How much is my Starwing necktie worth?

[Scully1888]

Hi guys

I'm new to the forum, seems like a friendly community here and will hopefully become a regular contributor.

I was wondering if someone could help me out with something. And don't worry, I've read the rules - I'm not going to link to any auctions or external sites or anything like that. Just looking for advice from some like-minded StarFox fans.

I own a Starwing necktie from 1993. I used to be a video games journalist, and the tie was handed down to me eight or nine years ago by an older journalist who was leaving the industry and knew I loved StarFox.

To the best of my knowledge, not too many of these ties were made, so they're extremely rare.

Anyway, my question is this: having trawled the internet I can't find any reference to this tie, other than a discussion thread on a different forum linking to a photo I once took of the tie (attached) when I worked for a video game magazine.

Since I'd imagine this is an extremely rare item, does anyone have any idea how much this would be worth? I absolutely love the tie but my wife and I plan to move to Scotland so we need to raise some money to help us get a new home so I'm in the process of seeing what I can eBay. And much as I don't want to part with the tie I'm hopeful I can get a decent amount of money for it to help go towards our house deposit.

I'll take more serious and close-up photos tomorrow when I take the tie out of storage, but until then could anyone give a rough estimate as to much you would expect I'd be able to sell this for?

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Scully1888

[DZComposer]

The best answer I can give is that it is worth whatever someone would pay for it. It's hard to say given that I did not know these existed and have never seen one for sale. Do you have anything that proves this was made under license from Nintendo? That may be necessary if you want to sell it to a collector, given that people can easily get things like this made now.

[Scully1888]

I'll need to get it out of storage and have a proper look at it - maybe look for labels with a copyright date or something on them.

It's going to be a tricky thing to verify it because obviously it's so rare and, as far as I can tell, is a piece of merchandise that was given out in such small numbers - and outside of the US - that it isn't something that's well-known among collectors like, for example, the Super Weekend Competition Cartridge is.

Thanks for the reply anyway, man.

[Scully1888]

Actually, as luck would have it, I just had another search and found a picture of it in an old '90s UK magazine that's been uploaded online. I believe the tie on the right is the exact tie I have because the chap who gave me it worked for that magazine.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Scully1888

[CrypticQuery]

to the site.

The photograph above is certainly a good start at proving the tie's authenticity.  If you had a notarized letter from the individual that gave it to you, and a general summary of how they received it, that might be a good way to supplement the statement that the tie in question is the one depicted in the photo.  The mantra for provenance is the more the merrier, after all, and that is especially true with testimonials or records.

On that note, that's one awesome tie.

 

Edited April 19, 2015 by OneUnder

[SF Redd]

Man, I'd bloody love to own that tie... but unfortunately I have no idea how much it's worth. Anyway welcome to the community

 

Also, good luck on moving to Scotland! I've lived here my whole life, and it's a great place! Plus. we love meeting people from other countries, so you should feel very welcome!