If you’re looking for some Star Trek memorabilia in the wake of Friday’s death of Leonard Nimoy, who famously portrayed Spock on the show, you’re not likely to find any at Baton Rouge’s lone comic book store.
“Pretty much everything we had sold out pretty quickly beginning on Friday evening and through Saturday,” says Otto Zoller, manager at Louisiana Double Play. “We did carry quite a bit of Star Trek stuff, but it’s pretty much been picked through.”
But the lack of Nimoy memorabilia hasn’t stopped fans and regular customers from stopping by the shop on South Sherwood Forest Boulevard to take a look about and reminisce about the actor’s career and personality.
“A lot of fans had actually met him at Comic-Cons and other events where he’d make appearances, and most of the true fans are remembering him as being one of the nicest people they’d ever met, on top of what a great career he had,” Zoller says. “It’s always tragic to lose somebody who’s iconic in the world of sci-fi or comic books, and it’s just nice to see people remember him that way.”
Zoller predicts Nimoy and Star Trek merchandise will increase in value following the actor’s death, but he believes the increase may only be temporary.
“Star Trek will always have a fan following and there is a market for it. There might be a little upshot in pricing, but that’s usually the case when anybody in the industry passes away,” he says. “So there might be some people who are clamoring to get everything they can for some of the Star Trek items, but I don’t see it lasting very long.”
—Steve Sanoski
