SpaceX investor Steve Jurvetson auctioned a million dollar treasure of space souvenirs

This week’s auction, which ended Thursday night, sold items from some 45 collectors, including Steve Jurvetson, SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA) board member and Silicon Valley investor. In total, 288 items sold for $ 690,000.

Among the most valuable items on the block was a Robbins medallion, a commemorative coin minted for astronauts on trips from Apollo 7 onward, which flew with Ed Gibson on his journey to the Moon in 1972. It sold for $ 50,907, about 10 times more than expected. A small American flag that astronaut Dave Scott carried in his pocket while walking on the Moon during NASA’s Apollo 15 mission in 1971, which was expected to reach $ 2,500, sold for more than $ 30,000.

RR Auction has become a destination for a cohort of space fans with disposable incomes who are obsessed with preserving (and monetizing) pieces of NASA history. The auction house started as a small dealer focused on historical manuscripts and autographs. In recent years, it has hosted the sale of some of the most valuable pieces in the history of space flight, including the watch that astronaut Dave Scott wore during the Apollo 15 moon landing in 1971, which sold for $ 1.6 million. in 2015.

“NASA knew they were doing this, but it caused an uproar,” said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of public relations for RR Auction.

That created a thriving space flight souvenir market, Livingston said. And RR Auction concentrated, registering lifelong astronauts and collectors to use its platform to exchange artifacts.

It is a small but competitive and sophisticated market, he added, and RR Auctions serves it by conducting space-focused semi-annual sales.

“Most of the people who buy these things are engineers and they have access to computers and the Internet and now they have disposable income,” he said. “They are fascinated by the men who walk on the moon.”

“My intention is to find the right kind of screen where most people can see it,” said Jurvetson. “Every major museum has the majority of its artifacts stored.”

Based on the number of businessmen and other visitors his office usually sees, Jurvetson said he estimates that if his exhibit were a space museum, it would rank among the top 10 nationwide in terms of pedestrian traffic.

This week, he decided to sell some items, including the Apollo 15 flag and a spoon that astronaut Edgar Mitchell used during the Apollo 14 mission, which sold for $ 25,000, because he was running out of space for his collectibles. But he also bought some items, he said, including the meteorites he expects. he can be squeeze on your office shelves.

Unlike some collectors, Jurvetson, 53, said he did not grow up as a collector or even as an avid space fan. He said he developed that passion because of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company accredited with the beginning of space commercialization. Jurvetson was one of Musk’s first sponsors.

But collecting space artifacts isn’t just about passion, Jurvetson said. They are also an investment.

“I try to buy things that I think are the right price,” he said. “And I will tell you that in 10 years, they have definitely gone up in value.”