Iconic props and costumes from the hit HBO series Succession fetched big sums at auction last weekend. The sale confirms fans will follow new-era streaming shows with all the dedication of movie and TV fans before them.
The star lot was the over-sized Burberry bag carried by character Shiv Roy, which sold for a whopping $18,750. Other highlights included Tom Wambsgans’ scorpion paperweight gift to Shiv, that realised $10,000, and infamous “Boar on the Floor” sausage props that reached a price of $5,250.
Even an apparently mundane item, like Roman Roy’s $13 Walmart shirt that he wore in Barbados on screen, fetched $1,850 alongside the accompanying pink shorts.
The priciest items were Roman’s unused eulogy cue cards, selling for $25,000.
A prop magazine produced for the Succession show that sold for $10,000.
In total, over 200 Succession props and costumes were auctioned off. They included costumes, documents, and jewelry seen on screen.
Among the most viewed items pre-auction were plastic ID badges, Kendall Roy’s birthday card from Logan reading “Cash Out and [F***] Off”, and Cousin Greg’s dog mascot costume.
“Fans have focused on the hidden details revealed in the documents created by a prop department,” said Heritage Screenbid’s Jax Strobel, noting that over 10,000 bids were placed during the sale.
The auction garnered $627,825 in total sales. That’s not a bad return for a show that has a lot of current juice but has yet to stand the test of time.
Media markets are increasingly fragmented and it seems unlikely that any single show will ever achieve the sort of market dominance, and collectibility, that a show like I Love Lucy could in its heyday. But fans and fandoms still exist. And many of them have money – Succession was much beloved of broadsheet newspaper critics.
Whether these items will appreciate in the decades is something only time will prove. Recent sales from The Crown and Game of Thrones have shown that new media properties can command big prices in the first flush of their popularity.
