Dudley film poster auction ends in record sale - with video

Film enthusiasts flocked from across the UK to the auction house in Dudley with hopes of sprucing up their personal collection or landing themselves a bargain.

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The 1953 War of the Worlds poster was an extremely rare first-release Paramount original, the only poster that features the artwork with the flying saucers included. More than 300 people also bidded for items online.

Over 300 posters were auctioned at Aston Auctioneers, which included a 80-poster collection from a former RAF man. Brian O'Connor used to help out at a force's cinema in the 1950s and was interested in the film posters and asked to keep them before they were thrown away.

His widow, Liz O'Connor, who lives in Folkestone, Kent, hopes that the posters can now be enjoyed by other people after they spent the few years in the bottom of a drawer.

An original James Bond Dr No poster fetched £5,600, 1956 film Forbidden Planet scooped £7,600 and The Day The Earth Stood Still sold for £4,300.

Hundreds of online-bidders from across the world tuned in for the auction with one lucky bidder taking home the golden prize, the rare War of the Worlds poster, which has only been seen once before. Chris Aston, managing director at Aston's Auctioneers, said: "A lot of dealers came forward with cash in hand offers but they wanted to steal them away. One dealer in London offered us £9,500 for a select amount of posters but one of those alone went for £18,000.

"Putting collections like this to auction is the right thing to do because lots of dealers attend along with people from all over the world on the internet.

"I'm really pleased with how well it's all gone, especially the War of the Worlds poster – it's the most expensive thing we've sold and we've been here for 12 years.

"Before that, the most expensive thing we sold was a £10,000 Rolex watch which was in a police auction."