Bruce
First let me thank you for your compliments on my being able to move
MoviePosterBid.com in the right direction since I took it over back
in 2006. It's been lots of hard work and it's gratifying that another
dealer like yourself, who is of course also a longtime friend, to
recognize how difficult it is with all the work involved. I of course
could not do it without the help of my secretary Anna who has become
an invaluable asset to me and helps me process the posters we sell
from beginning to end. I hope I can find someone else in 2010 who can
help me as well as she does so we can expand a little this year.
(you might remember Bruce that back in 2004 you had this in one of
your weekly newsletters: "I first met little "Richie" Halegua
sometime around 1968 at one of the first July 4th Phil Seuling comic
book conventions at the Statler Hilton Hotel in New York City. I was
around 15, and I believe he was a year or two younger. Now we are
both pushing 50, and I am wondering where all the years went! Rich
has stayed in comic books all these years, but in addition has
branched out into other collectible hobbies. Recently he popped up as
a movie poster seller on eBay, and since Rich only does things in a
big way, I would imagine he has big plans in mind!")
Concerning your post, I'm really glad you asked these questions so I
could answer them. They are really good questions and every person
who would consider consigning their collections or extras or whatever
to MoviePosterBid is most certainly going to ask these very questions
of me at some point. So let me start from the beginning:
1) I don't see that you have ANY minimum value at all on
consignments. Can someone send you 500 one-sheets that all figure to
auction for a few dollars each, and you will only take 25%?
While some people will wonder if this might be the case, I think that
most people will realize that is of course, not something that can be
done. There is no denying that you, Heritage and myself sell very
many items of lower price value and we all sell better quality items
at the same time. It is a balanced sale. So of course, my commission
rate is based on getting a balanced consignment from someone that
includes posters that sell from 99 cents to several hundred dollars
so that the auction result on a weekly basis achieves a certain
value. Not surprisingly, your business model as well as Heritage's
are based on the same philosophy and if it wasn't, you would
certainly fail as a business as would anyone else. So a balanced
consignment is all that really works. For instance, in the auction
ended January 27th, we sold 279 posters. Of those 165 posters sold at
$15.00 and less. 67 posters sold between $15.55 and $50.00. 31
posters sold between $50.01 and $100 and 16 posters sold for $111.00
to $406.00.
Obviously there is a certain balance to that which 1) brings
customers and 2) helps the cheaper stuff sell for a little extra when
a bidder wins something nice and then buys a few other posters
because it might not cost anything extra to ship them together. I'm
sure that any potential consignor who read my initial post also
looked at the results sheet and would get the idea that a sale of
just low value posters would not achieve the best results, making it
a waste of my time and theirs as well. Just as you, I'd have to
bundle up lots of 100 or more posters for bulk lots to make anything
like your question work.
the best example is the current collection that I sold last week & am
selling this week, with very many hi quality examples and very much
crapola. Most of the crapola was sold last week.
2) I don't see any restriction on types or sizes of posters. Can
someone send you 50 beat-up low value 6-sheets (which are a
nightmare to photograph), hundreds of tightly rolled newer
one-sheets that all figure to auction for a few dollars each and you
will only take 25%?
I will sell posters of any size.. I don't care if they're 24 sheets,
6 sheets, half sheets, lobby cards.. . But it's really the same
answer to the above question: A balanced consignment is necessary for
either of us (the consignor or myself) to be satisfied. If someone
wants to send me a 6 sheet for King Kong, a selection of better
titles and 100 other 6 sheets that stink, I'll be happy to sell them.
Only a few collectors can afford to collect Universal Horror posters
(apparently even forged ones sell for alot of money, including one
you almost sold a couple months back until I questioned the piece)
and while the collectorate gets larger for items as they get to lower
prices that are more fitting for the large part of the population,
there are people who also collect lots of posters that sell for under
$25. All of us who sell sell alot of titles that are - for lack of a
better word - shit! But that doesn't make the people who buy them
shitty customers does it?? We all know there are collectors for
everything and I'm not just happy to be able to help them all find
what they're looking for, I strive to make sure I don't lose sight of
the fact that there are collectors at every price level and none of
them should be left out of a sale if that can be helped. That's why
you sell a $406 poster at the same time you sell 99 cent posters.
That way there is something for everyone in your auctions.
3) I don't see any restriction on amounts of posters. It seems to
take all you can do to auction 200 or 300 items a week (I am amazed
you are able to do this, by the way). If you are sent many thousands
of items, you are promising to auction them within 60 days. How
will you do that?
yes we sell about 300 items a week and it is a Herculean task, but we
did it for 50 weeks last year.. Again, I couldn't do it without Anna
who it took some time to train the many tasks as she had never been
involved with posters or movies. But you did the same thing with Phil
Wages who has become your most valuable asset. neither you nor I
could do what we do by ourselves.
Unfortunately one of the most time consuming tasks is sending out
near daily emails to newsgroups, make net posts and other promotion
like ads and flyers, I constantly wonder how you can do your weekly
emails. You have more text in your posts than an Alabama high school
textbook has on Darwin's theory of evolution. You must be having an
employee doing all your important work I guess.
But to get to the heart of your question, like yourself, I can only
sell so many things. What I expect to be able to do is deal with a
small number of consignors each quarter who send me a certain amount
of material and I would auction them 2 or 3 weeks of each month. It
isn't possible for me to sell the 2000-3000 items each week you sell
with your 25 employees (you have 10x the people and sell 10x the material).
However, it is possible for me to take consignments from people who
want to see their stuff sold in a short time period and make quick
money, something that I know from personal experience isn't always
the case with you. I mean, I sent you about 500 classic and by your
own description "great stills" back in April and so far you have
auctioned something along the lines of 10% of them. I do figure the
time period might be shortened if I had sent you 1 sheets, which is
the poster size we both sell most often. Of course, the reason for
sending them to you was kind of to make more money that I could in
turn spend with you as we both know I bid on alot of your auctions
just as Phil Wages bids in mine. I was hoping to spend it with you in
2009 & 2010, but at the current rate, I might still be getting a
check from you in 2015. But I'm certainly not trying to bash you.
It's just the truth, which for some reason I think makes my interest
in taking consignments from people we both know work in my favor just
a little bit.
Look. I'm not trying to knock off other dealers, or auctioneers.
Especially not my friends, and I have no illusions of becoming the
person who has "sold more movie posters than anyone in the world"
mostly because I'm not interested in having 25 employees and to do so
would mean I'd have to work 3 times as hard as I currently do and I'd
have to send out a weekly dissertation like you do, which is plainly
impossible. But if I can get 5% of the consignments you get and 2% of
the consignments Heritage gets, neither one of your businesses would
even notice because I know that both of you already get as much as
you can handle anyway. This David couldn't possibly hit Goliath hard
enough for the rock to feel like more than a bother. On top of that,
both of you are likely to grow anyway on an annualized basis.
That said.. Any potential consignor who is thinking of sending
something to me, please email me and I'll call you.
If you would like to see your posters sell in time for the baseball
season to start so you can take off until the World Series in
October, I think I'm your best bet. I'm happy to take any balanced
consignment (like the one that I have listed the just past & current
auction) work out a favorable sales schedule, and like the current
consignment I will advertise your merchandise in Classic Images and
Movie Collector's World as well as have full color flyers sent out &
given away by linenbackers and framers like Sue Heim.
also please note. My email post was incomplete. On items over $500, I
will only take a 20% consignment fee and if you want to consign
something of extraordinary value, I can negotiate something more
favorable. I will also pay you 30 days after your consignment has
been sold. Take note of the results I'll post of the current auction
and you'll see my results are competitive.
You want to sell posters!! If you think I can help.. Yes I can!!
Rich
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