Tomorrow, 2nd December, sees the anniversary of the jailing of Nick Leeson for six and a half years, for his part in the collapse of Barings Bank, and their loss of £860 million.

What has this got to do with anything?

Nick Leeson was immortalised in the 1999 film Rogue Trader, and was portrayed by none other than Ewan McGregor, who presumably took the role just after his filming of The Phantom Menace.

I do not know how true to fact the film is, but one of McGregor's lines is "I, Nicholas Leeson, have just lost 50 million quid, in one day!"

Imagine that?

50 million pounds!

I quiver with fear if I lose 20 euros on Black Jack, or I shell out £100 on a Jango Fett replica helmet signed by Temuera Morrison.

Which brings me to the real point of this blog.

What price do you value your Star Wars collection?

I've gone past the phase of collecting for a monetary value. I did a couple of years back, purchase a few items because they might be 'worth something' in the future.

Those items include:

Comics, signed by either; the authors, artists, editors or even actors.

I have a Droids #1 signed by Kenny Baker, which I'll treasure, it'll never be sold.

I had a comic adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back from 1980 signed by David Prowse. I gave (yes, gave) that to a charity auction. I paid £1.50 for the comic back in 1980, queued for 3 hours at the opening of a video store in Warrington, Cheshire for Mr Prowse to sign it.

At the auction, it was sold for £300, of which £250 went towards a cheque (check, for my American cousins) to a Northern Irish childrens hospital ward, I think the final amount was in the region of a couple of grand.

So I had lost a prized possession. But I felt damn good about it.

I think I was given a beer by the event organiser for my donation. I felt even better after that.

What else do I have? Oh yes, the aforementioned Jango Fett toy helmet, signed by Temuera Morrison. Bought on ebay, a couple of photos of Temura signing it accompanies it, proving its authenticity.

Would I keep it? I don't know.

Would I sell it? Maybe.

I realised, after my compulsive spend, that it probably wouldn't fetch much after 100 years, no offense to Mr Morrison, but at the time I thought it was a bargain. I'm more inclined now to scrub the felt pen off it and use it as part of a fancy dress costume.

Among other things I have the usual stuff; old toys from the 70s and 80s, only 1 of those in it's original packaging (1983 Darth Vader), a few ornamental goodies, a few McDonalds free-gift style souvenirs, Topps cards etc, and its all displayed nicely on shelves around my house or just hidden away in boxes.

At one stage I thought it was fantastic to have all this stuff, it was nostalgic, bringing back fantastic memories of my youth and growing up with Star Wars. My daughter took an interest, she would even play with the figures and I would smile to myself, again reminiscing. She now buys me a figure on my birthday, or at Christmas, 'cos she knows I'll appreciate it.

Bless her.

But now I find myself wondering whether I should keep it all.

Shock, horror, how could I get rid of it?

Well I wont get rid of it all.

But I'm thinking of getting rid of some. I used to joke to the wife when another parcel arrived from an ebay seller that it was all "adding to Bethany's legacy, she'll never want for anything in the future" but I know I was just kidding.

I used to tut at ebay sellers' reasons for getting rid. They would say "financial crisis forces sale" or "just divorced, no longer have the space".

Well I'm falling into one of those categories, and it's not because of a cash-flow problem.

So do I keep it, or sell it?

I have no use for the toys. My daughter doesn't live with me and besides, she kind of grew out of playing with it all. All it does now is make for interesting conversion if I'm ever entertaining someone at the Palais du Rogueish Pleasure:

"I can't believe YOU of all people are into Star Wars"

or

"Yes yes, very nice, now which way is the bedroom?"

Ahem... where was I?

As I am no longer collecting in order to secure a financial gain on the stuff, there's no reason why I shouldn't sell. It's not exactly priceless, but some of it does have emotional value. I'll have to meditate on this.

One thing's for sure, I'll NEVER be rid of my comic and book collections. If I was ever stranded on a desert island and a genie popped up and asked me what to have, if I couldn't have a never ending supply of beer, if I couldn't have electricity to play my CDs, I'd ask for my comics and books.

Hmmm, the jury's still out on the rest of the stuff, there are items that I'd keep because they're you know, shiny.

Anyway, I've shared enough with you, I hope I kept your attention long enough to offer your own thoughts or advice or both.

One final note: Nick Leeson discovered that he "found God" whilst serving in a Singapore jail. He served less than 4 years of his sentence, wrote the book which became the film, divorced his wife, and studied for a degree in psychology. He is now an occasional speaker at corporate events.

Crime sometimes pays. But not always.