to sit discreetly by my car keys again.

A record. Like, a record record record.

One of the other things I'm collecting right now is actual movie props.  While most of what I have I've only recently acquired, one I've had for several years is the "One-ders" single from "That Thing You Do!", which may just be my favorite movie.  Tom Hanks has a gift for making engaging stories without car chases or even, really, a bad guy, and this is one of his best.

This is the real thing, undoubtedly one of the several hundred seen in stacks in the film.  I did out it on a turntable just once, and not surprisedly, it played some horrible junk that must have been very cheap to buy unlabelled copies of.

I much later came to own a copy of the actual 45 of the song released at the time of the movie, on the "Playtone" label as seen in the film - but that would technically be considered a "prop replica" I suppose, so not nearly so valuable.

It's also part of a much, much longer story about collecting, and it's too late to start telling it tonight.

Take care, everybody.  More soon.