live long and prosper--get it, christie's?

I am not a Trekkie.  Nevertheless, I am delighted the devoted fans of that imaginary universe have celebrated the 40th anniversary of 'boldly going where no man has gone before' by leaving the fine folks at Christie's auction house spinning in a warp speed wake, scratching their heads. 

A collection of props, special effects components, set pieces, models and costumes brought in a whopping $7.1 million dollars this weekend.  The revenues were more than double those originally estimated by Christie's.  A captain's chair used by Jean-Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart), for example, brought a gavel price of $52,000 compared to the $9000 originally estimated.  Even though auction house employees were dressed in Star Trek regalia, one gets a sense from the reaction to the weekend, that the intial approach to the Trekkie fanbase was somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

I am delighted a group of people passionately devoted to a universe of make-believe have quietly and irrefutably demonstrated themselves to be an economically solvent contingency with enough fire power to wow even the very hawkers of Picassos and Van Goghs...