Amherst-based company to auction space-related items

Nashua [NH] Telegrah: Amherst-based company to auction space-related items
AMHERST – Space might be the final frontier, but a local auction house hopes it will also provide the route to more business.

RRAuction, which has built its reputation in recent years on sales of signed items such as letters, books and pictures, will hold a sale starting Jan. 13 of 422 items related to America’s space program.

That isn’t unusual, since the company’s monthly sales have often included items signed by astronauts and NASA officials. The unusual part is that the sale will also include things that aren’t signed, such as a power cable from the Apollo 15 lunar lander, a 19-pound bolt from the space shuttle rocket booster and a crumpled piece of titanium from the wing of a crashed Blackbird supersonic plane, which the auction house cautions has “extremely sharp” edges.

The move is a test by the company about expanding its business with specialty sales of artifacts and signed objects associated with a specific topic, said Bobby Livingston, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“We are hoping to add four more auctions per year and decided to do a space auction with artifacts,” he said.

RRAuction sold artifacts until a half-dozen years ago, when it decided to specialize in signed items.

The space program is a good target for a return to specialty artifact sales partly because the items are relatively easy to authenticate, which is important for the auction industry, Livingston said.

It was also a natural for RRAuction: “We’re well-known in the space-collecting community because of the autographs we sell,” Livingston said. “We simply put out word to space collectors we know.”

The material for this auction came from six collectors and an astronaut, Livingston said.

Other high-profile items in the sale are a Playboy calendar with a smiling, topless model that’s signed on the back by an astronaut; a picture of the Batman character from the 1960s TV show that was put on astronaut Gordon Cooper’s control panel as a joke; and a number of items that flew in space such as star charts and bits of Mylar.

Other items include a “welcome aboard” pamphlet from when the Apollo 11 crew was picked up by the USS Hornet after splashing down from their moon voyage, a glass pipette used to study dust brought back from the moon and a topographic model of the lunar surface used by the Apollo 16 astronauts.

All the items are held locally, partly so the company can authenticate them and partly so RRAuction can guarantee they’ll be shipped out quickly after purchase.

RRAuction, which has offices on Route 101A, runs multiday auctions over the Internet. It doesn’t hold in-person auctions.

The company has drawn attention over the years for selling such high-profile material as a letter signed by Ludwig van Beethoven, an original photo of Albert Einstein and a check signed by first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, who is famously shy about giving autographs.