First off, prices on this title have been trending lower the past few years (a victim of changing tastes). Here are our results:
YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - G-VG $53.00 01/07/2010 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG-Fn $58.00 11/12/2009 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG-Fn $34.00 10/06/2009 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG $8.00 07/28/2009 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG-Fn $30.00 03/05/2009 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG-Fn $53.00 12/16/2008 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - TC; Fr-G $13.00 11/25/2008 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - TC;VG-Fn $300.00 09/09/2008 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG-Fn $54.00 05/22/2008 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG-Fn $56.00 03/04/2008 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG-Fn $62.00 01/22/2008 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG $77.00 01/15/2008 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - G-VG $241.50 09/04/2007 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG $155.00 08/03/2004 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG $128.00 03/23/2004 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG-Fn $112.49 01/28/2003 YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER 1942 LC - VG $100.99 06/19/2001 Second, the "problem" you had is not with "our hobby", but with eBay. I have told all who will listen for over two years now that eBay has permanently ruined the collectibles side of their business, by drastically raising fees and by letting their site be overrun with repros and garbage, and now the chickens have come home to roost. I used to spend one hour a day combing eBay for items that I collect (mostly non-movie poster items) and a couple of years ago I quit in disgust, and now spend minimal time on the site, and I constantly receive e-mails from collectors who tell me they no longer go on eBay at all. Here is one of many stories about longtime eBay sellers quitting the site completely after many successful years there: * http://letters.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/comments/2010/6/1277779641.html#comments * I think you need to re-think your selling strategy, if your current one is to put items on eBay and advertise them solely through forum announcements. Bruce On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 12:20 AM, channinglylethomson < [email protected]> wrote: > That's really amazing. I guess that means that those early 1930s Paramount > lobbies with people like George Raft, Carole Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, Gary > Cooper, Cary Grant are pretty much of little or no value now. Nobody knows > those people any more! I do think that the sour economy is contributing to > this as well. Channing > > *This begs the question -- what is hot in this hobby? Ideas?* > > On Jul 1, 2010, at 10:09 PM, Richard Halegua Comic Art wrote: > > Channing my brother, it's the new reality. the people who wanted that stuff > are dying everyday > or completed their collections (which is kind of the same thing as dying) > > I have also been selling Rita Hayworth for bargain basement prices, like > Cover Girl for $10 each > > 20 years from now, most golden age stars will be red dwarfs and no one will > collect them except hard core fans > > > At 09:53 PM 7/1/2010, channinglylethomson wrote: > > Is there something wrong with this hobby? > > I ask this for the following reason. Today, I had an auction closing on > EBAY for an original 1941 lobby card -- a beautiful linen-paper portrait > card of Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire in a tuxedo from YOU WERE NEVER > LOVELIER that I've had for years. I started this auction low because I was > conducting a sort of test. I wanted to see if a card like this would reach > its real value at auction on EBAY or not. Well, unfortunately, the lobby > card sold for a closing amount of $11.50. 15 years ago this card would have > sold for between $125. and $200. You probably could have made a phone call > and sold it for that. Now it sells for $11.50. I posted the auction > announcement on various sites including two separate ones on MOPO. It ended > up selling to a man in NYC for $11.50. > > Now as you may imagine, I was disturbed that it sold for so little. In the > future, I will probably only start one of these low opening bid, Bruce > Hershenson-style auctions if the piece is something like a lobby card or > poster for a major 1950s science fiction film or a classic movie or > obviously collectible poster or card. I think a lobby card like this one is > still of value despite changing tastes. Maybe I'm wrong but I think there > are still people who know who Rita Hayworth is and who Fred Astaire is and > admire their work and their films. However, since no one in MOPO found this > worth bidding on, even if they could have gotten the card for as little as > $12.50, maybe I'm all wrong. > > Thoughts please? > > Channing Thomson > > P.S. One other consideration -- I live in a major American city (San > Francisco) where I routinely see elderly Chinese people digging through > trash cans all over downtown trying to find cans or plastic bottles for > recycling. Sometimes they carry big plastic bags of these balanced on > bamboo polls over their shoulders. These are men and women who are often as > old as 70 or 80. You really can't go more than a block without seeing them > digging through the trash. Nobody seems to think there's anything wrong > with this here but it disturbs me and makes me think we may actually be in a > depression rather than just one the typical recessions. The economy > definitely BLOWS! > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > Send a message addressed to: [email protected] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ How to > UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: > [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF > MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
