Fan Spends Quarter Million on a Lightsaber

I saw the other day that lightsabers were on sale at Wal-Mart for $50 during the holidays. The "official replicas" had digitally recorded sound from one of the six films. It's a major step up from the light sabers when I was kid - plastic tubes stuck on the end of other plastic tubes, both of which would crack if you left the saber outside overnight, rendering the toy both more dangerous and more useless.Maybe because of my experience with the hollow plastic weapon, I couldn't believe it when I read this story sent to me by Rick, one of our most loyal readers. Turns out, even the fancy new light sabers aren't good enough for one fan, who spent $240,000 on the lightsaber Mark Hamill used in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. What economy?I don't know if the guy thought it really worked or what, but that's a little outrageous, even for a Star Wars fan. Anthony Daniels' C-3PO helmet fetched half that much at yesterday's Profiles in History auction, which sold a cool $3.5 million in movie merchandise.When asked about the sale of the historic lightsaber, Hamill said, "What's $240,000 look like?"OK...not really.Is it me, though? Is that too much money for something completely impractical, regardless of what dreams it may capture? Do you have a limit on stuff like this? I have, a couple of times, invested some good money in movie posters, but nothing anyone would call unreasonable. And do you think he cleared it with the wife?

Comments

[KUPD's Smartest Listener]

"And do you think he cleared it with the wife?"

That is a very generous assumption on you part, my friend.