Star Wars Autographs by the Numbers: Which are the Rarest?

Watching different Star Wars actors sign autographs for the last few decades, I started trying to figure out the numbers. How many pieces have been signed? How much value should be attached to each autograph? What are the prices that these actors charge vs. what the actual value should or could be?

So I started by using what I felt could be considered round average numbers for ease of understanding.

Using 20 weekend shows worldwide per year, with an average of 2,000 signatures per 2 or 3-day show in the last 25 years. If you feel the number of signed items per show is high, I can understand your concern, but it is realistic if the signer doesn't sign that much assume the remainders are easily filled out with private signings and trading cards for Topps etc. I believe these numbers are quite reasonable.

Sure at some events the guest may sign less, but there are certainly events where they will sign far more. Remember, even if you don't see lines for these guests at a show, that doesn't mean that the promoter doesn't have a mountain of stuff that the guest is contractually obligated to sign.

These figures put our most common Star Wars signer at about 1,000,000 autographs. Dave Prowse is likely the best candidate for this number. Jeremy Bulloch and Peter Mayhew are probably really close.

Kenny Baker likely made as many appearances but was a much slower signer, while the number may seem low, I am putting Kenny at the 500,000 mark.

Anthony Daniels has limited his signing appearances sometimes to only 1 or 2 per year. I put Anthony at the 150,000 level.

Carrie Fisher didn't really start on the show circuit until 4 or 5 years after the other cast members, but her draw at shows has easily put her in the 150,000 range.

Mark Hamill has done a handful of shows but the fees he or his agents have charged for his signature have always been higher than the rest. I am putting Mark's numbers at about 50,000-75,000.

Harrison Ford for decades was the guy that you had to go out and try to meet in public. He still doesn't do autograph shows, but he has done some private signings and has signed some material for specialty products and trading cards. If we guesstimate the number of these private signings to maybe 10 events with an average of under 500 pieces signed. We can put Harrison in at under 5000 nice sit-down autographs.

Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing were both generous signers via their home addresses. My rough estimates place Alec's Star Wars signed items at about 2000 pieces. Peter likely signed maybe 200-300 with 90%+ of those items inscribed to the fan.

Speaking to a number of active TTM autograph hunters and dealers, if they attempted mailing requests to Mr. Cushing between 1977 and 1985, a large percentage of material sent was Hammer Horror film stills and Sherlock Holmes items. Star Wars images were not good sellers and only existed in press kit images and lobby cards. By 1986 Star Wars was forgotten by most, and it did not see a huge resurgence until 1995-1997 (a year or more after Peter passed).

I know we don't live in a perfect world, but if you crunch the numbers:

Kenny should be twice as valuable as Dave, Jeremy or Peter Mayhew. (With Kenny's passing this is likely now skewed, and will likely even be higher today).
Anthony should be roughly 3 times as valuable as Kenny during his active signing years.
Anthony and Carrie should be pretty close in value.
Mark should be 2 to 3 times the value of Carrie.
Harrison's sit down clean autographs should be as much as 10 times the value of Mark.
Alec should be about twice as valuable as a nice Harrison.
Inscribed Peter items could be as much as 10 times the value of an Alec.
Uninscribed Peter Cushing Star Wars items should be worth a small mountain of Dave Prowse signed photos.

You can adjust the main numbers anyway you want.....cut down the number of shows a year, the number of years the signer appeared at shows, or even the average number of pieces signed at a weekend show.

The fact remains that some Star Wars related autographs are in such great supply, you should be very careful in what you choose as a good autograph to collect. That is, of course, if you are seeing your hobby as a possible future investment.

Tags: alec guinness, autographs, harrison ford, peter cushing, rare, star wars

6 members like this

Comment by Greg on December 23, 2016 at 8:45am: Great analysis and amazing insight Pete! Someone give this man a PhD in autographology!!! lol

Comment by Pete Bendu on December 27, 2016 at 5:08am: I realized that I have been talking about rarity levels, and I haven't actually given the scale that I use.

R1 5000-7000 pieces exist

R2 2000-5000 pieces exist

R3 500-2000 pieces exist

R4 200-500 pieces exist

R5 75-200 pieces exist

R6 50-75 pieces exist

R7 10-50 pieces exist

R8 5-10 pieces exist

R9 2-5 pieces exist

R10 1 piece exists (Unique)

R11 0 known pieces exist, maybe rumors but nothing seen or shared between collectors.

Come on now, you had to realize this had to "Go To 11."

Comment by Eric Keith Longo on December 27, 2016 at 5:15am: A+! If I had a PhD I'd give it!

Comment by Mike T on December 27, 2016 at 9:28am: Are your numbers including cut sigs or only Star Wars items?

Comment by Pete Bendu on December 27, 2016 at 3:47pm: Star Wars collectors are very lucky, the majority of the main cast did sign photos and Star Wars related material, but the number of secondary performers and crew never had the opportunity to sign Star Wars stuff. You can use the rarity scale anyway you choose, and you can certainly devise your own, but I count everything that could be signed. Album pages, index cards, photos from other films, playbills, dirty napkins. If someone showed up with a dirty t-shirt or soiled napkin signed by Des Webb or Laine Liska, damn straight I am counting it.

Comment by Greg on December 27, 2016 at 9:45pm: For interests' sake, I just happened to come across this eBay listing for a Sebastian Shaw which recently sold for £265 through a UACC dealer in the UK:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/252646347063

Comment by Edward Siebert on December 27, 2016 at 10:16pm: It's a very sad day in the Star Wars universe today, but I wanted to say how much I loved this whole post and conversation. Thanks Pete!

Comment by Pete Bendu on December 28, 2016 at 4:28am: Sebastian Shaw signed lots of album pages and playbills in the 1940's-1980's, and he responded to fanmail in the 1980's and 1990's until his passing in 1994. There are no proven Star Wars items, but rumors do persist. The most sought after pieces are white or blue album pages uninscribed for matting with Star Wars images, either as Vader or Anakin's blue force ghost.

Inscribed small cuts or pink album pages along with a multitude of odd shaped clips from playbills or other colorful album pages certainly exist and as the ebay auction above shows, they aren't super pricey.

Comment by Pete Bendu on December 28, 2016 at 4:29am

Comment by Pete Bendu on December 28, 2016 at 4:30am: I can't take any credit for the image above, it was emailed to me last night and the timing was right with our Shaw posts above.

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