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JMS-sponsored B5 auctions

channe

Regular
A note from thy forum moderatrix, on the subject of some B5 auctions straight from JMS's personal storage. Keep a weather eye out there, collectors.

---
From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 16:11:29 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 90

Okay. That's it. I give up.

Over the last few days, I've been trying to sort through the tons of
boxes that have for the most part been sitting in storage for the last
several years to try and find space for all this stuff, and there just
isn't any. The floors are wall-to-wall with boxes, crates, palletes,
you name it, the detritus of decades of making shows and writing comics
and being a pack-rack. It has literally grown to overflow two rental
storage facilities.

I have reached the point best expressed by Oscar Wilde's last words:
"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

There's just no room, and I'm going insane.

So I'm going to have a yard sale.

Now, understand, the majority of this stuff will never leaving my
hands, and for those I have set aside places here at the house...the
statue of the B5 station that sat for five years on the desk of every
commanding officer on B5...the actual prop Book of G'Kar...a number of
props and bits of memorabilia that have honored places here.

But a lot of the rest is going to go out the door, because either that
wallpaper goes, or...well, you get the idea.

It's going to be kind of a JMS retrospective in some ways, because as I
said, this stuff covers decades...from memorabilia and storyboards for
the Ghostbusters, He-Man and Captain Power series, original scripts
from Twilight Zone and Murder, She Wrote...but the bulk of it is B5
stuff.

There are the actual script books I used during production, into which
I shoved the script I was working on, the breakdowns, shooting
schedules, any storyboards that were needed...the whole thing, in one
book per episode, some of which still have my original notations.

There are episodic dailies tapes, with takes and bits not previously
seen anywhere, posters, publicity material, a ton of stuff.

Props from the show, from my personal collection, where I have doubles
or just no place for them anymore.

(One of the things I'm letting go traces back to the pilot. Not sure
if the show would ever actually go, I paid the wardrobe department to
make me a B5 captain's uniform. I know, I know, I'm the ultimate geek,
but there you are. Suffice to say given the passage of time and
calories, there's no way on god's green earth that that uniform is ever
going to fit. Not that I ever wore it past the initial fitting, but
for sure it ain't gonna happen now. So that's on its way out.)

Another prime item is going to be one of two huge original art pieces
that the late Peter Ledger did for me to help sell B5 itself, big,
elaborate paintings, signed by Peter. The one I won't sell is the
first painting of the B5 station itself from the outside; the one I
just don't have room for is the very first visualization/painting of
the Garden area, with the core shuttle, folks floating around, and in
the bar, a fight breaking out between humans and aliens, with an early
version of Garibaldi in the thick of it.

There's caps, and a disco-style prototype of a B5 crew jacket, a few of
the original blue key B5 symbol t-shirts made up before we did the
pilot and given out at a couple of conventions, an assortment of
souvenirs and some truly, truly weird shit, some of which nobody's ever
heard of before, let alone seen.

I'm still holding on to about 75% of the stuff, but the other 25% has
got to go.

So starting sometime probably next week, the week of the 11th, and from
time to time over the next month or so, keep an eye on Ebay. (I'm
playing with the idea of doing this chronologically, from the earliest
stuff to the latter stuff, but I don't know if I'm disciplined enough
for that.) I likely won't put this stuff up every day, only when and
as I think of it. So you may have days pass with nothing, then a day
when four or five items go up. The Ebay user ID is babylon5auctions.
Once I've cleared out enough room to actually see the floor again, the
auctions will stop and that user ID will go away.

Let the games begin.

jms

(Message content copyright (c) 2005
by Synthetic Worlds, Ltd.
Permission to reprint specifically
denied to SFX Magazine)
-------
 
Wow!!! Pretty impressive number of bids for the auctions being open for such a short time so far. And the high bids are pretty high. The custom prop action figures are at almost $700, and there's still six days to go in the auction.

In fact, I'm kind of surprised JMS would part with those two props. Granted, I know they're just toy figures, but they're so one-of-kind, and the detail is so good. Especially with the figures being of Londo & G'Kar, you'd think they would be rather nostalgic for him, maybe even inspirational sitting on his desktop.

There again, JMS has said that to this day he can still here the characters have completely new conversations in his head. When they're in your head that much, I guess you don't need plastic incarnations. ;)
 
That jacket would be like, so cool. Unfortunately I spent all my money on AEG and things like that. Darn. If he would've told us this just a couple weeks earlier... DARN!
 
I meant to keep up with those auctions better, but I forgot to put them in my Watch Item list. Does anyone know what the final bids were for his first batch of items, the Wilderness scripts, the satin jacket, and the Londo & G'Kar figures? Just curious what they sold for.

Thanks

The Battle of the Line medal has been up for auction less than 24 hours, and it's already gone from $300 to over $2000.
 
I meant to keep up with those auctions better, but I forgot to put them in my Watch Item list. Does anyone know what the final bids were for his first batch of items, the Wilderness scripts, the satin jacket, and the Londo & G'Kar figures? Just curious what they sold for.

Thanks

The Battle of the Line medal has been up for auction less than 24 hours, and it's already gone from $300 to over $2000.

JMS Auctions

Item Start End Price Title High Bidder / Status
4719402723 Apr-12-05 Apr-19-05 20:46:55 PDT $7,211.09 BABYLON 5 PROP LONDO/G'KAR SCREEN USED RARE 1 OF A KIND
Prop figures used in B5 TV episode pookie1001 ( 34) (*)

4719406556 Apr-12-05 Apr-19-05 21:17:30 PDT $1,526.01 BABYLON 5 PRODUCER'S SCRIPT BOOK RARE "Wilderness"
B5 script book (script, storyboards, schedules) svbob ( 26) (*)

4719408984 Apr-12-05 Apr-19-05 21:41:03 PDT $1,026.00 BABYLON 5 PROTOTYPE CREW JACKET - ONE OF A KIND
Producer's prototype for satin B5 crew jacket filmwelt-berlin ( 57) (*)

4719410044 Apr-12-05 Apr-19-05 21:54:17 PDT $258.24 BABYLON 5 REAL GHOSTBUSTERS STORYBOARD
Fully storyboard for "Russian About" episode nick_danger_3i ( 0 ) (*)

4719703777 Apr-13-05 Apr-20-05 23:23:14 PDT $10,110.00 BABYLON 5 ORIGINAL UNIFORM JACKET NOT COPY
Real series jacket made by costumer for exec producer 20kitties ( 61) (*)

4719704860 Apr-13-05 Apr-20-05 23:36:24 PDT $2,226.69 BABYLON 5 PRODUCER'S SCRIPT BOOK BABYLON SQUARED
RARE Contains 2 drafts plus supplementary material snowbundar ( 0 ) (*)

4719705864 Apr-13-05 Apr-20-05 23:44:37 PDT $127.50 BABYLON 5 CAPTAIN POWER EPISODE STORYBOARD
Full storyboard for "Final Stand" episode star_furry ( 186) (*)

4721476585 Apr-20-05 Apr-27-05 13:00:00 PDT $200.00 BABYLON 5 HE-MAN SERIES ARCHIVE - RARE
Huge archive from He-Man series - a rare time capsule thecafewhacom ( 1689)

4721480014 Apr-20-05 Apr-27-05 13:00:00 PDT $202.50 BABYLON 5 SHE-RA SERIES ARCHIVE - RARE
Huge archive from She-Ra series - a rare time capsule thecafewhacom ( 1689)

4721482559 Apr-20-05 Apr-27-05 13:00:00 PDT $2,050.00 BABYLON 5 BATTLE OF THE LINE MEDAL - RARE - SCREEN USED
Sinclair's Medal, Seen in Pilot Movie, REAL PROP altsain ( 1754)
 
Thanks.

I didn't even know the uniform jacket and Babylon Squared script were up for sale. I have JMS's B5 stuff on a saved search that e-mails me. How did I miss those? Oh well....

Over $10,000 for the jacket??? Holy crap!!!

I'm guessing with as much work as JMS gets, he's probably wealthy at best, financially comfortable at worst, but these auctions have gotta be helping either way.
 
It really isn't fare! I can't pay those prices and I get the feeling the people who can aren't real fans. They probably just collect stuff like this to re-sell for profit. How do I throw a temper-tantrum to get that Battle of the Line metal? It isn't fare! If I would have had a year or 2 warning I could have saved up $10 or $15 thousand but this was too sudden. Is JMS keeping all of these profits or donating some of it? I'd put it all toward investment in a feature. This is driving me crazy! Why weren't we given more warning? THE HORROR, THE HORROR!!! :( :LOL: :eek:
 
If we had been quick, we could have made a lottery where we bought the medal, and then drew lotts about who got it.

JMS rightfully deserves the money for this.

And it's "fair". ;)
 
I have been reading where alot of people sound like spoiled children regarding how high the prices have been going.What did you expect any of the B5 products to go for 50 or 100 bucks ? I will admit I would like to have had something from the Great Maker himself as much as anyone else here .As for JMS putting up an advance warning that way the fans can save up the money to buy the stuff .WTF it is his belongs his show,his creation and he can do pretty much anything he wants .I am glad JMS is earning the money to either keep to himself or spend .That's what in the end what an auction is for it goes to the highest bidder.
 
Is JMS keeping all of these profits or donating some of it?

In a recent post, JMS made the following one-time, personal clarification:

This is the only time I hope to talk about this.

One of the things I almost never discuss is the issue of charities,
because I'm of the school that says what you do, you do privately, you
don't make a show of it. Otherwise you're doing it for all the wrong
reasons...it becomes "looka me, how magnanimous I am!" I've never
believed in that.

So for as long as I can remember, I've always tithed about ten percent
of my income -- sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the work
that year -- to a variety of causes. Mostly women's shelters, some
hospices, Aids Project LA, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, PEN
International, amnesty international, a handful of others. And there's
other stuff that nobody will EVER know about because I do it
anonymously, which is the way it's supposed to be, at least from my end
of things.

And that, I hope, will be the last I ever have to say on the issue.

jms
 
Cool. I'm an Amnesty International member too. :) But I'm donating much less than 10 percent of my income.

And I respect his decision to not brag about his donations. Just as I respect those who make their donations public to make people aware and get their fans to donate.
 
Attempted fraud (Re: JMS-sponsored B5 auctions)

From the moderated newsgroup from JMS:

Title: Re: from jms: too damned much stuff
Author: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 08:54:40 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <1115542303.235192.150230@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>

BTW, to anyone looking on, somebody hijacked the Medal of the Line
auction information and is holding a fraudulent Ebay auction for this,
even using my exact copy and photos. If there's anybody in law
enforcement looking on, or anybody with Ebay, this person needs to be
nailed.

jms

This is the second time during these auctions that defrauders have tried to profit. After the first round of auctions, JMS reported that somebody was emailing bidders who didn't win, posing as JMS, to offer 'Second Chance Offers' to them.

Jan
 

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