Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531433
16 PROP CULTURE I WINTER 2025 auctions where we're searching and finding things directly from people who worked on the set. From collectors who may have ended up with these things and sometimes the studios themselves, we'll be able to assemble hundreds of titles into one auction and offer 1,000-plus pieces to collectors all at once and those are what we call our entertainment memorabilia live auctions. PC: What do you think caused this evolution? CC: It became a necessary evolution because the prices were rising so rapidly. What is something worth in today's market, and especially with props? Because they're somewhat unique items, it's always hard to put an exact price on something at any particular time. Because this prop may be the only one that appears, or it may be the only one that appears in a certain number of years. It's very difficult to establish a market price, unlike a comic book or a baseball card that multiples will sell month-to-month and establish a price. PC: When offering props, whether it's a buy now or auction, do you need to classify them as historic classic props, where its value is found as being part of a classic iconic film vs a prop that is finding its value because it is instantly recognizable in a more current release film? CC: I think what you're touching on is this aspect of relevancy. The more relevant a piece is to pop culture, the more the perceived value there is, and it's especially true with television. For instance, I know when I was a kid, I went to the Smithsonian, and I saw Fonzie's jacket and that was the ultimate to me in the '70s. I just went to the Smithsonian, and they didn't have it on display. Part of that was because Happy Days, although was very important to my generation, no longer is, and because From top to bottom: AVENGERS shield; Wilson from CAST AWAY; screen-matched ILM Red Leader X-wing Model Miniature it's out of sight, out of mind, some of that relevancy has waned over time. When the relevancy wanes, then the prices may wane as well. We do see a discrepancy. Something that could have come out in the 1940s, or it could be a classic piece from Charlie Chaplin, may decrease in value over time in some ways because the generation that appreciates that is dying off. You see this with collectibles all the time. Westerns at one point were a very dominant part of movie culture. Right now, the prices on Western movie posters are decreasing because the amount of people that actually collect that genre are dying off. We do see this cyclical nature. I always look at a 20- to 25-year cycle. Usually, you are attracted to things that you saw when you were a teenager. So, if it's a movie or a TV show, you'll have fond remembrances of what was popular back in your teenage years. And then, 20 to 25 years later, when you have money, you're willing to spend big money to sort of recapture a piece of that youth. That's what we see a lot with collecting movie props and television props. PC: I'm sure after all these years, you've established a strong database of previous sales and have become very good at predicting trends. CC: We've got a database of tens of thousands of items that we've sold over the years. If it was a new franchise, we must take our best guess. So, if we're selling something from Better Call Saul, we might look at something from Breaking Bad. We look for as close of a comparison as we can. If it's sci-fi-related, we'll try to find something that is sort of comparable to something from