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Dennis Joyce

Joyce joined The Tampa Tribune as senior editor for metro in 2005 and later helped launch TBO.com’s continuous news desk. He has worked as an editor and reporter in Arizona, Kentucky, Virginia, Idaho and Stuart, Fla. Email

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Number of the Day, 950: dollars paid by USF Poly to appraise Darth Vader

Posted Nov 8, 2011 by Dennis Joyce

Updated Nov 15, 2011 at 01:27 PM

Invoice for evaluating collection

USF Polytechnic paid nearly $1,000 just to learn the value of what has to be one its more obscure possessions: A collection of four life-size figures from science fiction, deemed to be “museum quality.”

Click here to read reporter Lindsay Peterson’s story about the transaction.

When USF Poly made the purchase in January, the Lakeland collector who sold it said it was worth more than the $10,000 asking price.

It wasn’t until May, five months later, that USF Poly confirmed the windfall by hiring a St. Petersburg appraiser, who did indeed peg the value at $21,400.

His invoice is shown above.

Plenty of universities own museum-quality pieces of one kind or another, but these aren’t in a museum. As Lindsay reported, they were acquired to inspire creative types working in a lab.