Canceled 'Roswell' show sells props, set pieces in Santa Fe

Jul. 9—The first guy in line to buy a piece of Hollywood showed up at 5:30 a.m. for the 9 a.m. estate sale.

Many others followed by the time the doors opened at the site of the former Kmart on St. Michael's Drive. Some were driven by the hope of landing a bargain. Some came to buy furniture for their homes.

And some came to purchase a token from a popular cult television series set and shot in New Mexico.

Roswell, New Mexico, that is. The CW network recently canceled the show — about a young woman in Roswell who falls in love with an alien being (after all, it is Roswell) — after four seasons.

Some 13,000 items — props, set dressings, costumes and furniture — are being sold this weekend at the former big-box department store, where the production team set up both a studio set and prop shop during the show's run.

As staffers from Stephen's A Consignment Gallery opened the doors for shoppers — who numbered close to 400 by 9:30 a.m. — many eagerly grabbed shopping carts and took to the aisles like early birds on Black Friday.

"Whee, this is fun!" screamed one young woman as she grabbed a shopping cart and briskly skipped through aisles full of this, that and the other.

Another woman, also armed with a shopping cart, let loose with a series of jumps as she ran through the store, yelling, "Kmart! Kmart!"

Others were more subdued as they piled their carts with paraphernalia ranging from pillows to mannequin parts to flying saucer lamps to vinyl records to retro appliances like old radios, rotary phones and cassette players.

You can even find cassettes at the sale — including one featuring the greatest hits of Fabian and Frankie Avalon, the sort of thing only a man from Mars might like to listen to today.

You can also uncover cool props from the show, like a mock Roswell Sheriff's Department police report, gas masks and military items.

Roswell, New Mexico production designer Guy Barnes said this is the first estate sale tied to a television series shot in the state that has happened in Santa Fe. While he expected the event to attract "some fanboys," he thinks the buyers will "mostly be the public looking for a bargain."

Luke Aikey was one of those folks. He said he just moved back to Santa Fe and is hunting for furniture. "My house is empty," he said as he waited in line before the doors opened.

"I've never seen the show," he added, "but I have been in Roswell. The fact that this [sale] is tied to the TV show doesn't mean a lot to me."

He scored a couch, a cutting board and a laundry basket within the first half hour and was eyeing a 1960s- or '70s-era red motorbike with a sale price of $800. He didn't need it, he said, but it sure looked inviting.

Other people who attended the sale said they just wanted to shop for possible bargains in a now-closed store they used to frequent.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," one woman pushing an empty shopping cart said as she wandered the aisles.

Patience Pollock, an artist from Santa Fe, was hoping to restock her home as she prepares to host her own garage sale next weekend. She said she is not a fan of Roswell, New Mexico, but rather a collector of things made of cast iron. She was 28th in line but said her lucky number is 27, a figure tattooed on her arm.

She nabbed a few cast iron items within the first few minutes.

Karen Redeye, who recently moved to Santa Fe, grabbed a tall wooden framed lamp that had a small, green and inflatable alien attached to it. She also bought a small table, a Navajo weaving and what she called a "ridiculous looking papier-mâché skull" for her daughter.

"I just like estate sales," Redeye said. "It's fun. I don't need a thing."

Others came with the hope of populating their living room with something — anything — from the show. One such buyer was Judy, who declined to give her last name but who said she is a fan of Roswell.

"You always hope you buy something you'll go back and see on film and TV when you watch it again," she said. But having done that at least once before — buying a shelf used in the 1980s Western film Young Guns — she said she also realizes "you go back and watch it and discover it was put way in the back where you really can't see it."

Stephen and Domenic Etre, co-owners of Stephen's A Consignment Gallery, tooled around the store on pink push scooters, acting like enthusiastic film producers.

"It's showtime!" Stephen Etre proclaimed as he opened the doors to the eager bargain hunters.

Having conducted a couple of these estate sales tied to other television series, including Chambers in Albuquerque, he said he enjoys watching people purchase props from movie and television shows.

It allows them to "live vicariously" by having those items in their homes, he said, adding he and his staff try to create a sense of urgency to get people buying, which can then encourage others.

He said estate sales attract people who feel "if I don't buy it, someone else will."

Tying the sale into the theme of the show, Etre's staff had set up a gray alien by the checkout line near a sign reading: "Thank You For Letting Us Abduct Your Funds!"

Not everything was for sale. The producers donated a lot of clothes and other household items to firefighters and others who lost their homes in recent wildfires in New Mexico, Barnes said.

Proceeds from the sale go back to Warner Brothers Television, Barnes and Etre said.

The sale continues at the old Kmart site through Sunday. Saturday's sale items will be 50 percent off, Etre said. On Sunday, it will be 70 percent off.

"Does that mean we should hide stuff and come back Sunday?" one man asked Erte.

The answer was no.