PREMIERE PROPS KLINGON TRICORDER: UNFORTUNATELY JUST A REPLICA

Premiere's photo of their so-called prop

The saga of Premiere Props' seeming inability to get things right continues. They are offering a Star Trek Klingon Tricorder which they claim was "used in numerous episodes of TNG and DS9", according to its description. 

Except it wasn't. The piece is a replica created by Rich Coyle, a propmaker who worked on various productions, including Star Trek V and VI, during which he made tricorders like these for production. Those pieces were never used, but he used his experience with them to create a series of replica versions. He didn't sell them as fakes – they were acknowledged copies. 

But once replicas get out into the collector pool, they take on a life of their own. When going from owner to owner, sometimes a piece's origin gets exaggerated – or flat out lied about – and we get replicas being passed off as real, production-made pieces.

But Premiere Props has been touting its new authenticity initiative wherein (supposedly) each piece is subjected to the rigors of a review by what they call "A panel of industry experts not affiliated with Premiere Props in the movie & TV memorabilia business". This is the body that has "authenticated" this replica as the real deal. Which means that, as collectors, we should give no credence to any of Premiere's claims of doing true authentication. 

I've owned a Klingon Tricorder replica for many years, so I knew something was up as soon as I saw Premiere's offering. Since the two matched, it meant one of two things: either theirs was a replica, or mine was real! While it was an exciting prospect, I originally acquired my piece from Star Trek propmaker Ed Miarecki, a name well-known to Trek prop collectors. Though he didn't make the piece, Ed would have certainly known the difference between a production piece and a replica. When I recently contacted him about it, he told me that he was under the impression that it was originally made by Rich Coyle, but wasn't sure of that. So I did some additional digging and confirmed that was, indeed, the case. Here's what to look for:

Klingon Symbols on front, right panel. They aren't actual Klingon symbols, just approximations. Their design, size and placement are unique to Coyle pieces. It's one of the easy-to-see "tells".

Klingon Symbols on the back. Same as above.

Here's side-by-side shots of Premiere's with mine. Don't let the variations in paint fool you – that can change from piece to piece. It's the construction details that matter. Mine lights up so the screen is white. The Premiere version does not.

Note that the Premiere version seems to be different at the top on either side of the center piece. But in actuality, it's just missing the caps that go there. You can clearly see the holes where the screws are missing.

Tricorder from Profiles auction

 
Inside the piece, I would hazard a guess that it is etched with a numeral, which Coyle put in to the ones he painted (though I'm not sure he painted this one so it might not be present). 

I only know of one generally-accepted version of a screen-used Klingon Tricorder. It sold last year at Profiles for a tidy sum (right). As you can see by the photo, it has none of the Klingon inscriptions that appear on mine and the Premiere piece. The back is also void of those symbols. It's also heavily sprayed with brown paint, a style favored by the DS9 propmakers.

So here's the deal. If Premiere can offer some actual proof that their version was used in a production, I'm all for it. After all, that would mean that mine might be production-used as well. It would be incredibly self-serving for me to promote that idea (and I can think of a couple of collectors who would do just that!), but the facts simply don't support it. And by the way, by "proof", I mean showing this EXACT piece in an actor's hand, not some anonymous piece in a blurry screen shot.

Premiere offers this screen shot as proof of... something.

This is one of those pieces that's tough to authenticate because there's simply no good screen images available, nor are there any shots of these in PR shots or anything like that. So, to authenticate one of these, it's all about details (do they match the known screen-used versions) and provenance (how did it get from the studio to its present owner). Premiere offers NO specifics about either aspect. Instead they show a dark, low-resolution shot that shows one of these pieces in an actor's hand, as if that proves something. It doesn't.

Premiere's much vaunted panel of experts and MPDNA program have definitely let them – and us – down in this case. It makes you wonder just who is on that panel, or whether or not they even exist. The best that can be said about them if they DO exist is that they are apparently incompetent.

So far as I can tell, it's all about lip-service, not true, knowledgeable evaluation. 

LLAP

Don

CAVEAT EMPTOR: PREMIERE PROPS' NEW INITIATIVE IS ALL HAT, NO CATTLE

ADDENDUM: The Klingon Tricorder mentioned below is now known to be a REPLICA piece made by Rich Coyle and not a screen-used piece as the auction states. Premiere Props has been notified by me of this fact.

Premiere Props, an auction company that specializes in entertainment memorabilia auctions, has an auction coming up this weekend. Unfortunately, Premiere has had many problems in the past with the basic authenticity of some of the items they offered. Back in June, 2013, for instance, Premiere offered a number of Star Trek props including several that were identified as authentic original series Star Trek props from the 1960's.

An auction that featured a SINGLE original series prop would have been amazing to collectors like me. But that auction had an amazing six pieces including a Phaser 1, Phaser 2, Tricorder, Communicator, Tribble and Stylus. If real, the mix would have brought well in excess of $100,000! Perhaps a quarter million!

Except they weren't real. Far from it. They were obvious fakes to those in the know and were subsequently pulled from the auction or sold as (and I'm not kidding) "original fakes".

But soon after that fiasco, Premiere announced an initiative that sounded like it would address these problems in the future. They were going to start using an independent board of experts to authenticate materials before going to auction, thus ensuring that bidders would get what they wanted – real, authentic pieces.

On their YouTube video (found HERE), Premiere's rep stated, "It all comes down to authentication. People want to make sure that the prop that they are buying is real. We have a team of experts that have actually gone through, checked the provenance, researched it, screen-matched it and we have authenticated and made sure that that is the prop" (sic). He added, "Again with these items, sometime if could take, you know, an hour to authenticate them, sometimes it takes a matter of days, and sometimes, you know, for the higher end items it could take weeks of matching these items." He also spent a great deal of time describing something called "MovieProps DNA", which is nothing more than a fancy Certificate of Authenticity.

Sounds great, right? So who is this "team of experts", exactly? Premiere doesn't say. On their website's "Authenticity" section there's no mention of them nor any mention of the vaunted "MovieProps DNA" process. 

The only place you can find anything about authentication is in the listing for the various items. Here's an example from their current "Hollywood Auction Extravaganza XII":
________________________________

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Klingon Tricorder

Static Stunt Klingon Tricorder of cast-resin with paint details as used in numerous episodes of TNG and DS9. Approx. 8" x 4 1/2" with minor corner chipping from production use. This item has been authenticated and marked with new technology by MovieProps DNA to prevent against fraud and counterfeiting. A panel of industry experts not affiliated with Premiere Props in the movie & TV memorabilia business has authenticated this item. This item now includes three levels of security: 1) DNA laced invisible ink – a 9-digit code laced with DNA ink is placed on an appropriate place of the prop/costume and can be only viewed using a high-frequency UV light. The chances of replicating the specific DNA sequence which is unique to MPDNA is 1 in 33 trillion. This DNA sequence is so secure it is admissible in a court of law.?? 2) Archival Microchip Encrypted Tag - a patented,  acid-free,  1"x 3" tag with an encrypted microchip is placed onto the Certificate of Authenticity. The microchip contained within the tag contains all of the pertinent information about the prop or costume. The tag is tamper proof and the microchip is encrypted,  making it impossible to duplicate.? 3) The certificate also has the 9-digit DNA invisible ink mark which must match the 9-digit invisible ink mark on the prop. This will ensure that it is a genuine prop issued by Premiere Props and authenticated by MPDNA.
________________________________
 
I know – it's a mouthful, but it illustrates my issues with the PP authentication initiative.

First: Authentication
Actual authentication is addressed thusly: "A panel of industry experts not affiliated with Premiere Props in the movie & TV memorabilia business has authenticated this item." Again, who are these experts? We get a detailed overview of the whiz-bang COA thingy, but nothing on the most important aspect about any piece: authentication.

Confused by the lack of any detail, I sent the following e-mail to Premiere:

"I'm a little confused about the text that reads 'A panel of industry experts not affiliated with Premiere Props in the movie & TV memorabilia business has authenticated this item.' Can you please elucidate on these people, please? Who are they and what's their expertise? Thank you."

Here's their reply:

"Hello,  Premiere Props has also authenticated this item but we have partnered, with a company called MovieProps DNA who have put their stamp on it to, authenticate it. You can visit their website to learn more about the company, and the experts www.moviepropsdna.com"

Great. So their answer to my very specific question was "go to this website". So I did. At the MPDNA website, I found a page labeled "Experts". Hot damn! Surely this would give me what I wanted. Alas, no. The "Experts" page lists one, single expert. Here's the write-up, in part:

"Daniel Strebin (Lead Expert) - has been a full-time collector,  restorer,  dealer,  archivist,  and professional appraiser of vintage original film posters, lobby cards, and stills for over 35 years,  under the business names Posterman and Folio Gallery. He has personally owned,  dealt,  or otherwise handled several hundred thousand examples of vintage film ephemera,  with an aggregate value of tens of millions of dollars,  and it is quite rare for him to confront a film artifact unfamiliar from his experience."

So, apparently, this one person – Daniel Strebin – represents the entirety of Premiere's authentication process, since it is the only person Premiere actually supplied to me. The line about "Premiere Props has also authenticated this item" means nothing. I asked for specifics, not fluff. And, unfortunately, Daniel Strebin doesn't seem to have any specific knowledge of the world of Star Trek, so his name lends no credence to the process.

Second: Screen-matching
The PP video mentioned "screen-matching", the process by which a specific piece is found in use in a film or TV show. And let's be clear – screen-matching means finding that exact piece on screen – not one that simply resembles it, making screen-matching a very difficult proposition. Most props and costumes simply cannot be screen-matched. But according to their video, every piece has been screen-matched. This would be an incredible thing. And apparently, their idea of screen-matching the Klingon tricorder mentioned above is this:

The photos above are from the actual PP auction listing. I have not changed or resized them in any way. Apparently, the screen shot at the right is supposed to show the tricorder that they are selling, shown on the left. Strangely enough, the screen shot actually proves that they are NOT the same, despite the poor quality of the shot. The one they are selling has no corresponding white screen as shown in the screen shot. Also, the item for sale is of a style that  exactly matches a replica version that I bought from a Star Trek prop maker several years ago. What it does not match is other known examples of screen-used pieces. I have sent an e-mail to the replica maker asking for his insight.

Third: An over-emphasis on MovieProps DNA – it misses the point
When you look at the Tricorder's description, something becomes very obvious: ten percent of the text deals with the actual item's information, while the rest deals with the MPDNA stuff and a sentence dedicated to telling us about the mysterious authentication panel. Ninety percent deals with their DNA version of a certificate of authenticity while yielding NOTHING about the actual authentication itself!  What good is all this DNA crap if we can't be sure the piece is real to begin with? They've given no specific, verifiable information regarding authenticity at all. 

So, to bottom-line the situation, Premiere's solution to their past authentication errors is mentioning  "A panel of industry experts not affiliated with Premiere Props" while giving zero proof that such a panel exists. And with Star Trek stuff, each sub-section of the franchise – TOS, TNG, DS9 – has their own intricacies. There's only a handful of people out there that could qualify as "expert", and if PP has those people, they should shout it from the rooftops.

So I'm calling "bull" on this whole scheme. When PP announced their panel of experts, I think collectors everywhere saw it as a positive sign. But it's all smoke and mirrors, with nothing of any substantive value. So the company that offered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fake Star Trek items has actually done absolutely nothing to regain the hobby's trust. Zippo.

If you're interested in anything Premiere has to offer, remember the headline: caveat emptor.

Beware, indeed!

LLAP

Don

PREMIERE PROPS BLOWS SMOKE UP OUR NETHER REGIONS

This past weekend, Premiere Props had their most recent Hollywood auction (September 29 and 29) that featured items from film and TV productions. They were offering a number of Star Trek items, so they definitely caught my attention.

Unfortunately, PP has a very bad reputation for two aspects of their auctions. The first is shipping in a timely manner. For some reason, the folks at PP are unable to place won items in a box and ship to winners in anything like a reasonable time-frame. They state "Please allow approximately 10-12 weeks from the date payment is received and processed for your order to ship." That's three freaking months! And that's crazy.

The second aspect is their apparent lack of authenticating items they are selling with any sort of accuracy. In their Hollywood Auction X, they offered several classic Star Trek items as original props when they were obviously fakes. Obvious, that is, to those with knowledge of such things. But Premiere made no effort to reach out to those that could definitively tell them whether or not their items were real. And as a company that resells props FOR A LIVING, they had to know of the inherent problems when dealing with Star Trek original series props. They are among the most faked props in the hobby!

Once they were confronted with the truth of the items, they then sold them as "real fakes". I kid you not. They changed the title to "Forgery Communicator". The difference was that the fake sold for $200, while an original would have sold for tens of thousands of dollars. Big difference.

Now we fast-forward to the recent auction and we find that Premiere has added new text to each of their auction listings which specifically deal with authenticity:

"This item has been authenticated and marked with new technology by MovieProps DNA to prevent against fraud and counterfeiting. A panel of industry experts not affiliated with Premiere Props in the movie & TV memorabilia business has authenticated this item. This item now includes three levels of security: 1) DNA laced invisible ink – a 9-digit code laced with DNA ink is placed on an appropriate place of the prop/costume and can be only viewed using a high-frequency UV light. The chances of replicating the specific DNA sequence which is unique to MPDNA is 1 in 33 trillion. This DNA sequence is so secure it is admissible in a court of law.?? 2) Archival Microchip Encrypted Tag - a patented,  acid-free,  1"x 3" tag with an encrypted microchip is placed onto the Certificate of Authenticity. The microchip contained within the tag contains all of the pertinent information about the prop or costume. The tag is tamper proof and the microchip is encrypted,  making it impossible to duplicate.? 3) The certificate also has the 9-digit DNA invisible ink mark which must match the 9-digit invisible ink mark on the prop. This will ensure that it is a genuine prop issued by Premiere Props and authenticated by MPDNA."

Now this is what I call "blinding with bullshit". I don't know about other collectors, but for my money, the ONLY important part of the text deals with authenticity. The rest of it – the MovieProps DNA – is all smoke and mirrors. What we really care about is HOW YOU AUTHENTICATED said prop, not how you then branded it with some high-tech stamp. But while the marking of the prop gets 90% of the attention, the actual authentication issue is handled only with this:

"A panel of industry experts not affiliated with Premiere Props in the movie & TV memorabilia business has authenticated this item."

Who are the individuals that comprise this wondrous panel of experts? We don't know. What's their background and expertise? No idea. But apparently we are supposed to take comfort in the fact that people they won't identify, who have an expertise that we can't evaluate, have authenticated their offerings. Wow, I feel better already. Here, let me throw my hard-earned money at you.

People, PLEASE don't buy into this bull! They are offering you NOTHING in authenticating! Anyone can make a claim. But without substantiation, a claim is worthless. Just as this claim is worthless. So if you bid on anything last weekend based on this "assurance", I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. This so-called "panel of industry experts not affiliated with Premiere Props" is nothing but a way to make you feel artificially confident in what you are buying, so don't be fooled.

In screen-used prop and costume buying, you really need to do your own, independent research. Talk to other collectors and people in the know. Only when you have independently satisfied yourself that something is legit should you proceed. When it comes to dealing with auction houses there's only one way to approach the situation: question EVERYTHING and believe NOTHING.

The only way that these kinds of things will get fixed in the future is if we call the perpetrators on it now. Don't let them get away with it.

LLAP,

Don