Jeff,
The new paper would be the first tell-tale that the lobby cards were
repros. The heavier card stock paper which lobby cards have always been
printed on tends to age to yellowish/brownish cream color rather quickly
-- and the paper generally had a slightly "rougher" surface that most of
the card stock manufactured today. So genuine original-issue lobby cards
tend to look and feel very different from new ones. This aging effect
can be faked in various ways, of course, but you're not asking about
deliberate fakes as much as people accidentally believing a quality
repro is an original card at some point. The freshness of the ink and
even the sharpness of the printing would also be tells (as I'm sure
you've noticed, genuine old lobby cards were often less-than-super-sharp
in their printing).
So, when a high-quality repro printed on heavy card stock is new, it's
pretty easy for any modestly experienced collector to recognize it as
"not old enough". The problem will come down the road in 20 or 30 years
when these cards have aged and mellowed and begun to resemble the
originals more closely in look and feel. Plus, by then, some of them
will have passed through many hands, acquiring the patina of winkles,
nicks and a little blemishing along the way. But it really depends on
the kind of paper the repros are printed on. Most modern card stocks
will not age the same way the old card stock of 40 and 50 years ago did.
But if the new cards do age in the right way (or are somehow made to do
so) in decades to come it may very well be hard for someone who is not
an expert or long-time collector to recognize them as
not-original-release cards.
As to why no one prevents printing repros that are exactly the correct
size without any identifying "this is a repro" marking, that's simple:
The studios (or mega corporations) who now own the rights to those cards
don't care about them anymore. They have no interest in protecting the
original print run from exact duplication and they are the only ones
with the legal right to prosecute someone who does reproduce them.
Duplicating lobby cards (or any other poster) may be technically
illegal, but if no one enforces the law, then people will continue to
print them because they can make money doing so. And that's the reason
they print them at exactly the same size as the original. No one would
buy them if they weren't the exact size (or if they carried markings
clearly indicating they are repros).
The people who print and sell exact-size reproductions are in it for the
money, they are not true collectors. No true collector would every want
to produce something which would undercut the value of the real thing
(or possibly be mistaken for it at some point).
Having said that, they do perform a service. For example, there are a
few poster images which I love tremendously, but which are so expensive
that I know I will *never*... no, not ever... own a genuine original
theatrical release. So in those few cases I have faced that fact and
gone ahead and purchased some fairly pricey exact-size reproductions,
just so I can display the images I love so much in my own home. There is
nothing wrong with this -- people have been buying exact-size
reproductions of million-dollar paintings to hang on their walls for
over 100 years. The thing is, no one is ever going to mistake a
high-quality art print on paper for a genuine painting which was
originally done on canvas or artboard.
-- JR
Jeff Herdan wrote:
MoPo List [mop...@listserv.american.edu]; on behalf of; Jeff
[bley...@optonline.net]
I am a comparatively new mwmber of MOPO and have been following the
fake issue quite carefully. Fortunately (or unforyunately), I do not
collect the Horror gendre of posters or lobbies, I confine my
collecting to western Lobbies and, at times, O/S.
Something bothers me, there are certain venders of these repro Western
lobby cards that advertise them on ebay. However they are of the same
dimensions (11x14) as Original lobby cards. What prevents a buyer of
these repro from them reselling them as original TCs?
Specifically, and I hope I am allowed to name the vender, but I do not
see anything wrong in doing so: *arizona-ames*
<http://myworld.ebay.com/arizona-ames/>
He honestly advertises them as repros but they can then find there way
into the general population of real cards. When ebay named buyers of
cards, I would see he buys them and invariably sells the original
under another ebay seller's name: *6-gun-rhythm*.
Why shouldn't sellers of repros be prevented from printing them on
11x14 cards to prevent a new "fraud" from arising. Why not print them
on a different size paper (i.e. 10x13) to ensure the lobby cards do
not "mistakingly" subsequently fall into the general population of
true original cards. This is not a personal reprimand of this seller,
but I find this practice dangerous to the hobby, especially with what
is currently going on and could lead to a "new" fraud.
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