Demand for Star Wars memorabilia goes galactic

Demand among Star Wars memorabilia collectors for the franchise’s screen-matched lightsabres has gone galactic.

In September of last year, the lightsabre from the original Star Wars film from 1977 broke the record for a prop from the franchise, when it sold for $3.6 million with Propstore in Los Angeles. Fittingly, that record was in turn broken by (spoiler alert) his son Luke Skywalker’s lightsabre, still held in the (prosthetic) hand Darth Vader cut off in The Empire Strikes Back, the sequel from 1980. It sold for almost $3.8 million earlier this summer with Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

The auction duel of the lightsabres isn’t over yet. Now, it’s the turn of Darth Vader’s weapon from The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). The prop used in the making of both films is headlining Heritage Auctions’ The Ultimate Star Wars Auction sale on 12 November, where the starting bid, including the 25% buyer’s premium, is $1 million. In fact, the prop leads a whole line of lightsabres spanning the various sequels and spin-offs that followed over the years since the early 1980s – along with Boba Fett’s carbine blaster (starting bid $125,000) and various other props, scripts, drawings, toys and posters.

A museum of Star Wars memorabilia

The spate of Star Wars sales is hardly surprising. Collecting film memorabilia has morphed from being a slightly nerdy fan obsession to becoming serious business. The broader market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6% to 2030 – from $3.1 billion in 2024 to $4.4 billion, according to a report last year from Strategic Market Research. At the end of August, Propstore featured several Star Wars items as part of its Entertainment Memorabilia sale and, last spring, the auction house sold C-3PO’s head from The Empire Strikes Back for just over $1 million, including the buyer’s premium.

Perhaps the real question ought to be, where do you put it all? George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, has come up with the answer – at least as far as his collection goes. Last month, the sprawling, futuristic-looking Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened in Los Angeles. It cost a reported $1 billion and took 15 years to build “one of the most conspicuous and intriguing museums to launch this decade anywhere in the galaxy”, says The Economist. The way the market is going, should Lucas ever find he needs to build a new wing, he could simply sell a few more items from his Star Wars collection to fund the expansion.

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