Dealer profile: 'Mr Star Wars' - Jim Stevenson

hey call him ‘Mr Star Wars’ but the man behind the name is collector/dealer Jim Stevenson who surprisingly didn’t become a ‘Star Wars’ fan until after the third film in the series, ‘Return of the Jedi’, was released. However, once he’d seen that he was totally smitten and it wasn’t long before he had caught up with seeing the two preceding films – and, of course, all those that followed.

The Gazette travelled to Nottinghamshire to catch up with Jim and discover the story behind this popular and well-known toy enthusiast. We found him recovering from a hectic and profitable two days at Memorabilia, where his stand was displaying an array of ‘Star Wars’ and other vintage TV and film collectables.

Although Jim had enjoyed a successful event at the NEC, and was busy at home packaging the toys ready to post to buyers, he was very aware of the current financial climate and the fact that people are not spending money on their hobby of collecting quite as freely as in the past.

“The money and interest is there but people are apprehensive about what the future holds, so spending money on toys isn’t top of their priorities,” said Jim who is in business with his son, Andy.

*This is an excerpt of the article 'Mr Star Wars' first published in Collectors Gazette's February issue. To see which issues of Collectors Gazette are available to buy online, click here.