It’s the eternal dream; finding a haul of mint condition original Star Wars toys, unseen and untouched for years, and a cargo hold of vintage Star Wars toys has brought in a cantono of moolah, raising £250,000 at an auction in Dudley.
For Aston’s Auctions it was sadly their final auction, a victim of the lockdown, but this final sale – their biggest in 15 years – almost didn’t happen.
The unnamed couple had invited Mr Aston to look at the large number of toys and comics in the man’s house, but had arranged for skips because they had no idea of how valuable some of the items were, Mr Aston said.
“The first day I was there I found a rare Batman figure,” he said. “As soon as I found that, I thought, well if that is in there, there could be loads of gems, so I instructed them to cancel the skips.
“It was our best sale ever in 15 years and also our last ever auction as we are now closing the business permanently having been badly affected by the lockdown earlier in the year.”
And according to auctioneer Chris Aston, one sale in particular stood out.
“The best piece was the vinyl cape Jawa, the guys from the desert in the original Star Wars film,” he said. “Not many of these vinyl cape ones made it on to the market, so to find one sealed on the card like the one in this collection, we think there is only eight of them in the world.”
That item alone fetched £22,000.
The Star Wars items raised £250,000 with the entire auction pulling in £410,000.
