Wow! Just found a printout of my first lightsaber auction win from 2001

Hey guys!
So, i was cleaning out my closet and digging through some of my boxes and I found my old 3 ring "star wars props research" notebook.
I flipped through the pages and found this printout of an old Ebay auction.
This was back when I had a habit of printing out my auctions ad proof of purchase.
It was my first flashgun win on Ebay.

This was actually what lead me to join the RPF....but theres a rocky story that goes along with it.

I remember it was late at night, my girlfriend was reading a book on the bed, and my computer was on the fritz so I was using "web TV" to surf the net.

I had recently purchased an Icons Luke ANH lightsaber and was itching to get Vaders ANH lightsaber.
I was looking for Star Wars stuff on Ebay searching for a Heiland.
I knew the MPP was used for Vaders saber but heard they were extremely rare and expensive, so i was going to settle for a Heiland.

A started doing in depth ebay searches for anything that would produce a flashgun, even if the actual name if the flashgun wasnt in the title.

Then i came acros this auction.
A silver sidebar MPP with dish for a Buy It Now price of $250.00....and it was still active!











I totlally flipped out and scared the crap out of my girlfriend.
I told her how rare they were and she screamed at me to buy it!

I quickly looked through all the photos and read the description just to make sure the seller wasn't just selling a PHOTO of an MPP or some other bait and switch scam.
After everything checked out I quickly hit the "buy it now" button.
I remember the internet was slow as molasses back then and Web TV didnt help either. It felt like an eternity watching the bar slowly crawl across the screen.
Then I had a moment of terror when I realized someone else could have purchased the MPP while I wad reading the description or while my stupid piece of crap webTV was struggling to deliver my purchase bid.

Finally the page refreshed and I was relieved to see "CONGRATULATIONS, You are the winner!"

The next morning I woke up and checked my email.
My box was flooded with about a dozen emails.
Back then you could actually contact other buyers on Ebay, im not sure if that feature is still around though.
Several emails were from other Ebay members who noticed the auction after it had ended and offered me up to $800 for the MPP.
One seller actually played it off as though he didnt know anything about the MPP being used as Vaders saber and claimed he had an old camera that required a flashgun and was willing to offer me $500 for it. He tried convincing it was just a worthless flashgun. I checked his buying history and virtually everything he had purchased was SW related.

Then i read one email that was from the seller of the MPP.
He told me that he was also flooded with dozens of higher offers from other buyers after the auction had ended.
I felt my stomach sink and expected him to say that was going to reneg on the auction and sell it to someone else.

Luckily he kept to his word and two weeks later my MPP arrived.

Another email was from a member of the RPF ( Cliff?) who congratulated me on the win and invited to join the board.
I later found out that a few of the people who made offers to the seller were members of the RPF. That caused a bit of drama on the board..but everything was smoothed out and they apologized.

Anyhow, thats my story.
What a blast from the past it was to find this auction printout.

Oh, It turned out that the seller had about 4 or 5 MPPs and over the course of the next few weeks he posted them up for auction.....this time with a Buy It Now price of $800.00.

That's one hell of a story!

I wish I'd known about the RPF in 2001. I didn't stumble into it until my college roommate got into cosplay and joined the Rebel Legion. Now you gotta show us the Vader you built with that MPP

Wow! That's amazing. I hope you still have it!

LTsmash1200 said:

Wow! That's amazing. I hope you still have it!

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Yeah still have it, Still looks the same -

I'll give you $250 for it! You'll break even!

Great story there.

Boy, those were the old, lawless days. I remember bidding on an auction and another bidder kept heckling me. I also remember getting messages after I bought something with people wanting to buy it from me with the old fake money order scam. In hindsight it seems crazy that eBay would allow that. So much potential for liability issues. Sure can't do that these days, thank goodness.

-Rog

SethS said:

I'll give you $250 for it! You'll break even!

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Ill think about it. Lol

Btw, shortly after I won the MPP, and became a member here, I traded my Icons luke saber to a member of the RPF for two pristine genuine Graflexs.
I was a bit worried about trading my Icons (didnt know if I would get scammed)..but it turned out fine and they are also still in my collection as the Luke ANH and ESB.

Rogviler said:

Boy, those were the old, lawless days. I remember bidding on an auction and another bidder kept heckling me. I also remember getting messages after I bought something with people wanting to buy it from me with the old fake money order scam. In hindsight it seems crazy that eBay would allow that. So much potential for liability issues. Sure can't do that these days, thank goodness.

-Rog

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Yeah alot of changes since then.

Back then Graflex flashes went for about $75-$150 and it was much easier to find them on cheap by doing specific search tricks or from sellers who werent aware of what they were.

Much harder to do that these days.

My own mpp story is more recent but also funny.
I was talking with Chaim about dave prowse was coming to a con near my home, and Chaim told me he saw a MPP for sale, and couldn't afford it.
I didn't know where, so I made searches and finally I found a active sale on Ebay UK.
I contacted the seller because there was a reserve price and he replied me the reserve price was somethink like 400£ or so
I wanted to reply telling it was too much, and I saw a second reply telling he dropped to 250£ so the flashgun could be sold.
So I decided to break the bank, and I offered him a price as buy now, telling the next week Dave Prowse was in a con a few miles from my home and if I can get it soon enough I could get it signed.
I get it the week before the con, just in time!
The flashgun had the wrong tube, and whatever could be wrong on a MPP... but perfect emitter and reflector too.
So I finally kept the emitter and reflector and trade the body to someone living a few miles from my home, yes, about 10 miles, and get the right tube with all good details.
It was really a kind of luck to get these, as I get so lucky to find a set of kobolds on ebay, and the genuine old HP boards on a fleamarket in same town.

I remember my first graflex was 110$ in 2010, was the very beginning for the prop hobby for me, the graflex had many inaccurate details and general condition was not terrific so I kept the clamp and built my furst saber from russrep parts, obi ep 4, I still have the grenade on my obi saber, but all other parts have been sold a long time ago...

After I bought but didn't receive the MPP, the seller sent me this picture:



And one week later I took this one, back in 2013 or so.



This picture is from 2015:

Great story Darth Saber ... also the bit where your girlfriends suggest to buy-it-now right away ... priceless ... it's possible I may even have those MPP pictures of your auction in my archive somewhere ... alas as parfaitelumiere mentioned funds always lack when needed the most for vintage props ... the main difference between your MPP and mine is the silver sidebars and the higher serial number ... as for the edge of the shroud ... it's thin isn't it? Sofar I've never seen a 1 step shroud with thick edge as in the ESB/ROTJ used MPP and which was replicated for the Master Replicas/Hasbro Vader sabers :wacko

Chaïm

My Graflex was £87 circa 2010 when Sith was a distant memory and there were no new films in sight. Overall interest was low then and I picked up a lot of stuff around that time for decent amounts. I've paid various amounts for various MPPs over the years but the lowest was around £300 so you did well with your buy and it looks great; nothing quite comes close to those real parts.

Ah, those were the days. :love

parfaitelumiere said:

My own mpp story is more recent but also funny.
I was talking with Chaim about dave prowse was coming to a con near my home, and Chaim told me he saw a MPP for sale, and couldn't afford it.
I didn't know where, so I made searches and finally I found a active sale on Ebay UK.
I contacted the seller because there was a reserve price and he replied me the reserve price was somethink like 400£ or so
I wanted to reply telling it was too much, and I saw a second reply telling he dropped to 250£ so the flashgun could be sold.
So I decided to break the bank, and I offered him a price as buy now, telling the next week Dave Prowse was in a con a few miles from my home and if I can get it soon enough I could get it signed.
I get it the week before the con, just in time!
The flashgun had the wrong tube, and whatever could be wrong on a MPP... but perfect emitter and reflector too.
So I finally kept the emitter and reflector and trade the body to someone living a few miles from my home, yes, about 10 miles, and get the right tube with all good details.
It was really a kind of luck to get these, as I get so lucky to find a set of kobolds on ebay, and the genuine old HP boards on a fleamarket in same town.

I remember my first graflex was 110$ in 2010, was the very beginning for the prop hobby for me, the graflex had many inaccurate details and general condition was not terrific so I kept the clamp and built my furst saber from russrep parts, obi ep 4, I still have the grenade on my obi saber, but all other parts have been sold a long time ago...

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Now thats a cool story!
Chasing the MPP down in the UK and finding it 10 miles away. Lol

Sym-Cha said:

Great story Darth Saber ... also the bit where your girlfriends suggest to buy-it-now right away ... priceless ... it's possible I may even have those MPP pictures of your auction in my archive somewhere ... alas as parfaitelumiere mentioned funds always lack when needed the most for vintage props ... the main difference between your MPP and mine is the silver sidebars and the higher serial number ... as for the edge of the shroud ... it's thin isn't it? Sofar I've never seen a 1 step shroud with thick edge as in the ESB/ROTJ used MPP and which was replicated for the Master Replicas/Hasbro Vader sabers :wacko

Chaïm

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Everything on my MPP is correct for the ANH version except my shroud is a two step.
I have a one step replica on my MPP now.

I try doing some searches for a genuine one step once in a while but no luck so far.

intwenothor said:

My Graflex was £87 circa 2010 when Sith was a distant memory and there were no new films in sight. Overall interest was low then and I picked up a lot of stuff around that time for decent amounts. I've paid various amounts for various MPPs over the years but the lowest was around £300 so you did well with your buy and it looks great; nothing quite comes close to those real parts.

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I remember at the time there were really no MPPS on the RPF with the silver sidebars so I was getting a lot of questions asking fot a detailed description.
You would think it would have a glossy finish like the black trapezoid bars, but they have a slight frosted finish instead.

These are awesome stories guys; keep them up!

Deals can still be found; I still like roygilsing's 100€ MPP story.

My first MPP was pure dumb luck and lots of it. It was only two years ago and I was lying is bed with my now wife watching tv and googling Graflex flashes to see if any could be had outside of eBay. On a whim, I googled MPP flash and I actually came up with a hit, on Kijiji of all places and actually here in Canada. And he only wanted $350 Cdn for it!

I contacted the seller to see if it was still available and for better pictures and he responded need positively to both. He knew exactly what this was for as he pointed out the two-step shroud and the 'inaccurate' black side bars and that he actually had another MPP which he had converted, which he also sent me pictures of.

In terms of more dumb luck, I actually didn't jump on this right away. Being a complete newb when it came to MPPs and their prices at the time, I sought out advice from scottjua.

To which if I recall his responses were more or less along the lines of, yes it looks real, you're an idiot for not jumping on this already, and if you don't take it I will lol

Thankfully I took his advice

DARTH SABER said:

Yeah alot of changes since then.

Back then Graflex flashes went for about $75-$150 and it was much easier to find them on cheap by doing specific search tricks or from sellers who werent aware of what they were.

Much harder to do that these days.

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Tell me about it. I had about 20 at once, and then when slowly selling them off, I was lucky to get my money back in some cases, or no one was willing to spend more than 250 on one that was practically in NEW condition.

Times change!

I got lucky on my MPP in that is was with a whole camera system and no one else seemed to care. I just resold to camera to recoup 2/3 my cost.

DARTH SABER said:

Everything on my MPP is correct for the ANH version except my shroud is a two step.
I have a one step replica on my MPP now.

I try doing some searches for a genuine one step once in a while but no luck so far.

Click to expand...

My MPP for Vader ESB ended up being an amalgamation of three different units to get me as close as I could. The thin edge of the shroud is too thin as per Chaim's ealier observation about these units but finding a shroud without that step is hard enough.

I've all the parts for a found parts Luke ESB counterpart using Roy's Track but my Graflex isn't really spot on. I'm now debating with myself how important those little details are to me. Effectively I'd need to replace all of the parts of the main flash unit but with people currently asking north of £150 just for a spare red button, which I already have, my appetite is limited. I don't blame those people for rincing the situation but complete units in the region of £1000 is a bit much for me.

My first MPP was £20 on ebay and only 15 minutes from my home.

I still remember the seller's words when he realized I was a SW collector: "Oh, you're not going to turn it into one of those awful Obi-Wan Kenobi things are you???"

DARTH SABER said:

Now thats a cool story!
Chasing the MPP down in the UK and finding it 10 miles away. Lol

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