Collecting is a serious business for Star Trek. The current Star Trek era is ending with an auction, with Discovery and Strange New Worlds props on sale for collectors now Kurtzman’s two flagship shows are over. The future of the franchise is in doubt; for the first time in 11 years, no new Star Trek TV show is either in production or greenlit. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has been cancelled, albeit with one final season already filmed.
One thing’s for sure, though; Star Trek is one of the longest-lasting franchises in the world, and you can’t keep the USS Enterprise down for long. While the fandom waits for the future, collectors are looking to the past, celebrating the heroes of yesteryear. Here are some of the most valuable Star Trek collectibles ever sold at auction, proving just how much the shows and films are loved.
5. Captain Kirk’s Bridge Chair
First up, we have Captain Kirk’s bridge chair from Star Trek: The Original Series. This went on sale in 2002, selling for a staggering $265,000 – after initial estimates it would sell for “just” $100,000. Curiously, other items sold as part of the same auction didn’t perform as well, with several failing to beat the original estimates.
4. Captain Picard’s Flute
More recently, in 2025 a unique item from Star Trek: The Next Generation went up for sale – for the third time. Jean-Luc Picard’s Ressikan flute was a vital part of the story “The Inner Light,” an episode that rightly earned both a Hugo and an Emmy award. The flute actually been sold several times, increasing value every time it changed hands, and as such reflects how serious collecting has become. It last sold for $403,000.
3. USS Enterprise-D filming model
The artists at Industrial Light & Magic built two models of the USS Enterprise-D for use shooting Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the larger one – measuring 6.5 feet in length and almost 5 feet in width – was also used in Star Trek: Generations. It went on sale in 2006, initially expected to make just $35,000. Instead, it warped past this, with a winning bid at $576,000.
2. Captain Kirk’s communicator
The real Star Trek records were set in 2024. A communicator used by Captain Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series sold for $780,000, nearly three times the original estimate. It’s easy to see why this communicator is so valuable, of course; there’s a sense in which Star Trek predicted the development of the mobile phone.
1. Captain Kirk’s Phaser
There seems to be a very strong collector’s market for Star Trek weapons. One phaser pistol sold for $250,000 in 2021, with another phaser rifle reaching a staggering $615,000 in the same auction. But the top prize goes to a simple phaser used by Captain Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series, which sold for a record-setting $910,000 in 2024 – over nine times the estimated price.
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