Channing,
There is a serious recession on and it is affecting collectible prices
across the board. I am picking up collectibles in all fields on Ebay for
20% to 30% of what they were routinely going for 5 years ago. Those who
deny the severity of this recession are simply in, well, denial. Beyond
that, you certainly know that an auction that gets no interest this week
can suddenly get a lot of action three weeks later -- it depends on who
is looking at any given time and there's no way to predict that. And
then there's the fact that Ebay has become primarily a venue for those
looking to make cheap scores.
But, besides all those things, there is another issue affecting prices
on older material that too many collectors and dealers simply won't face
up to. I've been saying this for years and every time I do the sellers
on MOPO come out and slap me down and say "Oh no, Rita Hayworth/Fred
Astaire/Charlie Chaplin/Paul Newman/Steve McQueen/You Name The Star are
"just as big" and "just as popular" with buyers "as they ever were" and
that paper on those older stars still commands the kind of prices it did
10 or 20 years ago.
But the value of any memorabilia is in the *memory* of the beholder. And
those who remember -- and want to collect -- material on the
stars/films/books/toys of the 1920's, 1930's, 1940's and even the 1950's
are far fewer now than they were 10 or 20 years ago.
Heck, even the 1970's are now getting to be about 40 years ago. (gasp!)
For a young person of today to be big on collecting stuff from the
1950's (about 60 years ago) would like us being back in the 1960's again
and caring passionately about collecting stuff from 1910!
Actually, it's pretty amazing that so much memorabilia from the 1930's
through the 1960's is still in as much demand as it is. Thank god for
modern medical science, classic movie channels and The Antiques Road Show.
The brutal fact-of-life about collecting any memorabilia is that those
who collect it grow older, fill up their walls and shelves, buy less and
less as time goes by and eventually they die and drop out of the market
completely. While that process is happening, younger generations come
along who have their own stars and they are not so hot on the stars of
the previous generations. After a few generations, most of the "old"
stars inevitably lose much of their collectible and money-bringing
luster. It's just the way life goes.
Sure, there will always be a few iconic titles that pull in the bucks
because they have become a "Legend in the Hobby" (whatever hobby you
care to name). The newer/younger collectors will always want to buy the
Legendary Items because they've heard so much raving about them from the
old timers. But just because a star was part of one legendary item does
not mean that, over time, the coat tails of that item will extend to
that star's other paper. A good example is Steve McQueen in BULLIT. That
particular legendary title will always command a good price, but how
much do most of the posters for Steve McQueen's *other* movies go for
these days? Not much.
Honestly, how many people under 40 know much, if anything, about Rita
Hayworth? Other than knowing the name is that of "a great old movie
star" I mean. Of those younger buyers who do know something of her and
her films, how many care very much, at least as far as their own
collections go? Of those younger buyers who know and care somewhat, how
much are they willing to pay for a Rita Hayworth lobby card? You found
out the the answer: Not much.
Time passes.
-- JR
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!*
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