Is Studio Auctions legit?

Gruson

Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Curious if anyone has experience with Studio Auctions. I was thinking about bidding on some of their stuff from Star Wars but they do not really give many details. Legit company?
 
I can't answer you precisely. I think Studio auction has been around for a while. I don't know if you are refering to this, but it seems their current auction is from Goldin, so they are just a middle man for this one.
I would say, as with any auction house, you have to be very carefull, and do your own research work, because it's getting harder and harder to take their word for what is real or not.
take for instance that Naboo detonator! I have never seen something like this, colours are very weird and the shape of the detonator is nothing I have seen before, compared to all the other that sold before and production photos:
1751698147653.png

so yeah, as usual, of something like this can come up at this kind of auction, then definitely be carefull about the rest they have to offer.
 
I might have the middle man thing the other way around now that I see that the Goldin website says "accompanied by a Studio auction COA". So I guess Goldin in the bidding website, but that's actually a studio auction's auction.
 
eethan Goldin acquired the Studio Auctions company last month, so they're now one-and-the-same, with SA essentially a division of Goldin.

And I wouldn't characterize Studio Auctions as having been around a while; they only started in 2023.


Gruson I'd suggest reviewing the following thread, discussing the first collaboration between Studio Auctions and Goldin just a few months back in March - a claimed original 1977 hero Han Solo DL-44, estimated in the millions and widely publicized, yet proven nearly immediately to be a definitive and laughable fake:


2025 DL-44 Claim - Source vs. Fake.gif



Granted, generally-speaking, a company shouldn't be wholly-defined by its greatest blunder. But this was an awfully big one... so it ought to enter the conversation, especially if your target is original Star Wars material.
 
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eethan Goldin acquired the Studio Auctions company last month, so they're now one-and-the-same, with SA essentially a division of Goldin.

And I wouldn't characterize Studio Auctions as having been around a while; they only started in 2023.


Gruson I'd suggest reviewing the following thread, discussing the first collaboration between Studio Auctions and Goldin just a few months back in March - a claimed original 1977 hero Han Solo DL-44, estimated in the millions and widely publicized, yet proven nearly immediately to be a definitive and laughable fake:



Granted, generally-speaking, a company shouldn't be wholly-defined by its greatest blunder. But this was an awfully big one... so it ought to enter the conversation, especially if your target is original Star Wars material.
sorry for getting the details wrong, I was not versed in the history of the company.
What is important indeed, like we both mentioned, is to exert caution as with any other prop auction company and do our own research to be as sure as possible the items we are interested in are legit.
I have sent them an email regarding the Naboo detonator I mentioned above. I don't know if they will give me an explanation for it or not, but for now it is described as production made, and it is not matching any details, shape or colour with the original, so I'm curious what they will have to say about it.
It's so annoying to see all this fakes at auction lately!
thank you for the details you provided on the history of the company.
 
eethan No worries; the continued use of the SA name is understandably confusing (as opposed to Heritage's complete absorption of Profiles).

The "do your research" mantra certainly always applies. Just a matter of degree of criticality, one vendor to another.


I usually prefer to give a vendor a few days' opportunity to respond / edit a listing before posting authentication issues, but I'm currently discussing a couple of lots with them... and will more-than-likely make a post here shortly.
 
Thanks for the replies. I was looking at the Luke lightsaber from Mandalorian. They sold another one a couple of months ago and it looked even different from this one. Both don’t really match the ones in the show from what I can tell. Some of their other stuff also looks iffy like the detonator above. Something just feels off imo.

I also could never match the Mandalorian helmets to specific scenes in the Heritage auction so who knows what is legit or not…
 

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What is everyone's thoughts on these? Compared to reference photos, the auction slates seem to have sharp vs rounded edges and the "Camera" date tape looks different to what is seen multiple times in the sizzle reel as well.

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I also could never match the Mandalorian helmets to specific scenes in the Heritage auction so who knows what is legit or not…

There was absolutely some fishy stuff going on with those Mando helmets that were popping up. There were some inconsistencies with the construction, I don’t want to divulge them all but the main three were the visor, the Legacy tag being sewn in upside down, and lastly the paint details. All of the auction helmets I saw seemed to have brown tinted visors, and the copies I saw and one I held of the real helmet all had blue tinted visors. Every copy I saw had the tag sewn in right-side up. What was further interesting to me is that one helmet popped up with specific weathering patterns, and then another helmet popped up with that same pattern replicated. I have not seen that pattern on any screen used helmet in the show or otherwise. As far as the paint, Mando is painted a very specific way in terms of the Alumaluster opacity, the weathering, and the details. Outside of those two where it looked like one was painted to replicate the other, the other auction helmets were very inconsistent with each other, and further very inconsistent from the established look.

Sorry for the quick detour, but I saw it brought up and it’s been on my mind for a while.
 
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