GateWorld: So when you get to Stargate, you’ve taken you licks and learned a lot of stuff from the previous auctions and catalogs and this should be the crème de la crème.

Alec Peters: And it’s a lot easier, too. You know what we’re doing. Our cataloging process for Stargate is way better that it was for Galactica. We were on a time crunch for Galactica and it was kind of crazy. We basically did the first catalog while we were in Vancouver. This is a lot easier.

So, we’ll have a lot more time, the process will be smoother. Even the EBay auctions, I know everyone yesterday was talking about how much easier it was this time around launching the Stargate auctions as opposed to launching the Battlestar auctions.

So everyone learns their job and everyone finds it’s a lot easier and smoother. Which means we are more productive and can do more. Because we have got to do, before, we can get to the Stargate catalog, we’ve got to do Star Trek next. Then we’re doing Kevin Smith, who I’m sure a lot of people know. His auction, which is stuff from…

GW: All of his movies.

Ori Warrior Costume

AP: Yeah, most of his movies. Clerks II, Jay and Silent Bob: Strike Back, Dogma, Zach and Miri Make a Porno. All those movies. So, we’ve got those catalogs to do. So, Star Trek, Kevin Smith, and then Stargate. And, it’s basically in that order this year.

So, there is a lot of work to be done. But, again, it is getting easier and easier to do it. So that being said, a Stargate art book, I think will fall in nicely into the last quarter of this year. Because, we will get the two catalogs to bed, and then be able to take all those photos of the art and put them into “The Art of Stargate” book.
Which I think, such a huge audience, I think that would be a great, great seller.

GW: Very cool. Any other IPs that you have on the horizon that you’d be willing to hint about?

AP: I mean there’s always things that, I think that you can think of the big ones. You mentioned Star Wars. I mean, they have a huge archive. But they don’t sell anything. The stuff that has gotten out, has all gotten out from like producers or directors and stuff like that. Love to work with them, right?

You’d love to work with Peter Jackson. You’d love to work with Weta Studios. I kind of think like now, right now we are working with Marvel. For me personally, there is no one I’d rather be working with than Marvel. Because I am a huge Marvel comic geek. We’re doing Iron Man. We’ll be doing Iron Man II, Thor and Captain America.

That’s just brilliant. And I’m doing Stargate. You know, which after Star Trek is the most popular sci-fi franchise.

GW: So basically, you have your hands full at the moment.

AP: We do have our hands full at the moment. And, we have them full of great projects. So, we’re really looking at what’s the schedule for 2011 looking like right now. We’ve got a bunch of things in the works for that. Because we don’t just want to sell stuff. We want to work on projects we are passionate about.

GW: You want to make it an experience. It is not just a job.

Ancient Drone Weapon

AP: Exactly.

GW: Your costumers aren’t just your costumers, their your friends.

AP: Yeah. Cause I have a lot of friends who are my customers.

GW: So don’t screw ’em, Alec.

AP: No, heck no, absolutely not. I hope that there is no one out there that would say, “Oh, they screwed me.” Because, we have this thing were, if you’re not happy, one, you write me and I will make sure that that gets taken care of.

The first auction, and it was our own fault, we stumbled. I’m amazed how well things turned out considering how disorganized we were in the first Battlestar auction. In the second Battlestar auction, we were very well organized and had zero problems. So things are really smooth right now.

We have such a great team, and everyone knows their job. And everyone does such a great job and really cares. So, there is rarely an issue. I had one totally insane, crazy person that we had to deal with recently. But it was totally out of whack with reality. We’re all bending over backwards to help them and I don’t know what would make them happy. You have those people and you just don’t do business with them in the future. For the most part, I love working with the fans. Because a lot of them are friends.

I have customers who’ve wound up volunteering with us. Shannon, who’s a police officer from Florida, a big collector. I talk with her like three times a day now because she has gone from being a customer, to a volunteer, to one of my best friends. I have friends on-line who we talk on the forums all the time. I’ve never met them, but they are customers and they are real fans of Propworx.

GW: They are part of your community.

S.G.C. Blinky Light Unit

AP: And they’re a pleasure to have. So that’s why the Propworx forum on Propworx.com is so important because it is the way that we communicate back and forth with our customers. And, if they are not happy about something, they’re going to tell us and we want to hear it.

Fortunately, the volume of that has decreased to almost nothing over the past year. But, you always got to stay on your toes. You can never get complacent and you don’t want to get cocky.

Look, I think Propworx is the best. We have the best team. From top to bottom we have phenomenal people working for us who are really, really good at what they do. And we’re all geeks and we all care about this stuff. And, I think, for me, it is my dream job. This is the fourth company I’ve started and I hope this is the last one I ever do.

I hope I die at my desk at the ripe old age of a hundred or so. So, it’s really is fantastic, but I don’t mind saying, we are great at what we do. If that’s arrogance, that’s arrogance. I think it’s a healthy self-confidence. But, no one does catalogs like we do, no one produces Web sites like we do, and I know for a fact that no one has the passion about the source matter that we do.

It’s not just about making money for us. It’s real important that we create this legacy and this passion, and turn fans into collectors who get excited about this stuff.

Interview by David Read
Transcript by Kerenza Harris and Avi Zisook