Via Thegaurdian.com:

A Star Wars fan has urged children of the 1970s and 80s to check their attics for toys after he sold part of his collection for more than £24,000.

Craig Stevens, 45, former chairman of the Star Wars UK fan club, made headlines last month when a collector paid £18,000 at auction for his pristine Boba Fett figure in its perfect, unpunched packaging. He has now sold a further 15 rare figures for £24,650.

A figure of the IG-88 droid that had its original £1.40 price sticker on the box sold for £4,200. A Han Solo figure in Bespin outfit from The Empire Strikes Back film fetched £2,000.

Stevens, who is married and lives in Croydon, south London, said: “That was a great result from the auction – £24,000 was the hammer price, which was a great return on my original investment of a few pounds in the 1990s.”

He still has a 10,000-strong collection of Star Wars memorabilia. His advice for other fans was to look in their attic for old toys.

“The holy grail for Star Wars collectors is the Jawa with a vinyl cape, which was made for a short time before they replaced it with a cloth cape,” he said. “It was only made for four or five months … There are more out there in people’s cupboards and attics. Unpackaged, you are talking £400-£500 and in the packaging, unopened, the sky’s the limit.”

One sold last year for more than £10,000. Stevens is writing a book on Star Wars and plans another on collecting.