A British couple found a stockpile of rare Star Wars toys and memorabilia that earned them £250,000 (approximately P16 million) in an auction, according to BBC News UK.
They got the Star Wars collectibles from their neighbor, who left them his belongings in his will after he died. The valuable hoard contained thousands of items.
The items sold included a Palitoy vinyl cape Jawa toy and card set, which was sold at a “world record” price of £22,000 (approximately P1.4 million), said Chris Aston, who ran the auction. These were sold at Aston’s Auctioneers, in Dudley, which had its best-ever auction in 15 years of trading.
A set of five cards and figurines, including Yoda and a Star Destroyer Commander, were sold for £25,000 (approximately P1.6 million).
Two toy cards that have a small figurine and accompanying card of Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker were bought at £3,300 (approximately P210,000). Additionally, 13 assorted boxes of Star Wars toys were sold at £4,600 (approximately P262,000).
“The guy died with no relatives and left his house and contents to his next-door nearby, this elderly couple, in his will,” Aston said. “They said ‘oh what do we do with this’ and they asked their son for advice, and he found us after doing a bit of Googling, and realized we are one of the top toy auctioneers in the country, and happened to be just done the road from them.
“He called me, I went round to have a look, and he knew there was soon bits in there that were worth some money and valuable,” Aston added. “But he had no idea to the extent the value of it.”
“They were going to order some skips to chuck loads of it away because they thought it wasn’t particularly valuable,” he went on. “I said ‘hang on a sec’, cancel the skips, we will sell all of this’.”
The good condition of the toys, cards, and memorabilia was maintained because they were kept in bin bags. Apparently, every room of the old man’s house has Stars Wars items. Aston estimated that there were “thousands of individual items” in there.
Anything to add to this story? Share your thoughts with us.
Do you have a story for the WhenInManila.com Team? Email us at story.wheninmanila@gmail.com or send us a direct message at WhenInManila.com Facebook Page. Join our Viber group to be updated with the latest news!