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Hi Mr Algorithm,
Welcome to the Deluxe club! I'm a fan of the DP Deluxe as well and have been trying to catalog all of the DPD helmets that I can and I'd love to see some photos of your helmet if you don't mind sharing. Here are my thoughts about market value for the Deluxe -- and please don't take these as the final words on the subject.
I've been watching them on eBay for years now and, as much as that can be a gauge, I'd say the helmet is currently worth between $350-$600. Neighborhood of $600 if it's a nice, minty, low number otherwise they typically sell for about $500 shipped. I've seen them sell outside of these prices but I think that's a reasonable average. I paid $350 shipped about two years ago for a damaged helmet, #79, that I am currently restoring.
The problem affecting the value now is that there is a glut of Vader helmets of much greater accuracy on the market. That said, for some reason the Deluxe has never held the cache, as far as I can tell, that I really think it should. I think the number of badly distorted castings they made is a major contributing factor toward this. Even when there were fewer options for a Darth Vader helmet the DPD never sold for more than $800 -$900 or so on the high end. I've seen them listed for $1200 - $1500 but I can't say I've ever seen one actually sell for that much (though it wouldn't surprise me if the odd one has). Undercutting the value even more so was Sharper Image when they re-used the molds to sell their "limited" edition of 10,000 helmets or however many there were. I have no idea if they actually produced that many. In fact I don't know for certain how many helmets Don Post produced which is part of the reason for my survey.
Hope that helps!
Dave
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