What You Can Learn About Memorabilia Watching “Storage Wars.”

If you’ve ever watched “Storage Wars,” the A&E network’s saga of four business owners who purchase the contents of defaulted storage bins at auction, you might have an inkling of how important it is to authenticate memorabilia. Since the series is filmed on the West Coast, the purchased lockers often contain items that may or may not be movie memorabilia. The value of those items often hinges on whether or not they can be authenticated as the real deal.

In a recent episode, buyer Darrell Sheets allows his son to bid on a bin then castigates him for spending $145 on a useless collection of worthless junk. While going through the bin, though, Brandon uncovers an unlikely looking pair of boots which are purported to be the boots that Shelley Long wore when she played Olive Oyl in the 1980 movie, “Popeye.” The scuffed-up, awkward looking work boots were tucked into a box along with an envelope containing a certificate of authentication and a receipt.

Somewhat skeptical, Darrell and son headed off to an auction house to get an appraisal on their bit of movie memorabilia. Being the joker he is, Darrell handed over the boots sans certificate first, simply telling the auction house expert that he thought they were Shelley Duvall’s boots from the movie. The expert examined the boots and gave his verdict: with the unusual amount of wear on the sides of the work boots, it was unlikely that they were genuine, and thus were worthless. He went on to tell Darrell and Brandon that if the boots were accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, they might bring in something at a specialty memorabilia auction.

Voila! Darrell pulls out the envelope containing the certificate of authenticity and hands it over, at which point the expert quickly changes his tune. He notes that not only did he now have a certificate of authenticity in hand, but the receipt showed that the boots were purchased from a highly respected dealer of memorabilia and movie collectibles. With the papers showing their provenance, the auction house placed their estimated value at $1,500 to $1,800, quite an upgrade from his original worthless estimate. He made the further point that, in the right auction, the boots could bring in substantially more.

There are a few takeaways here for collectors of memorabilia. First, the value of a piece of movie memorabilia or any other celebrity collectors’ item lies in its authenticity. Always do business with a dealer who provides you with a certificate of authenticity to prove the item you’re buying lives up to its billing. Second, the dealer’s reputation plays a major part in determining the authenticity of an item. A respected dealer’s word that an item is authentic is vital in determining value. And finally, store your certificates of authenticity carefully. Without one, you have no way of proving that a pair of worthless work boots is really a piece of movie memorabilia worth almost $2,000.