Dave and Christopher Lee (Darth Tyranus)

We had a conversation with Dave Olbury, admin of the Website Let The Wookie Win and StarWars Autograph collecting  fanpage, who owns a huge collection of autographs from actors, producers, camera mans, technicians and a big etcetera, of people involved with the production of Star Wars.  Dave answer some questions we made and share some of his knowledge in the world of collectors.

Hi there my Name is Dave Louis Oldbury im 45 years old and i live in Southampton which is in the UK, I have two amazing Daughters a wealth of pets ans i am also a complete star wars freak.

I first started collecting Star wars related things when i was a kid of around 9, my first ever figure was Chewbacca which at the time was the only real things available to kids on the UK market I got into Autograph collecting much later in life but i have been at it for probably thirteen years now

My Very first Star wars Autograph was a Guy called Garrick Hagon, who played Biggs Darklighter he didn’t really look like Biggs and never even had Biggs’s mustache, never mind an X-wing suit. Still in for a penny and all that. I felt daft but I said “Man, you don’t know what Star Wars meant to me as A kid!” Garrick gave me one of those “you still are a kid by the amount of enthusiasm you’re showing looks” and proceeded to reel me back into the Star wars universe all over again. He told me about working with Mark Hamill and how big the fan movement was and I listened captivated, like I had when i’d seen Star wars for the first time in that cinema all those years ago.

Favorites are hard as i have so many great things, I tend to treasure any signatures by the guys who are sadly no longer with us or never signed a star wars image as they are so rare and to own them is something special I guess if im pushed them Maybe my Alfie Curtis autograph Alfie played Doctor Evizan (see Photo) in the Cantina scene and is very rare to get so i really like it

I do collect action figures as well as signed photos and always wanted to have one of every figure made, loosely displayed, i am getting there but its an expensive past time

Id Say i have near on three thousand star wars related signatures with multi signed items plus a tonne of figures and play sets

Thats a hard question as whats valuable to some people may be worthless to others, if you’re judging it purely by financial reasons then i would say Probably something like the Alec Guinness signed Lobby card (See Photo) is the most valuable monetary wise, but i don’t believe there is such a thing as a cheap graph as they all have a lot of value to the person who wamts them whether theyre common or rare.

Signed by Sir Alec Guinness

There are many interesting stories from the collecting World, I have a few bits that hold fond memories for me, mainly relating to the people that signed, them i have some amazing photos signed by Dennis Lowe and Roger Nichols and the stories they tell were pretty neat they are both behind the scenes guys from mainly Empire and Jedi, they related the story of the R2D2 that’s used in the Ewok Scene where everyone is being carried on poles well the finished R2 unit was heavy and they needed to get it up into the Ewok village set ASAP as time was of the essence under much pressure they hoisted up the spare R2 unit which was little more than a painted shell If you freeze frame the scene with R2 you can see not only does he not have a middle leg but hes just a shell, something they never told George Lucas about

Sadly you are right there are many, many fakes autographs on Ebay, however you can still pick up some real genuine signatures if you know what to do Always check feedback and previous items that the eleer is selling, for instance if you were considering bidding on a rare item such as a Peter Cushing for instance there are very few pictures that he signed off Grand Moff Tarkin so if the seller has been selling them on a regular basis chances are they’re fake The best advice i can give is to make friends with someone who has a large collection (there are many on the web and Face book) and always ask their opinion before buying as you’ll find that if they don’t know then chances are they know someone who can tell you if the signature is real or fake , never be afraid to ask

I always say the same thing to anyone who asks, never ever collect to compete with others collect what makes you happy and expand as and when you get the opportunity, it must always be fun.