You and William Shatner: Is a Picture Worth $80?

What’s one thing fanboys (and girls) refuse to cut back on in the recession? Photos with their favorite celebrities.

If you think that’s about as believable as a boy in a helium balloon, stop by the Big Apple Comic Con this weekend in New York City. There, on top of the $50 all-weekend ticket price, convention-goers are shelling out top dollar for portraits with their sci-fi heroes.

The highlights of the convention are supposed to be ambassadors of cutting-edge pop culture — Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, for instance. But it’s the chance to pose with demi-stars of yesteryear — Linda Hamilton of the “Terminator” flicks, Tony Amendola from “Stargate SG-1” — that some attendees get most excited about. Hundreds of them line up in front of a table belonging to celeb photo czar Froggy (he declines to give a last name), whose bare-bones, black-draped booth will likely get a lot more play this weekend than the perky Nintendo DS playground adjacent to it.

The indisputable draw for the three-day extravaganza is Captain James T. Kirk himself, actor William Shatner, who added two extra days of appearances to satisfy customer demand. “Shatner’ll do very well — we presold a hundred photos for him,” says Froggy, who will charge Shatner fans $80 for an 8x10 glossy, printed on the spot. The photographer expects to take between 300 and 400 snaps of the actor before the weekend is through — meaning customers may have to wait up to two-and-a-half hours for their chance. (Don’t try and use a digital camera to take your own; it’s not allowed.)

Other top draws, he predicts, will include a $40 shot with Billy Dee Williams (who played Lando Calrissian in two of the “Star Wars” films) and a $120 group photo with several to-be-announced actors from the “Battlestar Galactica” franchise. “The BSG group always does pretty well,” says Froggy. Fans of “Dukes of Hazzard” will be disappointed to know that Catherine Bach, the original Daisy Duke, pulled out of her scheduled photo op at the last minute — but they can still snag John Schneider, who played Bo, for a $40 pic.

Froggy, who works up to 40 conventions a year, prices most of his celebrity subjects around $30. The fee is split three ways (with the convention sponsor and the actor) so each get $10. As the price increases, the actor’s take usually goes up, too; “Shatner gets a lot more,” says Froggy. “But I can’t tell you how much.” The entrepreneur offers presales through his web site so he can map out schedules accordingly — usually presales represent 20% of the total customers — but also so that fans can see the schedule early and have time to save up. “At shows like Dragon Con, some people spend three or four thousand [dollars] on photos,” he says.

That’s a serious investment in fandom — especially considering the photos don’t typically have much resale potential. “It’s just a unique souvenir for fans, something they want more than autographs,” Froggy says. “There’s no [monetary] value — because you’re in them.”