Hake’s March 15-16 auction hits $3.2M, sets multiple world records including $204,435 price realized for Star Wars Boba Fett rocket-firing prototype action figure
1920 Cox/Roosevelt campaign button declares victory at $185,850, handily surpassing previous record for a pinback: Hake’s $70,092 sale of a Babe Ruth/Red Sox button in 2021YORK, Pa. – Record-setting prices just kept on coming at Hake’s $3.2 million online auction of pop culture rarities and didn’t stop until the last-minute clash of the titans that determined ownership of the sale’s top lot: a Star Wars Boba Fett “J-slot” rocket-firing prototype action figure. Conceived by Kenner in 1979, the J-slot Boba Fett Version 2 was designed with a J-shape triggering mechanism on its back for firing off rockets, but the toy never made it to the production stage due to safety concerns. On that basis alone, the pre-production archetypes became immediate rarities, but more than four decades of Star Wars mania have catapulted the J-slot prototype to an extraterrestrial level of desirability. The coveted example offered by Hake’s ignited a bidding war that ended at a sky-high $204,435 – a new auction record for any Star Wars action figure.James M Cox/Franklin D Roosevelt jugate button, 1.25in size, one of only six known in 1.25-inch size and one of only three known in this design; the first of its type to reach the marketplace in 40 years. Sold for $185,850, a world auction record for a pinback button of any type“Bidding on the figure remained static at just under $100,000 until right before the initial 20-minute clock ran out at 9 pm. At that point, two bidders starting going back and forth with their bids, waiting each time till the renewed clock had almost run out of time,” said Alex Winter, president of Hake’s Auctions. “The competition was still going strong two-and-a-half hours later. I think each of the bidders might have been hoping the other would fall asleep. But they went