When sports cards collectors go on a hunt for cards, the big cards are almost always the rookie cards. You cannot exactly say that a card covering a movie is a rookie in the same manner. Or can you? Everyone in the world knows about Star Wars, and the name Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are easily identifiable. You probably guessed where this is going — they have “rookie” cards!

Star Wars is one of the world’s most valuable film franchises, and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) paid over $4 billion for the rights to Star Wars and other properties under Lucasfilm. There are multiple makers of Star Wars cards, and the first movie (Episode 4: A New Hope) had cards made by Topps and also by Wonder Bread.

Star Wars card collectors like both sets of cards, there is one common theme in both — the blue borders with white stars for Topps and the black borders for Wonder Bread make any blemishes stand out. Anyone putting these cards into plastic could easily ding a corner or edge. Don’t even remind anyone about the old rubber bands everyone used to store their cards in giant bricks. And in a world where cards are graded, that means the value erodes each and every time those damaging events would take place.

LUKE SKYWALKER

Luke Skywalker’s first card is cards #1 of the 1977 Topps set. The cards are not all that uncommon, but there are hard to find in the best grades. The phantom population of these cards is impossible to know but the population of ungraded cards has to be exponentially larger than the graded cards. PSA’s entire population of Luke Skywalker’s #1 card was just 909 cards on last look. Of those, only 9 are graded at the perfect gem-mint PSA 10 grade. Only 73 have a PSA 9 grade, followed by just 12 at PSA 8.5 and 219 at PSA 8. (Image below by Heritage Auctions)

SGC has graded only 178 cards of the #1 Luke Skywalker cards from the 1977 Topps set. Of those 178, there is only 1 example graded SGC 9.5, only 1 example graded 9 and only 4 examples graded SGC 8.5.

Now take a guess about the prices…

On November 21, 2021, an eBay auction for the 1977 Star Wars #1 Luke Skywalker in the perfect PSA 10 managed to fetch$55,255.00 after 53 bids. That card’s same certification number (81377840) had previously sold on October 29, 2019 for $7,388.55 in a PWCC/eBay auction, and a different PSA 10 example that sold in between those sales (January 26, 2020 sold for $6,877.77.

And on November 9, 2021 a PSA 9 example of the 1977 Topps Star Wars #1 Luke Skywalker card managed to sell for $5,280.00 after 48 bids. And on November 3, 2021 a PSA 8 example of the 1977 Star Wars Luke Skywalker #1 card sold for $2,025.00 in an auction after 32 bids. Another PSA 8 example sold on December 12, 2021 for $1,913.88 after just 9 bids.

The black Wonder Bread card is also valuable, but it has recently sold for nothing close to the Topps card. On November 7, 2021, a 1977 Star Wars Wonder Bread #1 Luke Skywalker graded in the perfect PSA 10sold for $1,710.00 after 30 bids. Multiple PSA 9 examples sold in a range of $200 to $300 but the Buy It Now and lower numbers of bids made this less visible.

And what about the #1 comic book for Star Wars?

THE DARK SIDE

Darth Vader’s cards are not priced the same as Luke Skywalker’s cards. What would you expect for being on the dark side of The Force. There is also an issue with Darth Vader’s cards from this set because his first cards in Topps’ Series 1 include other characters in the same photo.

On November 8, 2021 a 1977 STAR WARS Wonder Bread #5 Darth Vader graded as PSA 9 sold for $435.00 after 25 bids. A PSA 8 example of that card sold on January 16, 2022 for $150.50 after 25 bids.

AND SOME OTHERS

Other cards from the 1977 Topps set also sell for amazing prices.

Jan. 13, 2022 – The famous 1977 Topps Star Wars #31 “Sighting the Death Star” graded in the perfect PSA 10 managed to fetch $1,976.00 after 42 bids. That is the image used on shirts and other products featuring Chewbacca, Luke, Obi-Wan and Han all on the front.

And if you want proof that the movies and series can impact prices, a Topps Star Wars Masterwork Mandalorian Boba Fett Sketch Card AP Chris Meeks 1/1 sold for $1,900.00 after 54 bids on December 18, 2021.