Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531433
PROPERTYMASTERSGUILD.ORG 17 Star Trek or Star Wars. But the magic of auction is that we don't have to be always 100% accurate. We're not putting a price on it. We are essentially establishing a forum for people to be able to bid. Our goal is to make sure that the person who brings in a piece is not setting the reserve too high that people will not want to bid on an item. In fact, our goal is for the market to set the price. We just sold items from The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. This was the first time items from Fear have ever been released. What should they go for? We really let the buyers determine. We knew that there was a market for The Walking Dead. But we weren't quite sure what the market was for Fear. This is where an auction really can help determine what should be the market value for these pieces. PC: Would you differentiate the prop buyer, who's buying props for its investment potential as opposed to somebody who's buying it simply because they are a fan and want something that they've seen on screen? CC: It's primarily a collector-driven hobby and has been. It really comes from people who are passionate about wanting to own a piece of something that they watched and loved. If you were to be an investor, you would look at more classic pieces that have stood the test of time. Something from Star Wars or from Back to the Future. These are franchises that 40 years later, people are still talking about and still have fond memories of. That's the type of material that typically appeals to the investor. Something that's going to have an enduring quality to it. We've seen a lot of speculative buying during the recent Game of Thrones auction that was run by a competitor of ours. Prices were getting high. Will those stay high over time? There is a possibility that it's hot now but a few years later, it may not be. PC: How do you decide what props to sell at auction and what to sell as a buy it now on the Propstore website? CC: Typically, what we sell on the buy- it-now platforms are usually entry-level pieces. Things that might be under $1,500. It's easier to price those types of things. More unique items or items that we don't see as much every day may go into our auctions. But typically, those would be items that we would estimate to be more than $1,500. PC: You've mentioned you work with the studios. Do they look for you to work exclusively with them as opposed to your relationships working with Property Masters? CC: No. They recognize that there are two sides to our business. When we do a studio auction, we're following the guidelines. They have full control over the copy, over the photos that we use, and how we've presented it to market. They also recognize when we do our multi- consigner auctions that they don't have control because they don't own those pieces. They're very understanding that there are just different ways that this stuff has made it to market. When we are presenting something, we're typically trying to align with their marketing programs. They look at it as a different way of getting fan engagement. That's what they see as the value of bringing props and costumes and set dec pieces to market. It's a different way of tapping into that audience and getting them excited about whatever movie or television show they're producing and putting out there. PC: Have you ever had any pushback from the studios as far as you buying props from a Property Master? Has a studio ever claimed it should be theirs to sell? CC: We do get inquiries from the studios every now and then, and we work through them. Sometimes it's part of a Property Master's truck or something that they rented to the studio. Part of what we do when we take consignments from Property Masters is to make sure that the person who is consigning to us feels that they have clear rights in ownership. If it's challenged by the studios, we do become a middleman and a bit of a buffer. We seek to understand why they feel they have a claim to this. But in many cases, the studios don't, and we auction it off. PC: Then you've been able to preserve your relationship with the