or the person who, in the past, sold this crap for 30-80 bucks each?
maybe these are part of an overrun from the last kinkos order?
ugh!
On Mar 12, 2009, at 8:29 PM, Bruce Hershenson wrote:
Burn the posters or the vile pond scum who sell them as originals?
You were not clear!
Bruce
On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 10:26 PM, Dave Rosen <[email protected]>
wrote:
I say burn 'em...
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: David Lieberman
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 10:23 PM
Subject: [MOPO] Attention STAR WARS Collectors: FREE Star Wars
Style A 77/21-0 bootleg
Hello everyone.
I'm sure most of you are sick of hearing about these
bootlegs.....but here is some information some of you may appreciate.
We recently acquired 600 (2 original undisturbed rolls of 300) STAR
WARS Style A 77/21-0 "first printing" bootlegs from a dealer who
purchased them direct from the source (J. Seymour) back in 1989. As
soon as she realized she was burned and that they weren't real, she
put them in a closet and tried to forget about them. She realized
she should have known better, that it was too good to be true. She
sent them to us in January 2009. They are mostly all in Near Mint
to Mint unused condition.
We are offering them FREE to anyone who requests one.
We have stamped the back of each one a few times with a 1/2" x 2"
permanent ink stamp that says: "THIS IS NOT AN ORIGINAL MOVIE
POSTER". This will make it extremely difficult for anyone to
mistake them for originals (or to possibly try and pass them off as
such) at some time in the future. If some idiot tries to linen back
one to hide the stamps, I would expect (and hope) that the linen
backer will be honest and do the right thing and NOT do it.
Again, we are offering these FREE to anyone who requests one. One
per person while supplies last. All we ask is that you pay $9.95
for shipping. We ship in a high quality plastic tube by Priority
mail. If you'd like one of these "original bootlegs" please just
email us and we will send you a paypal invoice. We will also
include one for free to anyone who orders a rolled poster from our
store or to anyone who wins one of our current ebay auctions (you
must request it though when ordering and it must be a rolled poster
that you win).
Over the years we have auctioned this bootleg (correctly described
as a bootleg) on ebay at no reserve 3 or 4 times with prices
ranging from $30.00 to $80.00.
These are THE SAME EXACT posters currently being sold by others on
ebay (wrongly described as originals) for over $100.00.
If any of you crazy skeptics think we are doing this to make
money.....please do the math....$2.00 for a tube, $6.00 for
postage, $1.00 for my employee labor for packaging time, $.85 to
paypal.
Why are we doing this?
1. It would be silly to destroy them (we get requests for them all
the time). We did actually consider burning them and filming the
video for our website and youtube (wouldn't that be neat!).
2. It is an extremely high quality rolled one sheet.....just as
nice as the original....in every way.
3. It is a much more affordable alternative (FREE!) compared to
buying an original rolled one (over $1000.00) or compared to buying
one of these bootlegs on ebay for over $100.00.
4. It will help to educate collectors.
5. Like it or not, they are a part of movie poster collecting history.
6. It could possibly help to diminish the market for them. Of
course it won't stop all newbies from getting stung on ebay (no one
can stop that I'm afraid).
7. Because we can. It is our little way of saying "Thank You" to
the movie poster collecting world!
A little history:
Whatever one wishes to call these.....fakes, bootlegs.
reproductions, reprints, unauthorized restrikes,
counterfeits........one thing is certain. They are not original
movie posters.
Back in the late 1980's someone got their hands on the original
printing elements for 3 Star Wars one sheets. The Style A version
77/21-0, The Style B Teaser Advance, and the Style C International.
They illegally printed untold thousands of posters. The quality of
them is first class, they are extremely convincing!! They were most
likely printed at the same place where the originals were (an NSS
printing facility), except it was done "after hours" by
unscrupulous employees.
These were peddled by a guy named J. Seymour to poster dealers
around the world for about $5.00 to $7.00 each. They were described
as "originals". Some dealers were fooled, some knew they weren't
real....but bought them anyway, and some refused to have anything
to do with them.
The Official Star Wars fan club actually purchased several thousand
of the fake Style A's back in the late 1980's believing they were
real. They even distributed many of them to members!! As soon as
they found out they weren't authentic one sheets they stopped
distributing them and were most likely destroyed.
Lucasfilm eventually got wind of all this and went after the guy
who was selling them.
Usually, reprints are undersized. Not these. They all measure a
full 27" x 41".
There are subtle printing defects / differences between originals
and reprints. On the Style A there is a small "hair" right below
Luke's belt (there are a few other differences as well but that is
the one everyone focuses on), on the Style B Teaser the GAU
printing union logo on the bottom border is missing, and on the
Style C there is a small "hair" on Leia's back. The paper quality
is first rate as well, we see virtually no real difference when
comparing fakes to originals except that the paper may be ever so
slightly thicker on the fakes. Some have said that the fakes have a
different sheen. If they do it is very slight.
As of March 2009, these 3 fakes are still being sold on ebay
(described as originals) by several shady poster dealers. Prices
are usually between $100.00 to $200.00. (Original rolled near mint
unused Star Wars one sheets routinely sell for over $1000.00).
These dealers usually swear up and down that the reprints are
real.....that they are an alternate printing, or from a warehouse
find, or a garbage run from the factory etc., etc, etc. Their
excuse always seems plausible. They know they are not real, yet
they really don't care.
Since word about these fakes has spread and it has become common
knowledge in the collecting community (and thus, more difficult to
sell), these shady dealers have begun to lightly fold them, put pin
holes in them, and even get them linen backed to try and make them
appear more authentic.
Why doesn't ebay stop them? Ebay is in no position to police the
poster world. How do you expect them to determine what is real and
what is not? Unless they are ever contacted by Lucasfilm (which we
really don't see happening as they closed the book on this 20 years
ago) the rip off of new Star Wars collectors will continue.
Every now and then a collector will send us one of these fakes for
us to put on consignment. We will sell it for what it truly
is.....properly described as NOT an original movie poster. We get
requests all the time from collectors who would like to see one in
person, to have one for reference. We usually do not have any in
stock.
This fake Style A 77/21-0 is an extremely high quality bootleg
poster. It has fooled practically every major auction house in the
past as well as most of the top poster dealers.
Now available for FREE!!
David Lieberman
CineMasterpieces.com | 15721 N. Greenway Hayden Loop, Suite 105 --
Scottsdale, Az 85260
Vintage Original Movie Posters | 602 309 0500 | Office/Gallery Open
By Appt. Only.
A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps!
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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