1976 Mark Hamill-signed Star Wars Poster
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GUEST:
I went to the World Science Fiction Convention called MidAmeriCon, and that was in '76, Labor Day, in Kansas City. And they had a "Star Wars" room there. And they had the Darth Vader costume on a mannequin.
APPRAISER:
Wow.
GUEST:
And I went right up to it and, like, "Ah, evil!" (chuckles) And I came back the next day, and there's a bunch of people in there, and there's this blonde kid. And one of the people come up and say to me, "Do you want to buy a poster?"
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And I said, "Sure, yeah." I'm, I'm easy, you know? And, "How much?", and he said, "$1.75." Said, "Can't beat that," so I bought the poster,
and then he said, "Do you want him to sign it?" I was thinking him, the comic book artist that did, that did the poster. You know, he was famous, you know, Howard Chaykin. So I said, "Okay, yeah, I'm cool." And I took it over to the blonde kid, and he wrote, "To Judith, love and best wishes, Mark Hamill." Mark who?
APPRAISER:
(laughs)
GUEST:
And I thought, "Oh, well, he must have something to do with the movie." Duh, yeah! (laughs) (laughs) So that's how I got it-- I know it's
worth something. So I kept it, tried to keep it in good shape.
APPRAISER:
What an amazing story-- that's, that's incredible. (laughs) Although not really, not that surprising....
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
...the fact that you didn't actually know at the time who Mark Hamill was. No, nobody knew.
GUEST:
(laughs) Nobody knew, yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. If it had been, maybe, Harrison Ford, you might have heard...
GUEST:
Well, if it had been Harrison Ford, I would have paid attention. (both laugh)
APPRAISER:
This poster from 1976...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...is, is pretty cool, because it's actually the very first "Star Wars" poster, it's the advance poster, which came out before the movie
came out...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
...which came out the following year, in 1977.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
It's a very unusual poster in its own right. What makes it incredibly rare is the fact that you've got Mark Hamill's signature... Hamill. ...just here.
GUEST:
Right there.
APPRAISER:
Now, he's very difficult to get to sign these days. He's not someone that readily gives out his signature.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Which really elevates this piece in terms of value.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So there's a couple of things here with the poster that we have to bear in mind. You probably had it up on the wall, did you, at some point?
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Because it's got some pinholes here.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
So that does affect the value, because poster collectors want something that's in perfect condition.
GUEST:
Right, that's pristine.
APPRAISER:
However, I think the signature does make up for that, so...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
...if this were to appear at auction...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
...you'd probably be looking at between $3,000 and $5,000.
GUEST:
So about what I figured.
APPRAISER:
But I think there's every chance that you could realize more than that, because it's such an unusual item.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
There would be very few of these posters that were actually signed by Luke Skywalk...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Sorry, by Mark Hamill...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
...in 1976.
GUEST:
Right.
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