Collectibles

1976 Mark Hamill-signed Star Wars Poster

Appraisal: 1976 Mark Hamill-signed ‘Star Wars’ Poster

Transcript

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.