My Star Wars Film Find
Posted: May 25th, 2019, 7:07 pm
Hello. I'm hoping you guys can help me out with this. I’ve found an old artifact related to Star Wars: Episode V and I have no idea what it’s value is, so I’m relying on the “Wisdom of Crowds”. It’s b/w 35mm test footage – about 2,500 feet of it!
How I obtained it, then lost it, then found it again, is a long story. But here’s the cliffsnotes version: A long, long time ago, I delivered the San Francisco Chronicle way, way too early in the morning (1980 and 3:00 am respectively). I picked up and folded my papers in a small room in the back of a building on Tunstead Ave. in San Anselmo, CA (where I was born and raised). In the back there were two garbage cans which, one fateful night, were literally overflowing with 35mm file strips, which I obtained legally by waiting until the “garbage man” (that’s what they were called back in 1980) took it to his truck.
Here are a few images of what I found (sorry, can't find a way to reduce the size w/o making them smaller at the source):
I’m about to list a few strips on eBay but really have no idea even where to start the bidding. I noticed there were strips of 4-5 color frames from one of the first three actual Star Wars movies which had sold for anywhere from $0.50 to $4.00 per frame (unmounted). Considering the number of theaters Episode’s IV, V, and VI played in at their widest release, there would still have to be several hundred other copies of these same frames out there somewhere. So whatever they’re worth, shouldn’t something as rare as this, with each frame likely being the only one in existence, be worth far more?
I’ve searched everywhere and there’s just nothing similar out there to compare this too, so what value do you guys think this has? Am I sitting on a goldmine, or a land mine?
Thanks for your feedback.
Len
How I obtained it, then lost it, then found it again, is a long story. But here’s the cliffsnotes version: A long, long time ago, I delivered the San Francisco Chronicle way, way too early in the morning (1980 and 3:00 am respectively). I picked up and folded my papers in a small room in the back of a building on Tunstead Ave. in San Anselmo, CA (where I was born and raised). In the back there were two garbage cans which, one fateful night, were literally overflowing with 35mm file strips, which I obtained legally by waiting until the “garbage man” (that’s what they were called back in 1980) took it to his truck.
Here are a few images of what I found (sorry, can't find a way to reduce the size w/o making them smaller at the source):
I’m about to list a few strips on eBay but really have no idea even where to start the bidding. I noticed there were strips of 4-5 color frames from one of the first three actual Star Wars movies which had sold for anywhere from $0.50 to $4.00 per frame (unmounted). Considering the number of theaters Episode’s IV, V, and VI played in at their widest release, there would still have to be several hundred other copies of these same frames out there somewhere. So whatever they’re worth, shouldn’t something as rare as this, with each frame likely being the only one in existence, be worth far more?
I’ve searched everywhere and there’s just nothing similar out there to compare this too, so what value do you guys think this has? Am I sitting on a goldmine, or a land mine?
Thanks for your feedback.
Len