Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 21, 2019 Page 43
MoneyMail 43
A PROPOSAL to increase the state
pension age to 75 by 2035 would cost older
workers £68,000 each.
The call from The Centre for Social
Justice proposes making people work an
extra eight years by raising the state pen-
sion age to 70 by 2028 and to 75 by 2035.
The think-tank says the UK is ‘not
responding to the needs and potential’ of
an ageing workforce. The state pensionage for men and women is already to
increase to 67 by 2028.
The state pension pays a flat rate of
£168.60 a week, so if those expecting to
retire at 67 in 2035 had to work until they
were 75, they would miss out on £68,370.
Former pensions minister Steve Webb,
at the mutual Royal London, calls the plan
‘ridiculously aggressive and arbitrary’.
[email protected]Pensioners would lose £68k
Pictures: PA(2016) with expected bids of up to
£80,000. A Stormtrooper helmet is
estimated to fetch between
£120,000 and £180,000.
The Riddler’s green costume for
Jim Carrey from Batman Forever
(1995) has an estimate of £10,000-
£15,000. Around three-quarters of
the items set to be auctioned have
an estimated price of between£500 and £10,000, including Forrest
Gump’s rather scruffy Nike train-
ers and socks that he wore at the
famous bus stop.
Prices typically depend on the
popularity of the film, how much
screen time it had, how much
similar pieces have sold for
recently and demand for the piece.Stephen Lane, 49, chief executive
of Prop Store, who has been
collecting since he was a school-
boy, says: ‘It is very hard to pre-
dict which items will rise in value.
‘You should buy first and fore-
most because you will enjoy own-
ing the piece. If you buy as an
investment, go for the best you canT
HE famous skin-tight
leather outfit worn by Olivia
Newton-John in the 1978
musical Grease is expected
to sell for £160,000 at
auction in the United States later
this year.
This is a little out of range for most savers,
but an auction in London next month has
around 900 items of film and television mem-
orabilia up for grabs — with many expected
to go for under £400.
Investment in collectibles, such as film
memorabilia, has become big business in
recent years.
While buyers were once limited to
rummaging around antiques fairs, collec-
tors, exhibitions and museums are now all in
on the act, as old movies and TV series
become appreciated as a serious art form.
And with many firms offering an online
service, you can now also bid from the
comfort of you own home.
Authentic props from old films have tripled
in value compared with ten years ago,
according to specialists Prop Store.
Meanwhile, the market as a whole has
ballooned from an estimated £16 million-
£24.5 million to £245 million-£330 million.
Some items have rocketed in value beyond
all expectations. For example, a Star Wars
Tie Fighter pilot helmet first sold for £3,000
in 1992. When it was auctioned again in 2017,
the winning bid price had risen to £216,000
— a 7,100 pc increase in only 13 years.
Investors are not just buying film
memorabilia. Early airline adverts from the
20th century can fetch thousands of pounds,
while old Beano comics and vintage Ray-Ban
sunglasses have also become collectibles.
Fashion accessories, mystic artefacts,
vintage sports collections and militaria such
as swords, insignia, badges and material
from battle zones are also popular.
Even biscuit tins are highly desirable,
particular those made by Huntley & Palm-
ers, which started using them to hold ginger
nuts during the Victorian era.
Reading museum in Berkshire, where the
bakery started in 1822, has 300 different tins
in its collection.
One of the most sought after is shaped like
a 1923 delivery van and can sell for £1,000.
Together, Britons own around £220 billion
worth of high-value collectibles, according
to insurer Direct Line Select.A
MONG many thousands of items, it
currently insures full-sized^ replica
statues of the famous Terracotta
Warriors made in Xi’an, China, and
a toy soldier collection worth £10,000.
Next month’s Entertainment Memorabilia
Live Auction, run by Prop Store, will be the
largest ever in Europe.
It will take place at the BFI Imax cinema
on the South Bank in London on September
30 and October 1 and will also be live-
streamed so fans can bid from home
(register at: propstore.com/liveauction).
The auction list includes the Bat suit from
the 1989 Batman film, which is expected to
go for between £80,000 and £120,000, as well
as props from Star Wars, Star Trek, The
Godfather trilogy and Doctor Who.
Among them is a remote control R2-BHD
Droid from Rogue One: A Star Wars StoryFilm memorabilia like Olivia
Newton-John’s Grease outfit
is fetching record sums, so...
By Sylvia
Morris
Est: £180,000
Est: £10,000
SCORES of furious Together Energy
customers have finally started to receive
credit refunds after Money Mail stepped
in to demand better service.
We sent a dossier of 30 complaints to
Together Energy and the industry watch-
dog Ofgem after customers wrote in.
Gripes included receiving inaccurate
bills despite submitting readings, or
getting no bills at all.
Households who were transferred toTogether from One Select after the firm
went bust in December were also still
waiting for credit balances to be refunded
— up to seven months later.
A Together Energy spokesman says:
‘Every complaint provided has a specific
set of circumstances, which we will inves-
tigate and resolve, and it is simply not the
case that Together Energy is failing to
refund credit balances.’
[email protected]Refunds arrive... at last
from
the
MOVIES?
MINT
afford.’ You can also buy items via
the online auction website e-Bay.
However, if your sought-after
treasure proves to be a fake, you
will miss out on any investment
gains and the joy of owning the
genuine piece — usually with no
right to redress.
Prop Store, which has 20 years’experience in researching and
documenting film memorabilia,
provides its customers with an
authenticity certificate.
And in the unlikely event that
your purchase does turn out to
be a fake, you will get your
money back.
[email protected]Droid: Remotely
controlled Star
Wars characterEst: £80,000
Star Wars: A
Stormtrooper
HelmetForrest Gump: Famous ‘bus stop’
trainers worn by Tom HanksEst: £15,000
Batman: His
nemesis
The Riddler
wore this
green hatCould YOU
make a
It’s the one
you want:
Olivia Newton-
John’s outfit
in Grease<<
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