Back in October, the two-day sale from the estate of Greg Jein, which included Star Trek memorabilia, surpassed totals from the Marilyn Monroe auction held in November 2016.
Greg Jein was nothing short of a genius when it came to VFX. The Academy-Award nominated designer passed away in May 2022, leaving behind a large collection of memorabilia that was placed for auction at Heritage Auction. Jein’s estate consisted of, among other things, 283 lots of Star Trek memorabilia, according to Star Trek Prop Authority. And while the Marilyn Monroe auction in 2016 brought in $11 million, Jein’s auction surpassed that at $13,610,156 in total sales.
The record-setting sale of $3.135 million was for Jein’s screen-matched Hero “Red Leader” X-wing Starfighter filming miniature from the Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope (1977). This miniature was used in the finale battle of the film, and though this collector’s item brought in the highest bid, sales of Star Trek items were hefty as well, with the 22″ long Galileo Shuttlecraft filming miniature bringing in a final price of $225,000.
Coming on the heels of the Galileo, the 44″ long Star Trek: The Original Series Botany Bay filming miniature from the episode “Space Seed” raked in $200,000, which was the same price for over 300 production scripts from The Original Series.
Star Trek collectors are always looking for items to add to their collection
And this auction has some particularly unusual items that went for higher prices, including the “hot set” signs which indicated the series was filming at the time they were displayed. A pair of these signs sold for $22,500 while the salt vampire creature hand from “The Man Trap” sold for $8,750. Even a parasite creature, one of which almost killed Mr. Spock, from “Operation Annihilate” went for $4,500. And tribbles? Some sold for as high as $13,750.
You can visit the link at Startrekpropauthority to scroll through the listings to see the final bid and sale price for each item. Suffice it to say that this auction was for serious collectors who had serious dollars to spend. But many of these items would be seriously cool to own.