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York County auction house making “record” sales on Star Wars items

SPRINGETTSBURY TOWNSHIP, P.A. — Hakes Americana has auctioned off memorabilia for fifty years. However, Todd Sheffer, production manager at Hakes American...

SPRINGETTSBURY TOWNSHIP, P.A. -- Hakes Americana has auctioned off memorabilia for fifty years.

However, Todd Sheffer, production manager at Hakes Americana, says they are in the middle of selling the "best" Star Wars collection they've seen in their history.

Bids for a telescopic lightsaber Obi-Wan Kenobi figurine exceed $50,000.

Mint-condition Luke Skywalker figurine getting bids of around $11,000.

Tie-Fighter action toys currently getting interests around $6,000.

Those numbers are a small example of the grand scheme of the sale.

"We're well over a million dollars total as of [Tuesday] and it's still going," said Sheffer.

Sheffer said the owner, Arizona resident Russell Branton, decided it was time to sell his collection.

Representatives from Hakes Americana drove to Arizona and brought the items back in the span of a day.

Sheffer said Branton invested in Star Wars collectibles and sold it while interest in the brand is currently popular.

Sheffer also said items in the auction haven't been available to the market in decades.

The majority of the items, Sheffer said, are not the typical toys that are bought and stuffed into the top shelf of a closet.

"This is an investment-grade collection so the people that are buying this aren't necessarily just toy collectors. They are people of kind of a higher caliber that want high-end Star Wars," said Sheffer.

While rarity plays a huge part in the sales, Sheffer said the force of nostalgia draws buyers in.

"People connect with these things. People remember the first time they sat at the theaters, they remember playing with the toys," said Sheffer.

The unique collection doesn't solely feature characters from far. far away.

Included is a "high-grade" comic book that Sheffer said is the "very first book the featured Spider-Man as we know him today."

The current bid on that is nearing $100,000.

"They read them, they rolled them up, they put them in their back pocket. They took the Mickey Mantle rookie card and put it in the spokes of their bike. They took the Star Wars figure and they put them in the sandbox. That's why these are so valuable because these are the survivors of kids being kids," said Sheffer.

The first round auction on items ends Thursday around "lunch time."

Sheffer says they will continue to sell items in increments on March, June, July and November of 2018.

Sales may, potentially, go into 2019.

Visit Hakes.com for more information.

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