In his latest musings in Movie Collectors World, Freddie 'Dr. V' Poe had the below to say about the current state of our hobby:
"Where oh where has our hobby gone? Where are all the movie posters that once saturated cyber-space and beyond? To be perfectly honest I am not too thrilled with the state of affairs within this once great hobby. I am in no way bashing the hobby or movie posters, but to me, they seem to have lost their luster. At one time there were pages of ads in MCW bought up by poster dealers from across the country. Now you hardly see any. eBay has turned out to be mainly a "Buy It Now" format with over inflated prices. You very rarely see vintage movie posters and or lobby cards offered in an auction format on eBay. Bruce H. (emovieposter.com) is the only one offering a steady stream of movie paper in the true auction format. The last poster I bought on eBay was a title card from the re-issue of "DRUMS OF JEOPARDY" for $35.00. And before that was a movie program with Universal's "THE CAT CREEPS" on the cover for $12.00. These are the only two pieces of movie paper that I have bought in the last three months or more. I find it depressing. I also can't seem to fetch a decent price when I try to sell some of my own collection. No one can convince me that poster values have not dropped of in the last couple years. Looks like no one is buying like they used to. What is the cause of this sudden lack of interest? Why are collectors and dealers afraid to let the market dictate the value of a poster? Are dealers purposely holding back on to their wares, waiting for this curtain of depression to rise? Here is my opinion of what has happen to this once great and prestigious hobby. 1) The fall from grace. The "trust" between collectors within the hobby has been tainted. Certain individuals creating and selling high tech reproductions of valuable posters put a damper on things for sure. Nearly every collector became paranoid to buy high end posters and even started to doubt the authenticity of posters they had in their collections for years. This created a mass hysteria in the hobby. 2) The economy. Cut and dry. I can't ever in my fifty-six years remember being so worried about my finances. The other day I was looking at all my stuff. I realized the vast amount of money I had invested in my collection. This sent me into a panic attack, my heart was beating so fast I couldn't breathe. This is a similar reaction that investors had when the stock market crashed in 1929 or when Mars attacked in 1938. Luckily, Jayme brought me back to my senses, before I jumped out the window, by saying "what do you care? you’re never gonna sell any of it, you love it, you're Dr. Vollin....!" She's right. I'll love it to the grave. 3) Reproductions. They suck in general. Why would you want them? Why would you sell them? They drag the market down and cause confusion for collectors, especially when you are buying posters off a computer screen. I don't know how many times I have found repros at yard sales and flea markets. Good luck trying to convince the uneducated that his/her poster is a copy and not an original. It's better to just walk away than argue. Once again, I am not trying to degrade a hobby I've loved all my life and have given up more than a pound of flesh for, but rather lamenting it's weakened condition. I imagine that every field of collectibles has been damaged to some extent, but not as bad as movie paper. For example, magazines and toys are still holding their own. I can easily sell a vintage toy or a back issue of Famous Monsters a lot easier than I could a lobby card. The solution to the problem? Who can say. Hopefully the economy will turn around sometime in the near future (don't hold your breath), this will definitely help. The "trust" factor will always remain, now that many collectors have lost thousands of hard earned dollars from deceitful transactions. Some collectors would like to see "feeBay" go by the wayside and go back to the old way of trading. A few collectors have come up with a plan to start their own movie poster auction site but I have yet to be informed on their course of action. At any rate, hopefully we will see our fine hobby resurrected to it's full potential. Until then we will go on searching, trying to find new ways to buy and sell movie posters." -- Bruce Hershenson and the other 25 members of the eMoviePoster.com team P.O. Box 874 West Plains, MO 65775 Phone: 417-256-9616 (hours: Mon-Fri 9 to 5 except from 12 to 1 when we take lunch) our site <http://www.emovieposter.com/> our auctions <http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/all.html> 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.
