JR is reasonably correct in this post. As MPB has grown, and I've
been able to offer better posters, I want people to know that I will
never lose sight of those that do not collect Dracula lobby cards and
Casablanca posters. We have a hobby rich with art and style and a
poster doesn't have to be $25,000 to be considered great by someone.
I'm sure that collectors of $10 and $50 posters get every bit as much
enjoyment from their purchases as does a collector of a Day the Earth
Stood Still one sheet.
Plus that doesn't take into account that someone collecting $25
posters today may also be tomorrow's collector of $500 and up
posters. All collectors started somewhere and it is very very rare
that someone starts at the top.
Also folks, please don't misconstrue my posts to be a stab at Bruce.
It's just friendly competition. Bruce has been a friend for decades
and Grey Smith has been a friend for only a few years. But we all are
in the same business and some competition between us is expected. I
have admiration for both of them who have done wonderful things for
the movie poster hobby. That said, you can always expect that even if
I critique my competitors, I will do it with class and I don't do it
with malice toward either of them. I just want some of their
consignments for myself.. is that so bad??
: - )
At 12:30 PM 1/31/2010, James Richard wrote:
Rich (and Bruce),
I think one of the important things that gets lost in a pure
I'm-running-a-business-here perspective is to be found in Rich's statistics:
"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."
Now Bruce says on his site he really doesn't want to mess with
posters that go for less that $50. I understand that position, he
has a large overhead to meet each month with all his employees. But
consider that on August 27, MPB sold 232 movie posters to collectors
(and possibly some dealers) for less than $50 each. MPB enables
people to buy posters at under $50, even under $15, and not have to
take their chances on Ebay and all the means these days. That's a
valuable community service. The consigners of those 232 posters got
to make more money than they would have trying to sell themselves.
Another valuable service to the community. And Rich, with his much
lower overhead, made some decent money as well. Even if all 232 "low
cost" posters were not Rich's stock, but all consignments, if the
average selling price per poster was $20 and Rich got a 25%
commission, he made $1,160 that day just on "low cost" posters. So
even selling "low-cost" posters can be a total win-win for everyone involved.
And, to repeat, the buyers and sellers were able to do it in a far
better environment than the only other alternative for those "low
cost" posters, which is the mess we call Ebay. It's important to
remember that "low cost movie posters" is not a bad thing as far as
the vast majority of buyers out there are concerned.
-- JR
Richard Halegua Comic Art wrote:
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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