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Just over 20 years ago, Propstore started out as a one-man band, run by founder Stephen Lane from his home office in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. In 1998, driven by his love of cinema and memorabilia collection, Lane realised there was a huge potential market in movie props: items often seen as waste by film studios, which usually would end up in a skip, but which he saw as valuable artefacts, coveted by collectors like him the world over. His first Propstore sale was to an American collector (who still shops at Propstore today, 22 years later), who bought a crew jacket for \u00a3393.<\/p>\n
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Last year, Propstore\u2019s overseas sales totalled \u00a37.4 million, having boomed by 109.5 percent during the previous three years. The company, now based both in London and Los Angeles, sold into 42 countries, supplying movie-loving treasure hunters all over the globe, while also expanding into the vintage poster and toy markets. And, as well as expanding its online platform, Propstore also holds a huge, annual international live auction at the BFI IMAX Cinema in Waterloo, London. Here, during the past few years, such amazing items as Indiana Jones\u2019 fedora, the Batpod from The Dark Knight Rises and a Ghostbusters ghost trap have all gone under the hammer. No longer are used film props and movie-industry ephemera seen as \u2018junk\u2019. With Propstore selling to institutions, museums and archives as well as private collectors, such objects are finally being recognised as having intrinsic value.<\/p>\n
Success like this really speaks for itself. But this month, Propstore\u2019s achievements received the highest possible form of recognition, when it was announced that the company was receiving the Queen\u2019s Award for Enterprise.<\/p>\n
The QAE is the United Kingdom\u2019s most coveted commercial prize. It is awarded to British companies which have proven themselves paragons in the areas of innovation, international trade, sustainable development and providing opportunity through social mobility. It really couldn\u2019t be a bigger deal; as the Queen herself puts it, the award enables organisations to \u201cproject themselves on the world stage.\u201d Its royal emblem is seen globally as a royal seal of approval for the UK\u2019s most outstanding, innovative businesses, and it\u2019s an emblem Propstore will now wear proudly.<\/p>\n
For Lane, this truly is a crowning achievement. As a Star Wars fan, he can\u2019t be feeling much different than Luke Skywalker must have felt receiving that medal at the end of A New Hope. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to fully articulate what it means to see Propstore awarded with such a prestigious prize as the Queen\u2019s Award for Enterprise,\u201d says Lane. But it\u2019s not just about the company being recognised for excelling at international trade over the past three years, he insists. There\u2019s also deep satisfaction in the way that his lifelong hobby of collecting movie props and memorabilia has itself now been recognised through Propstore\u2019s award. \u201cIt feels ultimately validated as a truly valuable commercial and cultural enterprise,\u201d he says. One thing\u2019s for certain: we\u2019ve come a long, long way from selling a crew jacket from a home office during the late 1990s.<\/p>\n
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Don\u2019t forget to follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>. And remember, you can explore so much more at our archive and see the extensive range of film and TV items we have for sale and auction over at\u00a0propstore.com!<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n