ORLANDO, Fla. –
The American Space Museum’s third in a series of auctions offering rare collectibles from the NASA space program, received a blend of surprise bids Saturday -- from low to high to none at all -- earning an estimated $18,000.
Recommended Videos
“It was crazy,” collections analyst Charles Jeffrey told News 6 via text Monday. “I believe the Neil Armstrong signed Naval aviation print went for $2000 and the Apollo 16 patch brought more than $900 an all time record.”
But Jeffrey, the man behind the space museum auction, was surprised to see a propeller fragment from the famed Hindenburg air ship explosion bring a bid of just $650, a figure he admitted was “way below expectations,” while a handful of items received no bids.
“Out of the 298 items that we listed, 291 sold," Jeffrey told News 6. "There were no interesting bids … nothing out of the ordinary.”
The auction did have a few highlights including the bid for the gold Kapton foil used to protect the Eagle Lunar Module from radiation.
Jeffrey told WKMG-TV News 6 the foil set a record with a bid of $2,450, a figure he proudly reported was “well above expectations.”
Jeffrey conducted the five-hour auction in the Museum’s Titusville headquarters, live streaming the event on the museum web site and eBay.
The museum is already planning an auction for September with “a lot of neat stuff coming,” including a cover from the Apollo XV “flown to the lunar surface.”
The museum is located on 308 Pine street location in downtown Titusville. The proceeds for the auctions go to help the museum and its school education program.
For more information go to americanspacemuseum.org.