Skinker was a Human male salvage yard owner on the planet Feriae Junction, who became acquainted with notorious bounty hunter Beilert Valance in 0 ABY. A committed hater of droids, Valance paid Skinker handsomely to acquire scavenged automatons for him to destroy. When Rebel hero Luke Skywalker—the object of Valance's obsessive hunting—passed through his yard, Skinker immediately informed Valance, only to get caught in the ensuing firefight and killed.
Beilert Valance and Skinker.
A Human male, Skinker owned a salvage yard on the Outer Rim world of Feriae Junction during the era of the Galactic Civil War. Considered old by 0 ABY, Skinker formed an arrangement with Beilert Valance, an ex-Imperial bounty hunter who spent several weeks plying his trade on Feriae Junction. Valance—driven by an virulent hatred of droids and obsessed by tracking down an unnamed "farmboy" who had played a crucial part in the Rebel victory at the Battle of Yavin—on several occasions paid Skinker to purchase droids from scavenger ships for him to destroy, specifically asking for 3PO or R2-series units such as those owned by his target. Although Skinker had no particular ire towards droids, Valance paid the going rate for rebuilt droids, so he continued to entertain the unhinged bounty hunter.
In the meantime, Skinker also kept an eye out for the Rebel that Valance was so set on capturing, as the hunter had a hunch that his target may pass through Feriae Junction due to the Imperial blockade on the Yavin system. Sure enough, the young Rebel—Luke Skywalker—turned up in Skinker's salvage yard, looking for parts to repair his damaged R2 unit. Skinker immediately recognized the man, who was accompanied by his 3PO protocol droid, and directed one of his employees, Polyp, to pass the word along to Valance. Polyp delivered the message and returned to Skinker, but their incessant whispering drew the suspicion of Skywalker, who drew a blaster on the pair and ruined Valance's efforts to get the drop on him. Skywalker managed to close Valance behind a a magnetically sealed door, only for the bounty hunter—who kept his cyborg parts a closely guarded secret—to blast through it with his arm-mounted laser cannon, which killed Skinker and Polyp.
A man who made the repair and sale of salvaged droids one of the focuses of his business, Skinker held no particular dislike towards mechanicals, seeing them as useful parts of life in the modern world. However, while he considered Valance's destruction of the droids he acquired a waste of good circuitry, Skinker had little objection towards their arrangement as long as the hunter kept paying him handsomely. Skinker was loyal enough to his acquaintance to hurriedly contact him when Luke Skywalker turned up in his salvage yard, an action that led to his death.
Skinker first appeared in Star Wars (1977) 27, written by Archie Goodwin and released in 1979, where he was illustrated by Carmine Infantino.