Happy March, Space Freaks! So here we are just a few months later and another amazing
round of items has sold off through Hake’s Americana. The second installment brought some great prices, but honestly not as many stories, and not
quite as much excitement as the first auction did in 2017. Let’s face it, outside of a few pieces there
wasn’t a lot of stuff to talk about here. Yes, I talk about 12 Backs and other more common pieces on the
MarketWatch, but with an event like this it’s all about the rare and unique, and
over all outside of 5-6 pieces the auction fell a bit flat.
TOP PRICES REALIZED:
Boba Fett Rocket
Firing Prototype AFA 85 – $86,383 – The top prize of the day was going to come down to one of
two pieces: the Rocket Firing Boba Fett or the Double Telescoping Darth
Vader. As you can see here, the Fett won
by leaps and bounds. I’d dig into this
with more coverage but it’s just not worth your time or mine. This was a fluke, and whoever paid double
the high end of going rates won themselves a great prize, at a horrible
price. The typical going rate for an
RF Fett is around $25K-$40K, given there are around 100 RF Fett’s that have
surfaced over the years and that this number hasn’t gone up that much over time. You can even circle back to Tomart’s Price Guide to Worldwide Star Wars Collectibles from the 1990s and see a value that’s pretty close to
the going rate today -- partly because
what was once thought to be a few, is now known to be a lot more.
Darth Vader Double
Telescoping MOC AFA 70 – $64,900
Princess Leia Organa MOC AFA 95 – $29,500 – If you didn’t think that grades drive the price of an item,
look no further (and if you need to look further go back to the results from
the first Hake’s auction of this collection and look at the Luke Skywalker AFA
95 listing). Like her sibling, the
original Leia reached a new high for the 12 Back version of this
character. Needless to say, the best of
the best gets the best price.
Hero Set 3 Pack MISB AFA90 – $14,684 – Here on the MarketWatch we love Star Wars 3-Packs, and the
Hero Set is one of the staples of the line. Again, condition drove the over all price for a piece that would typically
sell under $10K for an 85 or lesser condition item. This marks the mid point in terms of the 3-Packs listed as part of the auction, meaning we will have double the amount in
the next several rounds as they sell off the full collection.
Admiral Ackbar POTF
Proof Card AFA 90 – $9,204 – The rarest item listed came at the fraction of the price of
items that are much more readily available. However, rarity doesn’t always drive
demand. In the case of this Mon
Calamari, the end price was actually much higher then anticipated even with its
rarity. Given the trajectory of proofs
in the hobby, it’s not surprising that one of the rarer POTF proofs achieved
this price, though it should not be looked at as a benchmark in the hobby for
this specific character or for any POTF proof in general.
Darth Vader Collector's Case AFA75 – $14,160 – To round out the update we have another super rare
production item. Unlike its brother that carried Vader, Luke and Yoda, this
version of the Darth Vader Collector's Case packaged with IG-88, Bossk, and Boba Fett is extremely hard to find. Adding in the trio of figures and their over all popularity, it’s not overly surprising that this piece was able to reach
the peak it did, even with its lower grade. If condition is a driver of price -- and I believe we’ve established that -- it would be interesting to see what an AFA80 or AFA85 would have brought for an
ending price.
That’s it for this update. Keep checking back for more updates on the Archive and our
next round of coverage of the Hake’s Star Wars auctions coming later this year.
Wampa Wampa,
Pete
