Alec Peters:I think everyone wants a Jaffa staff weapon. That’s a really cool piece, right? But does everyone want Daniel’s glasses? Pretty iconic prop. Some people may not like Daniel or maybe they’re Carter fans. Which is beautiful because that means that the more stuff you have, the more people you’re going to appeal to. Even when we were in Vancouver going through boxes and boxes of stuff, pulling everything out, someone would go “Oh my God, look what I’ve found.” And someone else would be like, “Yeah, whatever.”
GW: “So what.”
AP: “So what.” And then that person finds something and the other person’s like, “So what.” So there is a big emotional aspect that really is fun to tap into.
GW: A lot of people collect for investment. Getting something that you think is valuable now and hoping, or knowing, that it’s going to be extremely valuable later on. Do you have anything that you bought because you wanted to turn it into cash at some future date? Or is everything that you have connected to that emotional value that you were talking about that said this means something to you specifically.
AP: I never buy anything as an investment. Now, there’s a couple of things. I also, I think buy very wisely. For the most part, I make a lot of big purchases that are two, three, four thousand dollars of something. But when I do something like that, I’m very smart about what I’m buying, when I’m buying it. Is it something that’s going to really hold its value to? Everyone knows that on the Battlestar Galactica auction I bought this one painting and I spent a ridiculous amount. This one girl bid me up and I spent a ridiculous amount of money on it.
GW: Was it the Mandala painting?
AP: Yeah, the Mandala painting. I will never get my money back on that, never. But I didn’t care. It was really, really important to me on a bunch of levels. That is probably the one stupid purchase I’ve made in my life. [Laughter] It really was. Everyone was like “You paid how much?” But I went into that purchase knowing that I was going to overpay for the item.
GW: You really wanted it.
AP: I really wanted it. Same with the Starbuck flight suit that I won in the first auction. There’s a big collector in the UK who was interested too, who I’m friends with. And I said “Look, I’m willing to pay stupid money for this. So, you’re not going to beat me. Let’s work something out so you don’t bid me up.”
The hardcore collectors, we’re a small community and we worked out a deal where I had a Chakotay space suit from Star Trek Voyager that he had originally backed off for me for. So I said, “Listen, it’s just sitting in a box right now. It’s one of the few pieces that don’t have on display. How about I just sell you that for what I paid for it and you back off of Starbuck.” And he said, “Yeah, that’s great.”
That was a lot of fun because, there was some camaraderie and we were supporting each other and that was really cool. But anyway, I think when you buy something you really want to buy it because you love it. And I rarely sell the stuff I buy because I don’t buy mediocre stuff. I buy stuff I’m really passionate about and I don’t buy a lot of stuff. From Stargate, if I wound up with ten items, I’ll be surprised.
GW: Would that be a lot?
AP: Yeah. Because I’ve got my eye on three … Probably five that I can think right of the top that I want that I’ll bid on. But that’s about it, because I also believe in displaying your collections. I don’t believe in putting anything in a closet.
GW: Why put it in a box? If you can’t enjoy it, what’s the point? You never see it.
AP: Yeah, exactly. I think that’s important.
GW: Why Stargate? Why is Stargate compatible with Propworx’s interests?
AP: Well, one, we’re all geeks here. We all love Stargate. I think that’s one of the things that runs through most of the people here at Propworx. Curtis who’s the director of operations, runs the warehouse and the shipping and everything, he’s a huge Stargate fan. His mother is the craziest, most rabid Stargate fan.
Matter of fact, at Comic-Con last year, she came down to San Diego from Seattle just so we could get her into the SyFy party for Stargate. And so I think there’s a lot of passion here.
Stargate‘s so natural too because 15 seasons between SG1 and Atlantis, that’s a lot of stuff. Even though Legends auctioned off stuff, even though stuff has gone through Propstore, there’s a lot of stuff. And we brought down more stuff than we brought down for Galactica. That’s why it’s compatible. It’s something we’re passionate about and it’s a great property.
You may be passionate about some other show. We were talking about Heroes the other day. First season, I think a lot of people are very passionate about the first season. It’s really nosedived since then. But you look at that show and you go … Even if you are a rabid Heroes‘s fan, not that much stuff in that show. Once you get past the cheerleader’s costume, which my friend Shannon owns, there’s just not a lot of great stuff. So it’s kind of hard to build a year-long auction around it and do a big event auction like we like doing.
GW: I wouldn’t have thought that you would have a year long auction for Battlestar, I mean, you’ve got the humans and you’ve got the Cylons, that’s essentially it.
AP: There was a ton of stuff for Battlestar. A ton of stuff. Because you’re building this entire world. This whole universe that it has to be built, from the paperwork with the cut corners on up to the phones they’re using on the walls, to the clothing. The thing you get with Battlestar a little bit, with the Cylons was a lot of it was civilian clothing. So, after six’s red dress, not so interesting. Well, pretty much anything six was interesting because there wasn’t much of it to wear.
So, that’s the challenge. The challenge really tends to often be in the costuming. Because, if it’s Heroes it’s all civilian costuming and no one really cares because it doesn’t display well. But you put an Adama costume on a mannequin or a Starbuck flight suit on a mannequin … Pretty impressive.
Same thing with Stargate. Jaffa costume, I think everyone wants one of those. They’re really impressive. But if you put a set of BDUs with a tactical vest on a mannequin, that’s also pretty iconic to Stargate.
I think there’s a lot of great stuff in Stargate. And what amazed us, we were really concerned when we went to the props shop because we knew Legends took a ton of stuff. We knew a ton of stuff had just been sold to Propstore. We knew that the production itself had sold a bunch of props last year and the year before.