May The Fo(rce)urth Be With You V

Arrived has it...

 

 

Today is the unofficial National Star Wars Day, May 4. In honor of this day I offer a trilogy of Star Wars relics that I have picked up over the past few months, all from Episode VI Return of the Jedi.

 

The first two cards are from the 2013 Topps Jedi Legacy release. The relics are an Ewok’s fur and part of Jabba’s Sail Barge sail.

There are three different relics in the release, the third being Chewbacca’s fur but those are still well outside of my comfort range in price. Each of the three relics have multiple character versions with some selling for more than other, for example the Slave Leia Jabba Sail card sells for more than the rest just like the Wicket Ewok Fur sells for more than the other Ewoks and so on.

The third relic is from this year’s very cool 2015 Topps Star Wars Masterwork release, a Scout Trooper Shield Bunker Panel. Like the other relics there are multiple characters and two different sections of the structure are used; Inner Panel and Frame. The main character cards run higher in price and I have seen a couple of cards with screw holes that sold at a premium.

 

 

Happy Star Wars Day and May the Fo(rce)urth be with you!

Quick Peek: 2015 Topps Star Wars Masterwork

*EDIT- A "Thank you" to Sooz, from Cardboard Problem and Topps, she left a comment with a link to Topps Star Wars Facebook which includes the checklist for Masterwork along with some very cool preview images. Here is the Topps Star Wars link

Once again Topps is turning to Star Wars, the first of 5 Star Wars releases this year, but this time going high-end with their 2015 Star Wars Masterwork release scheduled for a mid-February release. Each $250-275 box will include 4 packs for a total of 20 cards. Each box will include an on-card autograph, a sketch card and two other “Premium” inserts (read this as manufactured relics).

There are some positives like autographs of the main characters including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, multi-signature autograph booklets, limited sketch cards and movie prop and costume relics. But like your typical Topps release there are plenty of parallels (4 per base card while inserts have 6 parallels each.) and no matter how “Groundbreaking” Clay Luraschi claims it to be manufactured relics are not “taking collectability to new heights”. Some of the manufactured relics include stamps and weapon medallions plus for some reason they decided to create autograph cards that contains a fragment of the pen used to sign the cards. I don’t know why anyone would want a cool autograph with the nib of a pen attached.

In the end this is the type of product where you leave others to pay the upfront price of the box and instead hunt down the singles that interest you when they begin to flood the secondary market. I love Star Wars releases and I am sure that even at such a high price point people will still purchase boxes I think companies are definitely going about creating value the wrong way when they insert fake relics and autographs of Background Stormtrooper #2 in to a product like this.

Base:

Inserts:
Defining Moments base, Rainbow Foil parallel #/299, Metal parallel #/10 & Gold parallel #1/1

Inserts

Hits
Manufactured relics

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