Trek meet: Fans of popular TV series make annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas

Monday, Aug. 5, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

Kenny Friedman might have been holding the Holy Grail for all the "oohs" and "ahhs" running through the crowd of Trekkies at the Creation Entertainment Star Trek Convention at the Las Vegas Hilton on Sunday.

In his hands was a mint condition phaser from the original 1966 show, an exclusive collector's item that would fetch $15,000 or more at auction, according to Friedman, who said later that he had been "salivating" over the piece.

The owner, San Francisco resident Christopher Holter, threw his arms in the air and yelled "new truck!" after an excited Friedman told him the item's worth.

Holter said he had picked up the phaser and a matching communicator worth $12,000 or more from a judge he was doing construction work for. The judge was about to throw the items out.

Holter was one of about three dozen "Star Trek" fans waiting impatiently Sunday morning for memorabilia experts Friedman and Richard Arnold to appraise their prized possessions in a sci-fi version of "Antiques Road Show." The so-called Trekkers, ranging in age from infant to elderly, were among the thousands who attended the three-day convention, the first of two to hit Las Vegas within a month's time.

Non-fans gambling nearby the Las Vegas Hilton's convention rooms said they didn't get the fascination attendees saw in the space-age series, but Creation Entertainment co-founder Gary Berman and several other participants said it was the series' positive outlook on life.

"The media is always saying that the future is going to be dreary," he said. "But 'Star Trek' says it's going to be good."

The convention welcomed everyone from the "Star Trek" fanatic -- those dressed in Klingon gear and paying thousands of dollars for an autographed poster -- to the "Star Trek" connoisseur, regular people energized by the series' space adventures.

Many of the attendees were middle-aged to retirement-aged women who had fallen in love with the idea of "going where no man has gone before" during the space race of the 1960s and 1970s.

"People are really interested in real space travel," said Suzanne Ruffner, who described herself as a matron from Georgia and a 'Star Trek' fiend. "I know I'd like to be around when we actually get proof of life on another planet," she said.

Ruffner has a prized set of Meko Aliens worth more than $1,000 together that her mother bought off the shelf in the 1970s. She said she wouldn't, however, buy them or similar items for what they are worth today.

"I've got two kids going to college, I can't afford that," Ruffner said.

Others, however, will pay big bucks for hard-to-find or rare items, said Friedman, owner of a memorabilia shop called Kif's. He and Arnold repeatedly referred to the "Star Trek Collector's Guide" as "the Bible" for determining an item's worth. But Friedman said that desire factored more into the price than actual market value.

"If someone really wants it, it will drive the price up," Friedman said.

Los Angeles resident Barbara Nichols was disappointed to hear that the custom-made blaster she inherited from a friend wasn't a genuine prop from the show because it had sound effects. The replica, however, is so well made and so rare that the item is still worth $600 to $700, Friedman said.

A self-described Trekker since the original pilot episode, Nichols was satisfied that the gun was still valuable. She said she is glued to all of the shows in the series because they offered her a way to escape from her job as a software buyer.

"I would like to live in a world where everyone is accepted," Nichols, wearing a "Star Trek" Enterprise shirt, said, noting the show depicts "a world where everyone works to the betterment of mankind rather then its destruction."

Ruffner agreed, adding that many of the fans she meets at conventions have some kind of handicapped or disability and look toward Star Trek as a pleasant distraction.

"On 'Star Trek,' you don't see people with braces on their legs or other handicaps," Ruffner said. "Everything's cured -- it gives them hope for the future."