> No way! Pardon me, but what exactly are you disagreeing with? > The only thing interesting about this sword is who made it. Yes. It was made by Wētā Worksh

> No way! Pardon me, but what exactly are you disagreeing with? > The only thing interesting about this sword is who made it. Yes. It was made by Wētā Workshop. They are a very well known prop and special effects company. That alone increases the value of the item. Further reducing the surprise that their work is valued higher than the loose manuscript is that they have already sold art pieces for hundreds of thousands of dollar. “We are only aware of two other items created by Weta Workshop to have come to auction: Aragorn's sword Andúril from Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King for $437,000, and Saruman's wizard staff from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy for $125,000, both at Bonhams in 2014.” > And the person who made it is known as an author. Don’t know who made it at Wētā. Perhaps they are indeed authors on their own. But the sword in question was not made by Neal Stephenson. > Plenty of actually interesting swords cost less than $55k and some have real stories and history. Ok? So what? I’m not arguing that $55k is a good price. What I am arguing that it is not surprising that an item carefully crafted by masters of their craft to look good and be desirable sells for more than loose scribled over pages.