Michael Siewert of JudyGarland.com was kind enough to share some thoughts about his experience with Heritage Auction Galleries and other auction houses, and I felt his comments were worth highlighting by reposting them from the Reader Comments in the recent Heritage-related articles. I do not know Mr. Siewert, but thought we could open a discussion about some of the ideas and opinions he raised in his comments, in hopes of initiating a productive dialogue about not just Heritage, but experiences and opinions about auction houses in general. [Read more…]
Official Toshiba Press Release: “Discontinuation of HD DVD Business”
As reported Saturday, Toshiba has decided to abandon it’s HD DVD in the format war with competitor Sony and it’s Blu-Ray Disc. [Read more…]
Statement from Guernsey’s Regarding Pugliese Collection Auction Event
The following statement was released to me from Guernsey’s this morning, in regards to their upcoming event (see list of OPB articles below): [Read more…]
WonderCon 2008 – February 22-24, 2008
This coming weekend is the annual WonderCon in San Francisco. While WonderCon and ComicCon in San Diego both began as comic conventions, they’ve really evolved into being more about all facets of pop culture, so there is typically items and events of interest for original prop collectors. [Read more…]
Reports: Format War Over, Toshiba To Exit HD DVD Business
Reuters and others are reporting the end of the HD format war (LINK to full story), with Toshiba expected to make a formal announcement regarding their exit of the HD DVD business this coming week. This concludes the format war with the Sony-backed Blu-Ray Disc. [Read more…]
Guernsey’s Pugliese Pop Culture Collection Auction: Full Catalog Online
As discussed in prior articles (”Guernsey’s Auction: “The Pugliese Collection“”, “Guernsey’s Auction: “The Pugliese Collection” – Delayed to Early Next Year“, “Guernsey’s Pugliese Pop Culture Collection Auction: Las Vegas, NV – March 15-16, 2008“), this appears to be an interesting auction event, and the full catalog is now available to view online. It appears that movie-related memorabilia will be auctioned on the first day of the event, Saturday March 15th, in two sessions, while television and all other categories will be auctioned in two sessions on Sunday March 16th.
I received an e-mail today from Guernsey’s informing me that the hard copy version of the catalogs would likely be mailed out today to those who have ordered them. [Read more…]
HD Format War News Reports: Toshiba Expected To “Pull The Plug… In The Coming Weeks”
I know it’s only been a few days since my last update of the HD format war between Blu-Ray Disc and HD DVD, but there are more articles and developments on the tech sites (Engadget: “Toshiba gearing up to drop HD DVD?“; Home Media Magazine: “HD DVD Format on Death Watch“; Gizmodo: “Toshiba Finally Taking HD DVD Off Life Support“; The Hollywood Reporter: “Toshiba to drop HD DVD, sources say“.
All articles report that sources claim Toshiba will drop the format in the coming weeks. [Read more…]
News Reports: Heritage Filed Suit Against L.A. Prop & Wardrobe in Dallas County District Court Wednesday
According to multiple news/media reports (The Dallas Morning News: “Dallas’ Heritage Auction sues Hollywood memorabilia dealers“; The Houston Chronicle: “Auction house files lawsuit over alleged bogus memorabilia“; The Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Dallas auction house says it was conned into selling fakes“; and story originator WFAA-TV: “Dallas auction house claims multi-million dollar reputation damaged“), Heritage Auction Galleries filed suit on Wednesday in Dallas County District Court against Mississippi-based L.A. Prop & Wardrobe Co. and its owners, John Tarter and Billie Null.
According to The Houston Chronicle, the lawsuit filed yesterday “alleges fraud, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract”. The Chronicle story also claims that “a listing could not be found for L.A. Prop” and that “[m]essages left with the L.A. Prop officials listed in the lawsuit were not immediately returned Thursday.” [Read more…]