By Jamie Ruby

Syfy's hit documentary-reality series, Hollywood Treasure, returns tonight for a second season of all new hour long episodes. Collectibles expert and owner of Profiles in History, Joe Maddalena, stars. Each week he and his crew will travel the world searching for rare Hollywood memorabilia to sell at auction.

This season will feature collectibles such as the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, items from Lost, District 12 from The Hunger Games, and much more.

Maddalena recently sat down with the digital media to discuss season two of the series and what fans can look forward to.

Syfy Conference Call
Hollywood Treasure
Joe Maddalena

May 17, 2012
1:00pm CT

QUESTION: Can you talk a bit about how you were finally able to get access to the ruby slippers?

JOE MADDALENA: It's kind of always been one of the famous - I'm writing a book, and my son asked me a question a couple years ago, and he goes, so, what - is there anything, in the book that is kind of like your weak spot? And I said, well, I'll probably never have a pair of ruby slippers. And I didn't think in my career I'd ever be able to sell a pair. I just thought they were - it would just never happen. I didn't think another pair would ever change hands.

I was lucky that within six months I sold Debbie Reynolds' Arabians for $700,000, then the, obviously the Samuels pair, six months after that. And it's kind of surreal now looking back that two pairs have gone through my hands. It's - they're kind of like - it's surreal because it's hard to believe that these things A, came up for sale, and that you can own them. I mean it's I personally think the most iconic prop in the world.

QUESTION: With an item like the ruby slippers, at what point do they become too hard of a sell, despite their legacy?

JOE MADDALENA: I just think its all timing. I mean, the other day somebody paid $100 million for Munch's scream. I mean, I just think day to day, it's what's happening in the world. Buyers are in one mode. They're in another mode. I just think a lot of its timing. I mean, I don't think - there's no value.

There's like, when you buy $100 million painting, it's like you can't take it tomorrow and trade it for some building in Manhattan. You're going to have to go through a whole process to sell it, right? So it's just - I just think a lot of its timing, and a lot of people understanding the slippers I think because there are multiple pairs might have confused people. a lot of things go into it.

QUESTION: Now that you've been in contact with the ruby slippers, have you moved on to a new holy grail? Is there something new that you're dying to find?

JOE MADDALENA: Well, the ultimate thing, yes, there's always another one. The ultimate thing would be Maria the robot from Metropolis. Now there's all these legends behind that. In Metropolis, Maria burns, but there's got to be more than one, so that would be like the next one. If you could surface that, it'd be pretty big.

QUESTION: What's the most valuable item you've ever found?

JOE MADDALENA: That I've ever found, or have been consigned to us?

QUESTION: Or has been consigned to you, either.

JOE MADDALENA: The dress from The Seven Year Itch that we sold for Debbie Reynolds, which was $5 ½ million.

QUESTION: Wow. Nicely done.

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, no, so Debbie's collection definitely was the highlight of anything we've ever sold. I mean, her material was the best that's ever been put out in the market, and the prices - her first sale grossed $23 million, so for 500 items, pretty substantial.

QUESTION: You have coming up a journey to Middle Earth featuring Sean Astin. Can you tell us about that?

JOE MADDALENA: Sean Astin is a neighbor. He lives close by, and a friend. We're selling a large collection belonging to the Dryer family, and [in] the collection was this amazing map of Middle Earth. And I thought of Sean, knowing his interest obviously in that part of the world, would enjoy seeing the map. So it was actually Tolkien's copy, so he came by and we kind of had a little, period where we went through his, you know - he took us back down memory lane and we learned interesting things.

He was basically, like - he went from the Shire to Mordor on what happened, and it was an interesting response, because he said "Well, we're making this movie, Elijah and I figuring we're going to have all this time together, a year and a half, and at the end we're going to do this epic climax, throwing the ring in, in the mountain, and by the time we get there, we'll be ready.

And what happened was we were filming and there was a giant flood, and the set got wiped away, and they came in and said, "Well, we're going to film the climax instead," and this is very early in the process," and Sean's like, "I - we can't do that. We're not ready. "And they're like, you're ready." " So it was just like amazing insight into his world, his character.

It was - it's fascinating to meet him and kind of learn about that world.

QUESTION: You mentioned the Dryer collection. There's also during that part of the auction is a really interesting Christopher Reeve collection, if you can talk about that a little bit.

JOE MADDALENA: Actually we just got done cataloguing it. The Dryers bought the best they could possibly find over many years, and they collected like - they collected Superman. They wanted like a comprehensive collection, so this is the most well-documented Christopher Reeve Superman costume used in Superman I and II because they were filmed concurrently, and labeled - it was made in England by Nathan and Berman's, labeled - every stitch of it's got labels in it, and it's just to find a costume like that with that documentation - it's pretty extraordinary.

There's Jar-El's, Marlin Brando's complete costume, when at the beginning of the movie, when they're putting their baby, in the little ship and sending him to earth because the world is destroying there. It's just amazing to go through. They have a piece of kryptonite. They have a George Reeves Superman cape. It's just kind of mind-boggling what's in their collection.

QUESTION: In season one and you dealt with a lot of collectible items and whatnot. I was reading that this season you're going to be working with the house from American Horror Story. Can you tell us a little bit about that and how it differs for you?

JOE MADDALENA: What's interesting is, is that as a company, like, we're trying to expand our reach into all areas of things that have to do with television and motion pictures, and this opportunity came along. We got a phone call from a guy, and he said, "Hey, I have some things from American Horror Story." I'm like, "Well great. It'd be cool to get some props," and lo and behold, we met this man, and we ended up at the American Horror Story house.

The actual house is here in Los Angeles, and it was kind of surreal, because I had no idea. And I'm walking up to it, and it was really eerie, because you're in the house. I mean, you're in the rooms. I mean, you're in the basement. You're thinking of people hanging themselves, and all this crazy stuff going on. And it's really cool because this was like a 17,000 square foot mansion, and it was - and it's just another side of our business that we're pursuing, is we're going after these properties now, because they have such a value besides being a house.

So for an American Horror Story fan, I mean, you're - we're taking you like - it was the coolest thing I've ever walked through in my entire life, to go through that house. And it was scary. I mean, being in the basement - they turned the lights off; you wanted to run out of there!

QUESTION: What would you say is your biggest challenge both juggling running your business, Profiles in History, and also filming a reality show?

JOE MADDALENA: I really want people to understand that I'm trying to paint a picture on the show that's real, I mean, that it's like that this is kind of like really what we do so they get an idea, because people are always like, well, where do you get this stuff? How do you find it? How do you authenticate it?

So we're trying to answer those questions and give you slivers of like, a business and obviously in a sense for television, but that's the biggest challenge is to accurately depict what we do in a way that the viewers are going to, enjoy it, and that's my biggest, task, is to make sure we put something out there that they're going to really like.

QUESTION: What do you think is or was the most sought after Hollywood memorabilia from Marilyn Monroe's estate, or do you think it is yet to be discovered?

JOE MADDALENA: Wow, I mean, what would be yet to be discovered would be the smoking gun that linked her to the Kennedys. I mean, if a diary emerged - I'm just making stuff up now, so like let's say a diary emerged, and the diary told a story. It would be - you're talking about it'd be crazy what that would be worth.

It would have to be something like that, of that significance, but I would think that would be the holy grail, is to find that nexus that links, because it's the mythology of the Gion Conna killer, you know. I'm thinking, who knows, right? But there's that mythology that's out there, so that would probably be the greatest thing that would just stop the presses.

QUESTION: What defines the piece that's rare for you when on the hunt as opposed to rare for other collectors?

JOE MADDALENA: When I started my business, my parents were antique dealers, and my dad kind of taught me to acquire a taste for what you personally like, and always buy what you like and not what anybody else likes, because you get kind of trapped into thinking like what other people are thinking about. And I think that's one of the things is, I just I'm looking at the piece, like what it does to me. I mean, if I get really excited about it, I'm assuming other people will too, so I just always go out there with my own kind of barometer.

And sometimes I'm wrong. Sometimes it'll be something that comes in. Today we had a costume from (Frank L'Angela) Skeletor costume came in. It's really cool, but we're all here battling, like, what are we going to estimate it at? It's going in our summer auction. I'm like, 8 to 12. Somebody else is like 12 to 15; somebody else is like, oh, it's worth much more. Somebody else is like, oh, it's worth much less.

It's hard to put a value on some of this stuff. I think it's great because I love (Frank L'Angela). The movie was okay. it's a cool-looking costume, so it's kind of like, these are the - those are the hardest things, is to kind of like, get a consensus of all of us, because we're all watching movies, and what we like.

QUESTION: Have you ever stumbled across a piece of memorabilia that was too personal and you hesitated to make the contents public? And if so, what did you do and how did you handle the object or objects?

JOE MADDALENA: I could tell you, I remember like it was yesterday. Anna Nicole Smith died, and within hours my telephone rang, and this man called up and said, I have her diaries. And he brought them in, and I read her diaries, and I thought about it for a few minutes and I handed them back and I said, "No thanks." And he said, "You're not going to auction these?" And I said, "No, not for all the money in the world."

And he's like, "Well, why not? They're worth a fortune." And I said, "Yes, but not a fortune that I'm going to go down the road of." I said "good luck." Somebody else sold them. They went for $300,000 or $400,000, but it's just to me that was like, bad taste times 10,000. It just - I could not even go down that road. So those things happen where it's like you have to make a kind of like - I had to make a moral decision where I thought that was incredibly exploitative. I just couldn't handle it.

QUESTION: I noticed in your show there're not a lot of musical related items such as musical instruments or stage clothes, even in as much as how there are actors in movies that hold guitars or whatever. Is that because there are other more specialized musical oriented people, auctioneers, or is that just an area that doesn't interest you as much as the TV and movie side?

JOE MADDALENA: We really don't do a lot with music. I mean, the exception is, is like we'll do - I just sold John Lennon's handwritten lyrics for if I sell, and I mean, we handle things like that, the Beatles. We don't really do the guitars. I mean, if I had Wayne's guitar from Wayne's World, yes. I would sell that.

But it's kind of - I've never really been into the rock and roll. I love rock and roll, but I've never been into like selling it. It's a very kind of like weird world to travel in, because it's so hard to authenticate the material and all the autographs are squiggle squiggle, and it's just something I've just never really got into.

QUESTION: But as it relates to iconic films, then you'll pursue those items.

JOE MADDALENA: Oh, absolutely. Like I said, if we had the Wayne's World guitar, absolutely. We'd be all over that, the white guitar, for sure. If it's something like that, that was, Johnny Cash, it was his guitar, or an Elvis Presley - I've sold Elvis Presley's guitar - so yes, something like that we would cover for sure.

It's just really a matter of when we're making the show, I mean, these things really are happening as we're in production, so it's like literally on a day-to-day basis, I'll be calling (unintelligible) company, I just got this, I just got that. And then it's how we go about picking out what's going to make interesting television from what's happening in my real world. So it's just really what comes in during the time we're taping the show.

QUESTION: It's sort of out of your hands a little bit, in what comes along the wind?

JOE MADDALENA: Totally out of my hands, what - just when the - just a side story real quick. A couple weeks ago a lady called me up and said, hey, in the 70s my husband was a B actor, and a very overweight guy. He was doing a character part in a movie, and they delivered a bunch of costumes to the house. This white linen suit fit him, and they let him keep it. It's Sidney Greenstreet's white linen suit from Casablanca. They consigned it yesterday.

QUESTION: Wow.

JOE MADDALENA: Wow is right. I mean, talking about wow. I mean, everybody that - it's indelible, but there it is, completely labeled, came from Western Costume. I mean, and just, it's unbelievable where these things come from, so I would love to have told that story, but we were wrapped. So that's how it works.

QUESTION: [This] might vary on a case to case, but it seems like there are stages or steps in your process. First an item is found, and part of that finding is you going there perhaps and listening to the owner give you the provenance.

And then another stage would be probably the most mundane, which is the authentication at your home base where you look through pictures and freeze frames.

And then the last stage, probably [the] most gratifying would be the auction itself where you're bidding for online customers. Do you have a consistently favorite stage of those stages?

JOE MADDALENA: Oh, yes, it's the exact reverse. My first stage is all about acquiring the piece. I mean, I live, sleep, eat, drink, my whole life pitter patter goes the heart, on the hunt. When a box comes in, every day is like Christmas. I can't wait to unwrap that box. I mean, it's just like, that's - selling it is kind of like - it's like by that point it's so anticlimactic, it's just like - it's just - I bet I'm so far invested in the process. To me it's just all about finding the stuff. It's just, to this very day, I can't tell you how exciting it is when you find something.

A couple weeks ago a guy called up and said, "Hey, I saw your TV show." He goes, "My father was the costumer for Roots. Is Roots stuff any good?" And I'm like, "Yes, I've never seen any." He goes, "I got a bunch." He brought in all the original costume sketches, Kunta Kinte, all of them, Alex Haley's notes, scripts, I mean, it was - I mean, I was like, oh my God. Culturally you're talking about one of the most groundbreaking television shows ever. Here's the whole archive, you know? It was in a basement in a house here in Los Angeles.

And that's what I live for, and then digging into that, and learning the history behind the artifacts, that's what makes me get up in the morning.

QUESTION: That's very good to know. I didn't know that at all. I would have predicted the opposite.

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, no, by that time, we're so - it's kind of like, what can I find today? It's all about the hunt.

QUESTION: Is there anything that you own personally from a movie that you would never be willing to give up?

JOE MADDALENA: Yes. I mean, I have a lot of things. I mean, the thing that it's - the thing I would never give up that's from a television show, when my son was about six I had an auction and I had one of - Buck Rogers' sidekick was Tweaky. He had a little robot, and I had a Tweaky in my auction and my son was about the same size. He was a little bit smaller, and (Felix Hiller) showed up, who wore the costume in the TV show, and we met (Felix), and my son was just - thought this was the coolest thing in the world, you know?

And we became friends with (Felix) and then (Felix) later sold my son - well, me for my son, his Tweaky costume with Theopolis around his neck. I'm looking at it. It's six feet from my desk. It's the holy grail of our family. It's like the only thing - it'll go to - he'll take it to his grave. It's like, it's just such a sentimental thing among us, it's like we'd never sell it.

And I - we collect, or I collect things that are sentimentally important to me. It's more about like I was lucky. I worked for ABC all of season six for Lost. I was in Hawaii during the entire shooting of the final season. I have such amazing memories of that production, but what I kept were things that were like, important to me, I mean, nothing of any value to anybody else, but to me it's just all about the memory of being in that - being involved. that's what I enjoy the most.

QUESTION: It seems the horror genre is filled with some of the most hardcore collectors.

JOE MADDALENA: Absolutely.

QUESTION: Why do you think that is the case?

JOE MADDALENA: I think horror is probably consistently always been number one with starting in 19 - the 20s, 1930, '31, Frankenstein, Dracula. I think we're infatuated with vampires, and I think obviously, look how popular they are now. I think the supernatural, ghosts and vampires and ghouls, just fascinates us.

And I think that the macabre - people just, like the dark side. They want to be a vampire, so I think that that's just - and because the material is dark in its creation, I think that it's just kind of gravitates toward that world.

QUESTION: Speaking of Dracula, you've recently acquired the cape from Bela Lugosi. Can you talk about the reaction you received from that item?

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, it was huge. I mean that was really, again, I had always heard that he was buried with the cape, and so when I met Bela Lugosi Jr., he's like well, almost true. He was going to be buried with the cape, and Bela Lugosi's mom - Bela Lugosi Jr.'s mom, Bela Lugosi Sr.'s wife, wouldn't allow it, and they buried him in a different cape, but she kept the '31 cape.

When you realize like what that is, I know it's just a big piece of black fabric, but when you realize what it is, it's like, wow, and it's amazing that that survived. I mean, you're talking about the greatest groundbreaking deal-changer of universal horror. I mean it's amazing to see that it exists.

QUESTION: We've heard a lot about the ruby slippers, but what other highlights can we expect from this upcoming season?

JOE MADDALENA: This season's going to be really fun. It's the biggest things that I'm excited about is we used to be two back-to-back half hours. Now we're one one-hour, so we're able to tell much better stories, where in the past, we'd have to get in and out of a scene in three minutes. Now we're able to invest like 10 or 12 minutes in a story, where you're going to get a lot more information, a lot more access, learn a lot more about my world.

I think it's much better television, but American Horror Story - we have a great segment on The Hunger Games. I mean, The Hunger Games is going to be - we've got a great 12 minutes of Hunger Games. Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard - I mean, there's going to be a lot of surprises, I mean, a lot of contemporary things, and we're going to take you to places, Planet of the Apes, I mean, things that are just - there's something for everybody.

I mean, it really is a really good diverse group. Vampires, Greg Cannon, who's one of the judges of Face-Off, he did a Gary Oldman's Bram Stoker Dracula. We sold his Dracula collection. Ve Neill is on the show. We sold her makeup collection, and she did some of the most important make-up appliances in Hollywood history, so a lot of cool things.

QUESTION: I hear you're actually going to be for your company auctioning some Steve McQueen memorabilia and also Natalie Wood, if you can talk about that.

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, so this summer in July our next summer auctions, we have Natalie Wood - we have her 250 SL, that was her personal car from 1969 I think the year was, so it was actually her car that she drove, which all the pink slip and the original paperwork when she bought the car. So it's a personal artifact, but because Natalie Wood is one of the great collected sex symbols of all time.

But the Steve McQueen is all about (LaMonz). We have his - both his overjackets that he wore over his race suit. Last December I sold Steve McQueen's racing suit from (LaMonz), $890,000, the two-piece jumpsuit. I have the blue (LaMonz) jacket that he wore over that, and the white (LaMonz) pit jacket that he wore. I have his Howler wrist watch that he wore, a lot of (LaMonz) stuff. Steve McQueen is just so, so collected, so there's going to be amazing pieces in the auction of LaMonz in July.

QUESTION: That's great. It's great to know that he's still very, very popular. It's good to hear.

JOE MADDALENA: It's unbelievable. It's really unbelievable how popular he is. It's - he's like stood the test of time and his popularity grows.

SCIFI VISION: Can you talk a little bit about The Hunger Games, and what is going to be on the show?

JOE MADDALENA: Absolutely. So I was perusing the Internet one day, and I saw this thing pop up and District 12 was for sale. And I was like, what is that? I'm like, District 12? How - what do you mean it's for sale? And it's like, it's for sale. So I was really intrigued by this. It's an actual town, so I was really intrigued by this, so I made a few phone calls and I found out in North Carolina, they filmed Hunger Games throughout the whole state.

There's a town, 72-acre parcel, where Katniss's house, Peeta's bakery, it's all there. They didn't - it's - they shot everything on this location, all the structures, all of District 12, is there, really there. All the rooms, I mean, it was unbelievable. So my idea was wow, I mean, I want to be involved. I want to be - I want a part of this. I want to figure out some way to work and sell this property.

So we went out to North Carolina and we went through every location, worked out a deal to help sell this property, found some amazing pieces, went behind the scenes, went to every location. I mean, if you're into The Hunger Games, boy, it's going to be a great ride. I mean, it's really amazing what we found and where we went.

SCIFI VISION: That sounds really great, but kind of a weird thing to be selling a town, I guess.

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, but it's more of - it's the structures. It would be like having Dorothy's house that dropped on the wicked witch. I mean, you could move it. I mean, there's DBC structures that culturally - it's the beginning of a franchise, so it's kind of like be a tourism place. It could be an amusement park, a theme park. But the fact is, it's a 72-acre town. I just think that - and it's not very expensive, so I think that it was something I wanted to be involved in because The Hunger Games is so popular.

SCIFI VISION: I know you mentioned in the new episodes, you said something about how people are more after props than costume pieces. Why is that?

JOE MADDALENA: Let's see. Okay. Costumes are big and they're a challenge to display, okay? So textiles are fragile, by nature, so they have to be - they can't be in the sunlight. They have lots of things that will affect them over time if they're not properly preserved or displayed.

Props, pretty rugged. I mean they're more manageable in size. They're three dimensional. They'd kind of cooler looking. It's just, people just want props. I mean, they're just - there's always a challenge with a costume, but when you get like the Maltese falcon and you hold it in your hands, it's an object. The ruby slippers are an object.

So those are the kinds of things - I just did the Captain America auction for Marvel, in April in Chicago. We had the shields. They're really cool because they're objects. The costumes are nice, but when you get into like Thor's hammer, Captain America's shield or Iron Man's helmet, they're really cool.

SCIFI VISION: You finally found the slippers and everything. Are you going to continue to try to locate the stolen pair, or are you kind of happy now that you've found a pair and held them?

JOE MADDALENA: No, no, no, no, I'd love to find the stolen pair, and out there is - there could be another pair out there. Nobody knows how many pairs they made. I mean, there's a legend that Toto chewed on a pair. They went out to be fixed and never came back. There could be another pair of ruby slippers to surface tomorrow. That's the whole great part about my job is it's - this stuff is everywhere, and unlike baseball cards and comic books and coins and stamps, most people that have them have no idea what they have.

QUESTION: None of your team seems to have public Twitter accounts, and that struck me as odd because it just seemed like social networking would be a good way to get contacts. Is that true, or...?

JOE MADDALENA: We - none of us have social Twitter accounts and we have one Twitter account that the profile's initial Twitter account, and we are probably - next season we will all have our own Twitter accounts. It's just something we just hadn't done yet, but we need to. You're right.

QUESTION: We're mutual Twitter followers. I do follow Profiles in History and you follow me back, but I know that some of your team members had it, so I was wondering if you follow them too.

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, I need to get one too, myself. I'm not technically inclined, but it's about time.

QUESTION: Is there a holy grail item, a most sought after item, from The Matrix series of movies?

JOE MADDALENA: I've got to say Neo's full costume with the trench coat. I mean, that would be like, to me the most iconic thing that costume with the trench coat. I mean, that would be the same - his guns, obviously, and then particularly we have...[Carrie Anne Moss] I actually have her complete costume in my dry auction.

QUESTION: You see, those are both instances of costumes coming back into the fore.

JOE MADDALENA: Well, that's a great looking costume, because I mean, it's that cat suit. I mean, it's just really good looking. I mean, that's just a killer costume, so The Matrix - I mean, the - I would say probably the most valuable thing would be Neo's costume and that trench coat.

QUESTION: So it's sort of like the music instruments. Sometimes - or like with fashion, music, certain things are just so damn iconic they can't be denied. Is that it?

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, I think it's like when you watch a movie through my eyes, I'm always looking at - like I went and saw Hugo. Obviously what would be the most valuable thing in that movie? It wouldn't be hard to figure out. It's that toy. I's that - it's the wind-up little animatronic doll. I mean, that would be - the whole movie's based - that's it, the plot device.

I mean, so that would be the most valuable thing in that movie. Then after that it's like, pick. It's like whatever you like. But when you get into movies, like, you can get like Mission: Impossible. Here's a great movie. There's - it for props and costumes, it's a dud. It's just all suits. Occasionally you might get a pair of - but think about it, you might get a pair of cool sunglasses. Tom Cruise might wear a cool wristwatch. That's it.

So it's like it's really hard. Bourne Identity - I just got Matt Damon's costume in. Great, but it's just like, it's just a costume. It's just clothes, so there's not a lot of - some movies, like the opposite is The Avengers. We just did the Captain America auction like I talked about, but when you see The Avengers, oh my God, pick what you want. Thor's hammer, Iron Man, it's endless.

So it's like - it's like anything, so it's always interesting.

QUESTION: Like the gold coins in the Pirates of Caribbean treasure, I bet there's - everybody would love those. There's so many of them.

JOE MADDALENA: Oh, you want Johnny Depp's pirate's hat. Can you imagine, I mean, having his pirate costume, with one of the pistols, the full - how about the compass that went backwards? Now you're - see that's my world. Those are the things that keep us up at night.

QUESTION: And that you're clearly passionate about.

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, well, we love it.

QUESTION: I was wondering on if you had any updates about (Paul Myer) with his health situation. I was happy to see that you got twice your estimate as far as towards his medical bills. Is everything all right with him?

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, (Paul)'s still doing well. I mean he's still obviously very sick, but he's still alive and he's still going through his collection believe it or not. We still have stuff in storage. He has a house full and just kind of like getting access to it and sorting it out, and we'll probably do another (Paul Myer) auction, maybe the end of the year. I mean, he has just so much material, but it's really about how well he is to get him to go through it. That's the whole problem is his health is just terrible, so he is still among us, which is great.

QUESTION: Sort of due to your efforts, and in a six degrees of separation, it must blow your mind to think - because I'm sometimes remembering Picard and Data touching that Phoenix workship in Star Trek: First Contact, and how the tactile connection with it made them feel so much more a whole part of it, and to think of how many iconic Hollywood cinematic memorabilia artifacts that you've touched and therefore become a part of that six degrees of separation. You're connected to probably to so much of cinematic history. How does that feel? How do you interpret that?

JOE MADDALENA: It's amazing, and I guess the question is that always comes with that is people are asking, well how do you part with everything? Well, that's how I can part with it, because the stuff never goes away forever. It just goes to somebody else. So the items never cease to exist. It's not like doing - having a good steak and the steak's gone.

If somebody buys that great Superman costume, it just goes from one home to the other, so in some way, I look at these as like my children. They've just gone off to college. And maybe they'll come back; maybe they won't.

So it's kind of like just the brief time that I have something and the interaction with it and learning about it, that's really the most rewarding part because it just makes me more equipped when the next thing comes in. But sometimes it's really hard to part with this stuff. Some of these things are really, sad to see them go.

QUESTION: And you're forever connected to it when...

JOE MADDALENA: Forever - yes, forever connected to it. Forever connected to the people. Look, six years ago, seven years ago, I got a phone call from (Stan Winston). I came in, worked with (Stan) for three years before he died, got to be good friends, took care of his archive. Then he passed away sadly, and then I worked with his wife, his widow and his family, and I take care of the archive for them.

I am more connected to (Stan Winston) now than I could have ever imagined the first day I met him. I'm intimately involved in his legacy and in keeping (Stan)'s name alive. And it's just like, I always wonder if he had any idea what it would be like six years later. You never know.

I mean, literally it was one of these chance meetings. He called me in for an interview to see if he wanted me to represent him, and now I represent the family. It's just kind of like that's the part that is the six degrees of separation. It is a small world.

SCIFI VISION: I was curious, when people bid, are there are lot of people that bid just because somebody else wants something? Because you see even on the show and other auctions and things, something won't get a bid. And then one person suddenly bids, and people are then willing to pay more than what they weren't willing to pay at the beginning.

JOE MADDALENA: It's not so much they weren't willing to pay. I think that people just want to see if they can steal it. I think there's this psychology with auctions where a lot of people are savvy. They go to enough auctions where they don't want to show their cards too soon. I've been a buyer. Like, I've gone to a Sutherby's Christie's auction.

Like, something will be at $30,000 and it's just me and all of a sudden it sells for $250,000 and up to $30,000 it was like you couldn't get a bid, and suddenly just before the gavel went down, you had six other people just waiting because it's - bidding is an art, and there are people who just literally - will - there are people who will bid, stop, let it go, jump in again. I mean, everybody has a different way they do it, so it's kind of an art, form for the buyer, if you're a regular buyer, a seasoned buyer.

SCIFI VISION: I never thought of it that way. Interesting.

Can you talk a bit about the Lost things you're going to have this season?

JOE MADDALENA: Yes, so (John) who's on the show, (Mancuda), was one of the Temple Others in season six of Lost. He was at least one of Locke's henchmen, so while not working for me he was pursuing his television career. So when we were in Hawaii, he was doing double duty working with me and actually on the television show.

And we found (John)'s other costume that he wore on the TV show, and he desperately wanted to get it, obviously. And one of the other Temple Others, (Addison Arquette), flew in from Hawaii, and (John) and (Addison) went through their Lost collection that they bought at the Lost auction that I had, and raised money to acquire their costumes. So you're going to get a good dose of Lost this season.