LiveAuctioneers’ public relations company recently arranged for the TV Guide Channel’s Hollywood 411 show to visit Profiles in History, a gallery in Calabasas, Calif., that specializes in blue-chip entertainment memorabilia. As tape rolled, Profiles in History’s owner, Joe Maddalena, provided a personal preview of several unique and desirable items offered in their Dec. 11 auction.
Maddalena chose several important items for special attention on camera: Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones fedora, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine costume from the X-Men movie, Heath Ledger’s Joker card from Batman: The Dark Knight, and Marlon Brando’s Jor-El costume worn in the 1978 film Superman.
The jewel in the auction’s crown, and the top-estimated lot, was the lightsaber wielded by Mark Hamill in the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back. Maddalena stressed its importance as an icon in sci-fi cinema history.
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Maddalena explained that Profiles in History uses LiveAuctioneers for its Internet live bidding, describing LiveAuctioneers as “a company that allows people to bid in real time. Someone in Japan or China or Belgium or Germany can log on and see what’s going on in the auction room and literally bid.” Hollywood 411 co-host Chris Madison also weighed in, describing LiveAuctioneers as “the number one live-auction site.”
Asked if the economic downturn was expected to negatively affect bidding, Maddalena replied that collectors do not buy entertainment memorabilia primarily for investment purposes. He said collectors buy such items “because they love them” and want to “surround themselves with things that make them happy.”
And Maddalena was right. Last Thursday’s sale realized $3.5 million. And that lightsaber? It sold for $240,000 – $60,000 more than its $180,000 high estimate.
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Not only did the segment air on Hollywood 411, it also was picked up by KYTX-TV, a CBS Television affiliate in Texas, with LiveAuctioneers’s online-bidding services again getting a prominent mention.
“This is the type of national exposure that we have been aggressively pursuing for the benefit of auction houses who use LiveAuctioneers,” said company CEO Julian R. Ellison. “In just the last two weeks, we’ve appeared on nationally aired programs on Fox News and ABC-TV, and now we’ve received this highly valuable exposure on the TV Guide Channel. This is the sort of publicity that would cost millions of dollars if it were regular commercial advertising. We intend to make television an integral part of our overall campaign going forward.”
On Jan. 1, 2009, LiveAuctioneers will launch its new, state-of-the-art bidding platform to take the place of eBay Live Auctions, which will cease operations.
