DENVER (KDVR) — A local man has been collecting millions of dollars’ worth of “Star Wars” memorabilia for 32 years, and now he’s ready to sell it.
Jeff Jacob was born two years before “Star Wars” debuted in 1977, and his childhood was filled with the iconic film. While Jacob had “Star Wars” toys growing up in southwest Denver, he gave most of them away when he was 12 and didn’t start to build his multi-million dollar collection until he was almost 20 years old.
Local collects millions worth of ‘Star Wars’ memorabilia
It started by walking into comic stores and buying a few toys while he was working in construction. At first, he spent years trying to collect all of the toys he had as a kid, but Jacob told his future wife that he would only start truly collecting if he had the chance to buy a collection of packaged vintage toys.
Then, a 911 pager came in from his friend who told him there was a collection he should look at.
Soon enough, the 19-year-old purchased a collection worth $4,000 from a woman trying to raise money for an orphanage. He didn’t have thousands of dollars to spare but bought it anyway. At the time, his mother thought he was crazy.
Now, after 32 years of buying, selling items and adding to his collection, Jacob estimates he has over 5,000 items worth a total of $5-7 million.
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Jeff Jacob’s ‘Star Wars’ collection (Courtesy of LIV Sotheby’s International Realty) -
Jeff Jacob’s ‘Star Wars’ collection (Courtesy of LIV Sotheby’s International Realty) -
Jeff Jacob’s ‘Star Wars’ collection (Courtesy of LIV Sotheby’s International Realty) -
Jeff Jacob’s ‘Star Wars’ collection (Courtesy of LIV Sotheby’s International Realty) -
Jeff Jacob’s ‘Star Wars’ collection (Courtesy of LIV Sotheby’s International Realty)
At one point, Jacob dedicated an entire level of his house to the collection, but after putting his Littleton home on the market in 2024 and not wanting to build another room, he decided to put over half of his collection up for auction starting in January.
Here’s what he’s selling
Jacob said a key piece in the first collection to be sold is an Obi-Wan Kenobi action figure with a double-telescoping lightsaber. Jacob said there are only about 10 known packaged collectibles in the world, as they were pulled off the market because it was considered a choking hazard.
Jacob said the action figure alone could go for upwards of a million dollars.
“You just never know what this stuff can go for, because this is the very first time in probably many, many years that this high of grade of ‘Star Wars’ collection is going to be out on the market,” said Jacob. “I mean, it’s been 15 years since anybody’s even seen this high of grade of vintage stuff from the 70s and 80s.”
Among the pieces, Jacob said over a hundred of them are the highest grade known in the world of each item. There are pieces in his collection that are believed to be among the only five known in the world. Meanwhile, other parts of his collection come from “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas’ collection.
The Hake’s Auction House is putting up 500 pieces of his collection at a time, releasing more every two months with the first batch coming out Jan. 6, 2025.
