Auction-adventure.

I watched some of this morning’s Christie’s Star Trek auction online, and my head is still reeling from what I saw. Y’know, I did see some stuff that would’ve been killer to have if it were within my financial reach – man, just think of the fan films you could make if you had some bits and pieces of the real deal (and I hope to hell that some of the folks splurging in New York today have that aim in mind). The pilot consoles from the Enterprise-E were some of the tastiest stuff that went in the morning auctions that I saw before I had to finally get to sleep. What blows my mind is that two empty wine bottles with Paramount art department “Chateau Picard” labels went for more than those consoles. C’mon, if you’re gonna spend enough money to finance part of an episode, get a foreground “hero” prop, people, not foam rubber stuntman phasers that can’t leave their holsters.
I was stunned to see a great big honkin’ Star Trek: First Contact Borg cube model go for tens of thousands. Tens of thousands! You know, I’m a Star Trek fan. Still. And I think I’m a fairly big fan. But for the amount that the aforementioned model went for…God, the stuff I could do with my house. I could add rooms (plural) for that kind of money. Or I could pay off the mortgage in toto (meaning that I’d send the money to the bank inside a little dog).
I still think I’m a big fan, but I’m clearly not on the same planet as these people. My wife and I have been attending some classes on reducing debt, increasing savings, and just generally getting out of the hole, and I guess they’re having some kind of effect on my fundamental thinking when I watch something like this auction and wonder out loud to every winning bidder, “Do you really have that kind of money to spend on that? How far in debt are you going for those Chateau Picard wine bottles?” I mean, if these are people who have the means to get the stuff without sliding into a pit of debt that’s deeper than the hole where the oil creature that killed Tasha Yar lived, cool. God bless ’em. More power to ’em. But as much as I might drool over the Enterprise’s pilot consoles, I no longer think I’m the kind of person who would even give a moment’s thought to hanging a big question mark over the next house payment just to get them.
Guess I’m not as big a fan as I thought, eh?