Star Wars toys dumped in Stourbridge garage fetch £250k
A collection of vintage Star Wars toys found in bin bags in a garage has fetched more than £250,000 at auction.
They and other toys were left to an elderly couple, from Stourbridge, in their neighbour's will.
The couple were unaware of the value of the items, which sold in total for £410,000, and had arranged for skips to throw many of them away.
They were sold by Aston's Auctioneers in Dudley, West Midlands, in its last sale before closing permanently.
Auctioneer Chris Aston said he did not expect the items to fetch so much.
"The best piece was the vinyl cape Jawa, the guys from the desert in the original Star Wars film," he said.
"Not many of these vinyl cape ones made it on to the market, so to find one sealed on the card like the one in this collection, we think there is only eight of them in the world."
That item alone fetched £22,000.
The unnamed couple had invited Mr Aston to look at the large number of toys and comics which belonged to Peter Simpson, who left his house and its contents to his neighbours when he died.
They had arranged for skips because they had no idea of how valuable some of the items were, Mr Aston said.
He said they were "absolutely delighted".
"If you inherited a house, plus the furniture in the house, you would think the house was the real money, but no," Mr Aston added.
"The stuff in the house made more than what the house is on the market for."
"The first day I was there I found a rare Batman figure," he said.
"As soon as I found that, I thought 'well if that is in there, there could be loads of gems', so I instructed them to cancel the skips.
"It was our best sale ever in 15 years and also our last ever auction as we are now closing the business permanently having been badly affected by the lockdown earlier in the year."
BBC News
