Darth Vader's Lightsaber Just Set a New Auction Record

The recent success of Andor has served as a reminder of the enduring popularity of the stories told within the Star Wars universe. (Some of them, anyway: The Rise of Skywalker may have its defenders, but I am not one of them.) But there are different levels of fandom. For some, it’s enough to enjoy the movies, television shows, novels and comics set therein. For others, there’s cosplay or paying money for themed experiences like the now-defunct Star Wars hotel. And for fans with plenty of money to spend, there’s the prospect of owning props that have appeared onscreen.

One such item just set a new record for Star Wars props sold at auction. It’s not just any item, either: It’s one of the lightsabers wielded by Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. According to auction house Propstore, this lightsaber can be seen in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and the buyer paid a record-setting $3,654,000 for it. That was in excess of what Propstore predicted — the auction house thought it would sell for between one and three million dollars.

The lightsaber wasn’t the only memorable onscreen weapon to sell at Thursday’s installment of the Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction. The whip used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sold for $485,100, while multiple flamethrowers also netted six-figure sums: Ellen Ripley’s Aliens flamethrower sold for $252,000, while one buyer paid $346,500 for Rick Dalton’s device from Once Upon a Time In Hollywood. Apparently, cinematic flamethrowers are all the rage in 2025.

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Propstore’s auction is set to continue on Friday and Saturday. Some of the items set for sale on these days might conjure ’80s and ’90s nostalgia, including a replica submarine from The Hunt For Red October, the gun used by John Malkovich’s character in In the Line of Fire and the Hawaiian shirt worn by Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys. You might not be able to use any of them to strike down your enemies, but they’d all make excellent conversation pieces.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…