{"id":2215,"date":"2010-07-01T21:54:14","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T01:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviepropcollectors.com\/magazine\/?p=2215"},"modified":"2018-11-18T02:54:56","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T07:54:56","slug":"collectors-corner-interview-with-a-king-moviepropking-that-is-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviepropcollectors.com\/magazine\/collectors-corner-interview-with-a-king-moviepropking-that-is-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Collectors Corner: Interview with a King!…Moviepropking that is."},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>Movie<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong> Prop<\/em><\/strong> Collectors<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span> is proud to announce our first interview with our readers in our ongoing series called <\/span>Collectors<\/strong><\/em><\/span> Corner<\/strong><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Our first interview is with prop and costume collector, Jason White<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/em> and his brother, Darran<\/em> house their <\/span>collection<\/a> in a secret location in their castle <\/em>in the sunny state of <\/span>Florida<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jason a forum member here at <\/span>MoviePropCollectors.com<\/span><\/span>. was happy to share his knowledge of collecting, love of movies, and a few of his\u00a0and\u00a0Darrans iconic props and costumes with our readers.<\/span><\/p>\n

You never know\u00a0what you’ll find in Jason<\/em>Darran’s<\/em> muti genre collection<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Something from Mary Poppins<\/em> or Tron<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n

You never know….<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s see what is up with the Moviepropking !<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Jason with\u00a0Michael J. Fox’s\u00a0and\u00a0Jason Scott Lee’s\u00a0Back to the Future hero Hoverboards.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

*All photos \u00a9 and courtesy of Jason and Darran White.<\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Welcome King. May I call you Jason?<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> No, but… “His Majesty” is acceptable.<\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Ok, Jason (lol). Can you tell everyone how you first became involved in collecting original props and costumes?<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> I would be happy to get off my “Royal Throne” for a few minutes to talk to my loyal subjects..<\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Lol. Ok, now tell us about how you first became involved\u00a0with collecting\u00a0props and costumes.<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Back in the early 90’s I collected Star Wars <\/em>collectibles. During that time, I came across an ad for a<\/p>\n

publication called, “Toy Shop” which advertised props for sale. I couldn’t believe actual props from movies were for sale. Those were the good old days when you could pick up amazing pieces for pennies.\u00a0Items now selling in the 10’s of thousands, were around 1k or less then. Then Planet Hollywood came in buying everything\u00a0and the prices shot up.<\/p>\n

My limit for the first 10 years or so was $150.00 per item, so I always wish I could go back in time and tell myself to save a few of those 150’s and buy\u00a0a real nice piece.<\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Don’t we all, lol.<\/p>\n

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Jason and Darrans screen used Star Wars ESB Bossk rifle.<\/p><\/div>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> I know you and Darran\u00a0are\u00a0 big Star Wars<\/em> fans. What was the first\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> props\u00a0you encountered?<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Oh yes. I remember at the time I was offered a Star Wars Lightsaber <\/em>for just $1000. I did everything I could to save up for it, but I just couldn’t make it. I found out later is was a\u00a0fake so I actually lucked out there!<\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Do you remember what your first prop or costume piece was?<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Good question, but I strangely can’t remember exactly. One of the first pieces I bought was a Dan Akroyd<\/em> shirt and tie from the movieThe Coneheads<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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MPC<\/span>:<\/span><\/strong> Do you still have it?<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Well, yes and no. When we moved house \u00a0I stored it for a while in the new house’s barn which had a leak we didn’t know about, so it is kinda messed up right now. I’ll have to get it cleaned up and put it for sale one day. What’s a Dan Akroyd<\/em> shirt from Coneheads <\/em>worth nowadays, about $150? Lol.<\/p>\n

Not everything goes up in price, \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

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Jason with his dog “Buffy” (whom he loves and is not hurting in this pic), and his vast Xena collection.<\/span> <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Can you tell everyone how you acquire your props and costumes?<\/p>\n

Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Being in the hobby for so long you make a lot of contacts so I’ve been making a lot of private deals lately. Other places\u00a0would be auction house’s like Profiles In History<\/a><\/strong>,<\/em> who have been the number one auction house for many years\u00a0.<\/p>\n

There’s also some great dealers out there and some not so great, a good friend once told me “The piece has to speak for itself”.<\/p>\n

MPC<\/strong>:<\/span><\/span> Profiles<\/em> recent 3 day\u00a0Hollywood Auction #40<\/em> made an\u00a0astounding $5.1 million in sales.<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Amazing. I really liked your preview\u00a0video interviews with them.<\/p>\n

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Jason and his many hero screen worn costumes from Walt Disney’s Tron.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Thank you. What ways do you go about checking that\u00a0what you are interested in purchasing is authentic?<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span> Mostly experience, tracing the item’s history\u00a0is also a good way. We have a database of studio numbers and a media center with over 3000 movies for quick viewing that has helped a lot. Matching up a prop on screen is always a good feeling. Research is a lot easier now with the Internet with sites like IMDB.com and all the prop collector’s forums and\u00a0web sites\u00a0such as your own. I would be real careful with eBay<\/em> as it’s ridiculous how much that place is full of fakes. I also want to give a shout out to Rick Spector<\/em> who we’ve learned so much from over all these years.<\/p>\n

MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Have you ever had a problem with a prop or costume not being authentic, and if so, can you share with us what happened? What advice do you have for others to minimize this happening?<\/p>\n

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Screen worn Sulu costume top from the original Star Trek television series.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span> Oh yes, anybody that’s been collecting long time has been taken one time or another, my first few Star Trek <\/em>props I ever bought turned out to be fake. This was years ago before we knew any better.\u00a0A friend had purchased a phaser from a dealer and consigned it to\u00a0an auction house where it was checked out as original. The dealer then\u00a0told me\u00a0he had another one, so I assumed that was going to be original too. Turns out he had taken a mold of the original and sold me a copy. Now I could tell the difference but back then it looked good.<\/p>\n

Nowadays we take great care in checking things out before buying them. This is good advise for new collectors. Do as much research as you can and\u00a0ask some of the more experienced dealers or collectors.<\/div>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Totally agree with you there.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span> Last year we were scammed out\u00a0of a lot of money with a big prop deal, nothing to do with fakes, just a good old fashioned scam. That won’t happen again.<\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> What happened?<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> That is for another interview entirely, lol.<\/p>\n

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Drew Barrymore puppet from\u00a0Doppelganger & Star Trek Deep Space Nine Alien costume.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Lol, deal. Moving on, many collectors ask me what should I collect? I know we share the same views on this, so can you share with our readers how you feel about that question?<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Well, whenever I see somebody answer that question, the #1 answer always seems to be “buy what you like”. Good advice, but it’s always missing a second part.\u00a0I like to take it a\u00a0step further. You can buy what you like\u00a0and<\/em> still make it a good investment. I’m a sucker for bad movies, if I bought everything I saw that I liked my collection would be full of pieces that nobody cares about and that has no historical value.<\/p>\n

Now I also like Star Wars.<\/em> So what’s the better investment, buying 5 props from say Scary Movie 4<\/em> (which\u00a0I like for some strange reason)\u00a0or a nice hero prop from Star Wars. Star Wars will win every time!<\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> How do you feel about acquiring props and costumes from\u00a0recent\u00a0films?<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span> I would\u00a0be careful buying props right after just seeing\u00a0a recent\u00a0movie when you’re all excited. I know I do it all the time, you watch a movie and then come home and go right onto eBay<\/em> or dealers sites to see what they have. You need to sleep on it as least one or two\u00a0nights. The last and best advise would be to buy the best item you can afford.\u00a0If you can’t afford it, most good dealers offer a layaway program.<\/p>\n

MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Good advice. Have you ever sold a prop or costume that you regretted selling?<\/p>\n

Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Yes, we don’t sell or trade too much in our private collection but\u00a0there’s been a few. One prop that\u00a0comes to mind that I wish I had back, is the Hoverboard that Biff <\/em>uses in Back To The Future 2<\/em>. Now that we have two of the other hoverboards we’re trying to complete the set. The Biff <\/em>board we sold is now in a private collection.<\/p>\n

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Original Michael J. FoxHero Hoverboard from Back to the Future 2.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Jason, actor Christopher Lloyd, “Doc” from the BTF films, and Darran, who makes excellent display cases<\/a>. He\u00a0can custom make one for you too.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Another prop was a medical tricorder from Star Trek<\/em>, we had two of these so I put one up for sale completely forgetting I had sold the other one the year before.. so now I have none\u00a0 OOP’S\u00a0 DOH!<\/p>\n

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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Can you tell us, have you wished you had purchased or bid on something and regretted not doing so?<\/p>\n

Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Yes, many times, all long time collectors have those feelings.<\/p>\n

Looking back on old catalogs (we now have hundreds of those things on\u00a03 long shelf’s)\u00a0I’m always saying “wow wish I had bought that back then”\u00a0. We passed on a Julie Andrews<\/em> dress from The Sound Of Music<\/em> for 16k just 5 or 6 years ago, it resold a couple of years ago for close to 50k, if it came up again it may even go past the 100k price. Instead we bought a few Star Trek<\/em> costumes for the 16k which are worth about the same price!<\/div>\n
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James Cagney original Yankee Doodle Dandy jacket.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
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James Cagney’s<\/em> original jacket from Yankee Doodle Dandy<\/em> and Fonzie’s<\/em> screen used jacked from Happy Days<\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> If you can, tell us what your favorite prop or costume is that you have in your collection? Do you have a favorite genre or theme?<\/div>\n
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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> That’s a tough one, we grew up watching Mary Poppins so her costume is very special to us, we’re also huge Star Wars fans so having a wall of original prop weapons in my office is a dream come true.<\/div>\n
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Jason and Julie Andrews screen worn\u00a03 piece costume from Mary Poppins.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> If money was no issue, what prop or costume, or both, would you like to acquire?\u00a0Also do you have something you are still looking for?<\/p>\n

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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> We’re always on the look out for iconic pieces from all the big movies we like, Star Wars, Aliens, Indiana Jones, Mary Poppins, Star Trek<\/em> ..Etc.<\/p>\n

Only problem is, so is everybody else, so prices for items from those movies are sky high.<\/div>\n
My favorite classic movie is Singing In The Rain<\/em> so a complete Gene Kelly<\/em> costume would be on my list.<\/div>\n
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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Is it ever difficult deciding what to go for or collect, since your brother Darran also collects? Does anyone else in the family participate in your passion?<\/div>\n
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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> I’m lucky that my brother and I have similar tastes\u00a0(for the most part), and it’s great that we can put both our money together to help with the collection.\u00a0I’m not married with kids yet (The MoviePropQueen<\/em> is out there somewhere!), so almost all our money goes towards the collection. Nobody else in the family collects but we’re lucky to have an understanding mother who we use as a bank way too much, you wouldn’t believe how much money we owe her. LOL.<\/div>\n
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MPC:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> I want to thank you for taking the time to talk with us.<\/div>\n
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Jason:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> You’re welcome, I know it\u00a0must have\u00a0been quite an honor for you!!<\/div>\n
Seriously though, if anybody needs help with anything (we love this stuff), you can contact us on our website at www.moviepropking.com.<\/a><\/div>\n
Look for a brand new professional website coming soon.\u00a0You can also find us most nights around 10:30pm Est\u00a0in the moviepropcollectors.com chat room.<\/div>\n

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