Those of you who’ve watched Star Trek: The Original Series have likely feasted your eyes on an original three-foot model of the ship that has been missing for decades. Thanks to some Trekkie sleuths, however, it looks like that model (a smaller version of eleven-foot version that’s now at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum) popped up… in an eBay auction with a starting price of $1,000.
That eBay listing has since come down, though you can check out screenshots from this post here, along with a November 1979 letter from Gene Roddenberry to Paramount saying the model had disappeared after someone connected with the making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture borrowed it for some unknown reason.
The reason the listing came down is likely a result of the work in a forum of modelers who did the due diligence of comparing images from the eBay listing to those we have of the original. If this is indeed the model from The Original Series, then the value of this model should probably have—at minimum—an additional three zeros after its original $1,000 price tag. It appears in the initially unaired pilot “The Cage” as well as in other TOS episodes.
The good news is that it also appears that Rod Roddenberry has been informed about the post, so here’s to hoping that the ship makes it back to its proper home at warp speed.
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