Star Wars Fan Gives $525,000 Star Wars Collection to Elderly Neighbors in Their Will

A long time devoted Star Wars fan, the late Peter Simpson, who passed away last December in England and ascended to the title of Luminous Being, as reported by The Times of London, left a trove of collectible Star Wars toys and other memorabilia to his neighbors, an elderly couple. This collection was valued at more than half a million US dollars.

The late Peter Simpson left his neighbors a Star Wars collection, which contains contents dating way back to Simpson’s earliest days as a fan. After receiving Simpson’s inheritance, the couple, who wished to remain anonymous, put up the items for auction. As a result, they came away with £400,000 (which comes out to about $525,000 US dollars).

There were hundreds upon hundreds of action figures, models, starships, and tons of other Star Wars memorabilia. Among this trove was a Star Destroyer Commander in its original packaging and in pristine condition, which went to a huge dedicated Star Wars fan who gave a winning final bidding price of $42,632 US dollars.

Another vintage action figure, the Palitoy Jawa complete with vinyl cape, had a final bidding price of $35,748 US dollars. As you can see on the tweet below from Jedi News, it is in pretty good condition.

There was another outstanding bidding that brought in the winning price of $13,107. This was given to a collection of six Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back trading cards that featured Lando Calrissian’s Bespin wingman Lobot, along with other The Empire Strikes Back-attired characters. As a Star Wars fan, I cannot help but wonder what this couple was thinking when selling these rare, stellar gems from a golden age. Giving away this very valuable collection is something that a die hard dedicated Star Wars fan would never do. Well, then again, they probably had no idea about the face value of these Star Wars collectibles. Or maybe they did and wanted the money. Chris Aston of Aston's Auctioneers provided at least a bit of insight on the matter:

“From what I understand, they were pretty overwhelmed by having inherited all of this stuff from their neighbor and didn’t know what to do with it. That was when they asked their son to contact myself. A lot of them were a bit damp because of how they’ve been stored, but generally it’s the best Star Wars collection I’ve ever seen.”

Aston also added that it “must feel like they’ve won the lottery,” as he has no idea what the couple were planning to do with their newly acquired bounty from the sackful of old toys from Simpson’s will. Imagine if they could use the first spending on a galaxy getaway to Canto Bight. Speaking of using the Force for good, the late Peter Simpson pretty much changed the life of his neighbors forever. If the neighbors were also dedicated Star Wars fans like him and knew the price beforehand, who knows whether they would have sold any of it? If they wanted to keep it all, they would never have seen that $525,000 in their account. But it is still a good thing for them to sell them in auction, as now they are surely able to catch up on their bills and get things that they may have wanted for a long time, as well as have a good life for the rest of their time and invest it on something useful to grow that money. Whatever it is, we hope they use the Force for good. From what we read, the Force is strong with this couple.

Written By Pat Kusnadi

Syndicated From Culture Slate