Auction

An auction in Quark's in 2369

This article is about auctions within the Star Trek universe. For real world auctions of Star Trek props, wardrobe and production memorabilia, see Star Trek auctions.

An auction is an event at which goods, divided into lots, are offered for sale and sold to the highest bidder. Several races were known to practice auctions, including the Orions and the Ferengi.

The Orions maintained a slave labor market in the 22nd and 23rd centuries, in which people – rather than goods – were sold as commodities. Nine crew members from the Enterprise NX-01 were abducted by the Orions in 2154 and auctioned off as slaves on Verex III. (ENT: "Borderland").

When Quark broke Ferengi law in 2372, the punishment enacted by the FCA involved revoking his Ferengi business license and seizing all of his belongings to be auctioned off to the lowest bidder. (DS9: "Body Parts")

After death, the bodies of many Ferengi were subjected to vacuum desiccation and then auctioned on the Ferengi Futures Exchange. (DS9: "Body Parts", "The Ascent") According to Ferengi religious beliefs, the spirit of the deceased would enter the Divine Treasury if they had led a profitable life, after which they would be able to bid for a new life from the Celestial Auctioneers. (DS9: "Little Green Men")

Auctions were regularly used by the Ferengi as a means of conducting business, and Quark held several auctions in his bar, with Quark himself serving as the auctioneer. (DS9: "Q-Less", "In the Cards")

Quark's auctions

First auction

For Quark's first auction, in 2369, he teamed up with dubious archaeologist Vash to auction off a number of artifacts she brought back from her travels around the Gamma Quadrant with Q. Among the items offered for sale were:

• a Verathan statue depicting Drohlak (bought by Kolos for 36 bars of latinum)
• a bejeweled dagger (bought by Stol for 105 bars)
• a jeweled necklace (bought by Rul the Obscure for 150 bars)
• a boxed crystal

Q attended the auction and made a mockery of it by bidding ridiculously high amounts up to 1 million bars of latinum. When it was discovered that the crystal was the source of massive power drains on the station it was beamed 500 meters off the docking ring, where it metamorphosed into an embryonic lifeform. (DS9: "Q-Less")

Second auction

The auctioned Willie Mays baseball card

Quark's second auction, offering what Quark called "the galaxy's rarest and most valuable antiquities", was held in his bar in 2373. All of the lots came from a derelict freighter that the Bajorans found adrift approximately one light year from Deep Space 9, and were listed on a Ferengi auction PADD. Nog described the items as a "bunch of junk". On offer at the auction were:

• a mid-24th century ceramic Romulan water basin (slightly cracked)
• a pair of Tellarite shoes (date unknown)
• a Tholian pedestal
• a post-eventualistic pre-Matoian bronze and triptin sculpture (Lot #47; bought for 1 bar, 3 strips of latinum by a Bolian waiter)
• a 20th century painting of a matador in acrylic on black velvet (Lot #49; bought by Morn)
• Lot #48: an Andorian chest containing:
  • a pre-Surak Vulcan bracelet
  • a 6th century Bajoran mandala
  • a 23rd century ion-transtator
  • a mint condition Willie Mays rookie baseball card from Earth dated 1951 (without the original packaging or chewing gum)

The Andorian chest and its contents was bought by Elias Giger for 10 bars of latinum, outbidding Jake Sisko and Nog who were trying to acquire the baseball card for Jake's father. Jake and Nog were later able to obtain the card from Giger by trading it for various items scavenged from around the station. (DS9: "In the Cards")

External link

• Auction at Wikipedia