1976 "Star Wars" Printing Block
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APPRAISER:
You came in this morning, and I saw you walking up to the table, and with a hunk of wood in your hand. And then you flipped it over, and I realized you brought in an original printing block. Where'd you get this?
GUEST:
Interestingly enough, I got it at an online auction. Once in a while, I'll pore through the listings, trying to see if something-- a knickknack or something from this movie that might be interesting enough to have on my shelf, and this really sung to me. From what I can gather, uh, in around 1976, the 20th Century Fox made up a whole bunch of advertisements to put in trade publications to get theater owners and fans interested in this new science fiction movie that was coming out. And I was interested in this, not only because it was the piece that made those advertisements, but it used the old logo, which they changed before the introduction of the movie in 1977.
APPRAISER:
Star Wars is a huge collectible. People collect the figurines, the posters, anything to do with it. And I'm going to have you read it in a second here for fun, but what's great about it, it has the new technology-- Dolby Digital Sound. Stereo.
GUEST:
Six-track.
APPRAISER:
Six-track. Here, I'll have you read it. What does it say there?
GUEST:
Okay, I'll do my best. "Twentieth Century Fox is proud to announce that its forthcoming production, Star Wars, will be released with Dolby-encoded prints in 70-millimeter, six-track stereo, in selected theaters, and in 35-millimeter stereo optical nationally."
APPRAISER:
Well, I mean, does it get cooler than that?
GUEST:
Pretty... Pretty fantastic.
APPRAISER:
Star Wars collectibles, as you know, they're still making today.
GUEST:
Oh, yeah.
APPRAISER:
Okay? And they're still selling them. And what did you pay for it?
GUEST:
(chuckles): It was no more than 20 bucks. It was $20...
APPRAISER:
$20.
GUEST:
Something like that.
APPRAISER:
You probably have made a little bit of a profit on it.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
I would say... Now, I'm going to be very conservative on this, because there's not a lot of these floating around to compare other prices of other ones that have sold. I'm going to say $300-to-$400 range-- and that's being extremely conservative-- at auction.
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