SkyMan goes Flying again. Liberty Bell 7 dime and other space memorabilia.

[SkyMan]

Well, it's that time of year again... the Santa Clara show and several space memorabilia auctions.

 

Just like a coin collector tries to put together a series of coins, I have been interested in trying to put together a FLOWN series of items from all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights. There are a total of 27 flights (6, 10 and 11 respectively).

 

The big space memorabilia auction that I was most interested in (Heritage's) just happened today. While the economy as a whole may be in the toilet, space collectors were definitely paying serious cash for cool stuff. I was unsuccesful on the item I was most interested in, a license plate ("LRV001") for the first lunar rov_r (car) on the moon (if I put the E in the second to last spot the board's software thinks I'm refering to the automobile company and censors the word), on Apollo 15's mission. It was estimated at $7,500 - $8,000. I bid through $17,000 but got outbid with the item hammering for $18,000 (plus add on 19.5% commission and any applicable sales tax). However, I did manage to pick up some cool stuff.

 

First off, (I actually purchased this item last fall) is a Liberty Bell 7 dime. Any of you that have seen the movie, "The Right Stuff", are familiar with the story. Gus Grissom, took 100 dimes into space with him on America's SECOND space flight (a sub-orbital mission). Here is one of them. All of the ones that I have seen have the same bezel. The images are by Bob Campbell and I think he did an excellent job.

 

 

All of the other items I'm going to show I picked up today.

 

The first item is a piece of the Atlas booster that launched John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. The booster also went into orbit and eventually came back to earth with some fragments being found in Africa. Finding a flown object from the Glenn mission is EXCEEDINGLY rare. This is only the second item I've EVER seen, and the other one was also a piece of the booster. Anyhow, this piece was given to Deke Slayton, another one of the Original 7 astronauts, who was supposed to be the next American to orbit the earth. So this item has a great provenance.

 

 

The second item is a mismatched pair of US Naval Academy and West Point cufflinks. Read the attached note.

 

 

Basically the West Point cufflink was Ed White's (he was the first American to walk in space) and the Naval Academy cufflink was Jim Lovell's. Lovell brought the cufflinks with him on Apollo 8, the FIRST mission to the Moon, in honor/memory of White who was killed in the Apollo 1 fire. I think they're cool because they've got a great story, they look great, and they were on the first flight to the Moon.

 

 

One of the classic photographs of the 20th Century was taken during this flight.

 

 

Finally, the last item I got, and it is to the best of my knowledge unique, is a complete SIGNED set of the Business cards of all 12 Moonwalkers. Needless to say, getting even one signed business card, PARTICULARLY of Armstrong, is not an easy task, getting all 12 is amazing.

 

[bsshog40]

Very awesome stuff there Sy. I love that pic of the Earth. I do a little star gazing with my telesc0pe and that's pretty awesome. Very nice!!!

[Swampboy]

Very cool!!

 

The cufflinks are beautiful and they have an amazing provenance.

[Just Bob]

Very cool stuff!

[EZ_E]

Sy, you're kiddin'! You won those?! Awesome! I read about all of those items from a Heritage newsletter and was fascinated! The incredible story of the cufflinks and ALL moon landed astronauts?! Impressive! And I'm so glad that they went to you, Sy. I could only imagine owning such items so you having them is the next best thing! Simply awesome!!

 

I read in the same email that although space memorabilia seems abundant this is actually an illusion. A few families of these astronauts have recently auctioned items that had been in the family for well over 30 years. These items are extremely rare and the prices of today will seem like a bargain to future generations!

[thehumantorch]

Very cool stuff.

[CarlWohlforth]

Wow! Neat stuff.

 

I think you should try a Simonyi! Why waste money on these collectibles when you could be saving up for a ticket. By the time you have enough there might be a spare seat to the moon.

[jesbroken]

Way to go, Sy. Thanks for sharing. What a wonderful story about the cufflinks and then to actually win!!!!

Jim

[SkyMan]

Thanks guys, glad you like the items!

 

 

I read in the same email that although space memorabilia seems abundant this is actually an illusion. A few families of these astronauts have recently auctioned items that had been in the family for well over 30 years. These items are extremely rare and the prices of today will seem like a bargain to future generations!

 

I would agree with that statement. You have to remember how small these craft were, particularly the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. The Mercury astronauts described getting into their spacecraft as "slipping into" it. If they held their arms wrong they could not get into it. Gemini gave each astronaut the equivalent space of a phone booth. Apollo was significantly larger, but still in the grand scheme of things was not particularly large.

 

There were a possible total of 6 Mercury astronauts, 20 Gemini astronauts, and 33 Apollo astronauts... 59 people in total. In actuality, due to some astronauts having multiple missions, there were only 35 astronauts in total for these 27 missions. Many of these astronauts are now getting fairly old, and their families are selling off their items. Hence we've seen a fair amount of stuff hit the market in the last several years. That should certainly dry up within the next 10 years. I might also point out that in 10 years it will be the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's moon landing.

 

A LOT of the items that you see being sold are fairly generic... plugs from the heat shield, pieces of kaptan foil, end bits of film rolls. These items, while they are valid souvenirs, don't really say much about the mission or the men. Those more one of a kind items are the items that can go for a pretty penny, and will most likely escalate in price over time. Given the rarity of these sort of items I think the prices are dirt cheap. Heck, the 120 page log for Apollo 8, the FIRST mission to the MOON, just sold today for $47,800 and that INCLUDES the commission. Needless to say, I don't have that sort of money to buy it, but if I did I certainly would have bought it at that price. Think of all the million plus dollar coins out there, and none of them have that sort of historical significance.

 

As I mentioned at the very start of this thread, there are some flights you just DON'T see any flown material from. I have yet to see a flown item from Alan Shepard's Mercury flight, the first American space flight. I have yet to see anything from WITHIN the Mercury capsule for John Glenn's flight, the first orbital American flight, and have only seen 2 pieces (one of which I just got) from his Atlas booster. The latter 3 Mercury flights there are the occaissional flown flags or federal reserve notes or things of that nature, but they only come up for auction very infrequently. There are more items from Gemini and Apollo, but in the grand scheme of things there isn't all that much... particularly the one of a kind type of things, which is why I'm so pumped with the cufflinks. So yeah, I think that those sort of items will definitely escalate in price over time, and even the generic stuff shouldn't do too badly.

[kryptonitecomics]

I wish you would have won that plate...wow what a piece but it looks like you picked up some ubber cool pieces none the less....congrats my man!!!

[physics-fan3.14]

The cufflinks are awesome! As is everything else, you got some really cool stuff today.

[rrantique]

The cufflinks are awesome! As is everything else, you got some really cool stuff today.

 

Super cool stuff Sy.

[TomB]

These are incredibly cool items, especially in light of the story that goes with the cufflinks.