Rare Star Wars items fetch more than £250,000 at Dudley auction
A hoard of rare Star Wars toys and memorabilia fetched more than £250,000 at a Black Country auction.
The valuable lot, which consisted of thousands of items, came from an elderly couple in Stourbridge.
Incredibly, some of it was almost thrown away.
Among the pieces that were sold was a Palitoy vinyl cape Jawa toy and card set, which fetched a "world record" £22,000, said Chris Aston, who ran the auction.
The items were sold at Aston's Auctioneers, in Dudley, which had its best ever auction in 15 years of trading.
The elderly couple acquired the Star Wars items from their neighbour, who left them his belongings in his will after he died.
Chris Aston, who runs Aston's Auctioneers, said: "The guy died with no relatives and left his house and contents to his next door nearby, this elderly couple, in his will.
"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 realised 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.
"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.
"I said 'hang on a sec', cancel the skips, we will sell all of this'.
"We spent weeks and months emptying the house, it has been a massive operation."
The items had been left in bin bags which helped to keep some of the items in good condition, including the toy cards.
Every room in the house was filled with Stars Wars items. Mr Aston estimated there were "thousands of individual items".
Other toys that were sold included a set of five cards and figurines, including Yoda and a Star Destroyer Commander,which sold for £25,000.
Two toy cards, which featured a small figurine and accompanying card, of Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker fetched £3,300, while 13 assorted boxes of Star Wars toys went under the hammer for £4,600.
The total money spent in the auction was £410,000 where every item was sold.
This 100 per cent selling rate is known as a "white glove sale" in the auction business, said Mr Aston.
