My daughter is 20 years old and loves the posters I collect and sell,
especially the exploitation stuff. I know this is atypical. She's an artist
and writer, is studying film and art history and runs with an "alternative"
crowd. But still, there is some appreciation for this out there among some
young people.
At the same time, North America has just gone through a roughly 20-year
collectibles boom that more or less coincided with boomers hitting their
30s, 40s and 50s. We may be on the down side of that particular curve
because of demographics, but it doesn't necessarily signal the end of
collecting. People have collected for centuries, though prior to the 20th
century it was a preoccupation of the upper classes. Prosperity and the
birth of popular culture made collecting a much more populist pursuit over
the past few decades.
Tastes will change, "icons" will fade and be forgotten but people will
continue to collect, but what they collect and why will change. That's
inevitable.
As far as movie posters go, a lot of the obvious benchmark films will
continue to be collected and the rarity of a lot of the important pre-war
material more or less guarantees they will remain in demand. But in other
areas, it is only natural interest will fade over time.
Dave Rosen
Posteropolis
www.posteropolis.com
--------------------------------------------
** Question -- after you read the article at the bottom of this note --
which stars or what type of material do YOU believe will remain iconic and
collectible in the year 2106?
My morning WSJ has yet another reminder what I've said in the past -- about
how important it is to get more people, especially young people --
interested in our "inventories," but not at the exclusion or denigration of
what they themselves will regard as their own "nostalgic memories."
The following passage is intriguing: "Of the estimated 37 million Americans
who identified themselves as collectors in 2000, just 11% were under the age
of 36, according to a study by marketing consultant Unity Marketing Inc.
Most were over 50."
Our hobby can't grow if 20 years from now -- it's over-populated by the same
"50-to-70-year-old-geezers" (myself included). Some kids are force-fed
"our" stuff in film appreciation classes, but it won't be enough as today's
professors "die off," and are replaced by a younger generation of people who
paid to see films during the 70s and 80s.
I wonder whether stars like Bette Davis, or genres like 1940s-1950s film
noir -- will remain "collector relevant" 100 years from now. Personally
I've no regrets since I'm a collector first and my enjoyment is for the
present.
But I know of one dealer/collector who has been unloading his paper
collection over the past three years (mostly lobby cards) -- because he
feels -- and perhaps rightly so, that after he's gone, his stuff will become
as worthless (or less marketable) as non-Chaplin and non-Garbo paper from
the silent era. Norma Talmidge was one of Hollywood's biggest stars. But
you'd never know it today. So he's quietly unloading stuff featuring
Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant, some of his vast collection of B-movie film
noir, stuff he used to think he'd never part.
Some kids don't believe nor care about Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello,
W.C. Fields, Mae West or dozens of stars -- who as recently as two decades
ago -- were still considered "mass-market" icons. Even my beloved Rita
Hayworth -- a so-so actress with a singular bomb-shell image from "Gilda" --
with just a few above-avg. pics in her filmography ("Cover Girl," "Affair in
Trinidad" and maybe the overrated "Lady from Shanghai"), seems to have
vanished from the minds of adults under 30 (e.g., BORN IN 1976!). Seems the
only "sure things" are Universal horror and Bogart and Monroe.
** The "under 30" people in my office adore teen comedies from the 1980s.
If I talk about stuff "just out of their range" -- like films from the
1970s, for example -- if I mention "Cuckoo's Nest" or "Dog Day Afternoon,"
nothing happens. (Except maybe "The Godfather.") But boy -- just mention
"Sixteen Candles" or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" -- and they go bonkers. And
I think this is how it'll always be. It's gotta be tough for dealers to
keep up with changing popular tastes, what to retain and what to dimiss.
-koose.
===========================
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Who's Going to Want Grandma's Hoard Of Antique Gnomes?
Since Kids Aren't Connecting With Collecting Today,
Answer May Be Nobody
By JEFFREY ZASLOW
February 25, 2006; Page A1
In Graytown, Ohio, 51-year-old Doug Martin has amassed a collection of 5,000
pencils, most of them never used. Some date back to the 1800s.
He sometimes wonders what will become of his prized collection when he dies.
Will his children stick them in a sharpener and write with them? "It hurts
to think about it," he says.
Young people today have little interest in the stamp, coin or knickknack
collections of their elders, so an aging America can't help but wonder:
What's going to happen to all those boxes in the basement?
Well, here's an idea for Mr. Martin: "His children can glue his pencils
together and make a coffin for him," says Harry Rinker, sharply.
A collectibles researcher in Vera Cruz, Pa., Mr. Rinker, 64, himself
collects everything from jigsaw puzzles to antique toilet paper. But he
thinks sentimental "accumulators" need a reality check. "Old-timers thought
the next generation would love their stuff the way they did," he says. "Well
guess what -- it's not happening." He advises: Enjoy your collections, die
with them, and have no expectations about anything after that.
Collecting things, once a big part of childhood, is now pretty much passé
with kids. Preoccupied with MP3 players and computer games, they are rarely
found sitting at the kitchen table putting postage stamps into collectors'
books or slipping old coins into plastic sleeves.
These days, baseball cards and comic books are collected by adults.
Of the estimated 37 million Americans who identified themselves as
collectors in 2000, just 11% were under the age of 36, according to a study
by marketing consultant Unity Marketing Inc. Most were over 50.
Some collectors say they wouldn't mind if their heirs just sold everything
on eBay. The Internet keeps alive a market for many objects by making it
easy for far-flung collectors to find one another.
But people do fear that collections lovingly assembled will be mishandled or
trashed by their offspring. That's why collectors groups are now organizing
emergency efforts to keep things out of the wrong hands.
The International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society, based in London, gets
in touch with families when it hears of a member's death, so the machines
can end up with someone who will treasure them. They're often too late. One
member recently died and his family sold his old sewing machines to a junk
dealer for $200.
The machines, some dating to the 1860s, were worth about $65,000, according
to Graham Forsdyke, secretary for the 800-member society. He adds: "I don't
know of a single collection that's been passed down after a death."
Young people today amass hundreds of songs on their iPods and, decades from
now, may very well be collecting "vintage" cellphones or other electronic
devices, says Linda Kruger, editor of Collectors News, based in Grundy
Center, Iowa. Or it may just be so much junk. There's no way to predict the
future value of such things, she adds.
In the meantime, most young people don't connect with their elders'
collections. In Goodyear, Ariz., Zita Wessa, 72, says her grandchildren walk
past her display cases of gnome figurines "and show no interest at all."
Her 45-year-old son, Scott, says he'd be happy to inherit one of the giant
cabinets she stores them in, but the gnomes "don't do much for me. If she
begged me to take them, I would, because I love my mother. But I don't know
what I'd do with them." (His mom says she paid $5,600 over the years for her
160 gnomes, but their current value is uncertain.)
William Adrian, 72, of Plainfield, Ill., collects miniature guns. He says
his three children "wouldn't give you a twenty-dollar bill for any of it."
"Collecting is about memory, and young people today have a different memory
base," explains Mr. Rinker, who is well known in antiquing circles for his
books and personal appearances.
He lives in a 14,000-square-foot former elementary school in Vera Cruz, Pa.
He uses the classrooms as storage spaces for his 250 different collections.
He says he doesn't care what becomes of it all once he's gone, and if his
children opt to use his rolls of century-old toilet paper, "that might be
the finest honor they can give me."
Mr. Martin, the pencil collector, is unlikely to have his collection stay in
the family after he dies. His daughter, Elizabeth Jefferson, 24, says if she
inherits the pencils -- which her dad values at $4,500 -- she'd donate them
to other collectors or to a museum.
If new generations of collectors don't materialize, the value of items will
plummet. That's why marble clubs, to generate enthusiasm, send free marbles
to schools. The U.S. Mint has a Web site with cartoons and computer games to
entertain kids about the thrills of coin-collecting. Indeed, children have
shown considerable interest in the state quarters program.
In West Chester, Pa., Judy Knauer, founder of the 700-member National
Toothpick Holder Collectors' Society, gives away toothpick holders to young
people. She tells them, "Here's your start." But few get hooked.
Some collecting groups have created unstated policies. The 650-member
National Milk Glass Collectors Society -- a group devoted to opaque glass --
holds an annual auction.
When the rare young person shows up to bid on an item, older collectors
lower their hands. "We back off and let the young person buy it. We want
them to add to their collections," says Bart Gardner, the group's past
president.
In Palo Alto, Calif., Tom Wyman, 78, has about 900 antique slide rules. Mr.
Wyman belongs to the 430-member Oughtred Society, named for William
Oughtred, who in the 1620s invented an early form of the slide rule.
The group hosts lectures to entice youngsters to embrace slide-rule
collecting. But Mr. Wyman says such "missionary work" is a hard sell. "It's
quite a challenge to give a talk that keeps everybody awake -- both the
80-year-old collectors and the 12-year-olds in the audience."
Mr. Wyman's son, Tom, 41, who doesn't know how to use a slide rule, admires
his dad's devotion to preserving the instrument. Still, he appreciates that
his father has promised to eventually dispose of the collection. "He has
told me, 'I won't saddle you with this,' " says the younger Mr. Wyman. Some
of the slide rules are worth just pennies, while others could sell for
$2,000.
George Beilke, 61, of Tulsa, Okla., has amassed 35,000 used instant-lottery
tickets. His daughter, Sarah, 23, says that when she tells friends about the
collection, "they look at me like I'm crazy. It's guilt by association."
During her childhood, her dad tried to get her involved. He gave her tickets
and assumed she was diligently putting them between the sheet protectors he
provided. But she just hid them in her room.
Ms. Beilke is set to inherit the collection and says she'll donate it to the
200-member Global Lottery Collector's Society. She may hold on to a handful
of tickets as keepsakes. "It would keep the bond between us," says her dad.
"I just hope she puts them in the sheet protectors."
Some collectors now accept that younger people don't want their stuff.
Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky, 64, has collected the last
editions of 79 daily newspapers that closed down since 1963.
His adult children don't want the old newspapers, which fill a closet. "The
only kind of paper my family wants is greenbacks and stock certificates," he
says.
He hasn't been able to find a university to take his collection, either. And
now he's under the gun to get rid of it. He is about to marry his third
wife, who is 27 years old, and in the prenuptial agreement, there's a clause
that he must dispose of the collection by Dec. 31. She wants to store her
shoes in that closet.
"At least I can wear my shoes," says his fiancée, Jennifer Graham. "He never
reads those papers, and besides, he likes how I look in my shoes."
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