Thank you, Sean, I had meant to post to whole group... We sent the 2nd shipment shortly after receiving a check for Clockwork Orange. As Grey had told Charley that it takes them quite a while to schedule their auctions, we waited to hear from them. I think it was like 2-3 months before I emailed. Didn't hear back. another email... then finally called them.
Chris told me the posters we sent had no value, to which I replied, what about the Lennon and Get Carter. Off the top of my head, I knew they were of value because they had been on the first batch Signature sales slip. He said, "Oh, I'll have to get back to you." Didn't hear back from them. Emails. Grey then called Charley and asked him to email an inventory, and Charley emailed him a list he had made up... Months go by. I emailed. No reply. More emails, no reply. Finally wrote a nastier email and got a reply, basically saying they didn't have the Get Carter and Lennon... Mind you these weren't the only posters in the 2nd batch of 30-40+ items, including a serigraphed 40"x60" opening day poster stock for Serpico. We included 2 vintage rock posters also because Heritage has their rock section, but off the top of my head, I immediately said Get Carter and Lennon because they were posters which had sold at a Signature auction.. After Bruce posted a news article on a UK auction houses cheating their consigners, I replied with a posting that an auction house had "lost" some of our posters. Grey sent an email threatening legal action. We consulted and paid for legal advice on our liability for slander and libel. Safe, I make another posting on MOPO a few months later re: the missing posters. Grey emails an offer to handle future consignments without a commission fee. Rudy also emails us saying this is a good deal, we should continue consigning as the fees can add up. We refuse. Grey then offers to donate the value of Get Carter and Lennon to charity. We refuse. This past month, he finally ships our posters back. It took a lot of emails before Grey categorically stated the posters he shipped were our total inventory at Heritage. Our problem is that the returned posters do not represent our total inventory. Now if we had agreed to consign further, we certainly could be accused of being a no-brainer. Yes, we would certainly be ready for the nursing home. ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: Geraldine Kudaka <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, June 2, 2012 8:13 PM Subject: Re: [MOPO] Article On Busted Collectibles Mention Movie Posters Thank you for your reply Geraldine (though not sure if you meant it as a private message to me, or if you would like the whole group to see it). My concern is not with your initial submission, which i understand Rudy helped you decide to send them to Heritage. My question was about your second shipment. You were already having problems with them at that point, so why in the world would you send them a second shipment, and then wait several months to even ask if they got it? Best, Sean -----Original Message----- From: Geraldine Kudaka [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, June 2, 2012 07:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] Article On Busted Collectibles Mention Movie Posters Regarding Heritage's inventory, please see my prior post. Regarding contracts and ways of doing business: 1. Please note that we are not in the business of buying and selling movie posters. We are retired from the movie business and have posters from the years of being in the business. 2. The movie business is so small that back then, before the MBA's took over, it was a handshake and verbal agreement. The Star Wars deal for the Kenner toys was made verbally, and the contracts were typed in carbon. If you go to Cannes today, a lot of distribution deals are made verbally between people who trust each other. The paperwork doesn't get hammered out until everyone is aback at the office. 3. Living in New Hampshire today, a lot of deals are still made verbally or with a handshake. Fifteen years ago, when we lived in Los Angeles, we knew people who had legal contracts with their nanny's and gardeners, but there are lots of places throughout the United States where John Deere and an honest handshake still reigns.. Regarding the value of the posters -- we are not in the poster business and did not want to spend a lot of time educating ourselves on their value or the best way of selling them. Despite that, we are probably better informed than a lot of people who consigned to Heritage -- especially seniors. When I researched our items disappearing at Heritage, I googled and found we are not alone. If you read my original post to Rudy, you will see that Rudy solicited us to consign posters to Heritage, and we consigned with Heritage solely based on the professional esteem Charley had of Rudy. We did not do a cold submission. We had contacted Rudy trying to identify some posters we had, and he was the one who pitched us on submitting to Heritage. He called back several times to make sure we had indeed sent a shipment. Regarding time line, Grey Smith took weeks to reply to my query about whether he had sent everything back to us. I had to send him multiple emails to get him to even reply claiming he had returned all our submissions. While I can understand you wanting to lay the blame on our "unprofessional" behavior, let me remind you that we are not in the movie poster buying/selling business. We have a collection because we were in the movie business, and like a lot of people -- including our friends and colleagues who also retired from the industry -- we were simply looking for a way to liquidate the collection. ________________________________ From: Sean Linkenback <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, June 1, 2012 1:55 PM Subject: Re: [MOPO] Article On Busted Collectibles Mention Movie Posters I am with you Bruce. Are they mad because they received a $10K+ check from Heritage for a poster that Heritage didn't even initially inventory? (There is no October 2010 Signature sale, so I am guessing maybe she means the July 2010 sale of Clockwork Orange.) Why did you send Heritage more posters if you believed they weren't giving a full accounting of your first shipment? Why did you wait "several months" after sending the second batch to see if Heritage even got them? Did you send these unsolicited? I can't imagine a scenario where I would send several thousand dollars worth of material to someone a second time if I was not pleased with how they were handling the first shipment and then wait several months before contacting them about the second. This latest message raises a lot more questions on your part than it does on Heritage. Sean -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Hershenson [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, June 1, 2012 01:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] Article On Busted Collectibles Mention Movie Posters I am unclear about something. Is this an ongoing legal matter, or has it come to a resolution? Is the crux of the matter that you sent items without receiving an inventory list of what was sent and now they dispute that you ever sent some number of the items. There are just so many details in the below that I have difficulty distilling it down to its essence. Thanks. Bruce On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 9:02 AM, Geraldine Kudaka <[email protected]> wrote: >Based on your recommendation and reputation, we sent a batch of 30-40+ posters >to Heritage. They sent back an inventory which was a partial list including 10 >posters of the 30-40+ posters we shipped. We called Grey and he said these >were the posters they were going to put up for their March 2010 signature >auction, but that the posters which weren't going up be listed in their print >auction would be safe in their vault. A contract was sent for these 10 >posters. The balance was not sent in an inventory to us. > >We had gotten in touch with Paul Miller of http://www.starwarsmovieposter.com/ >. Paul is the expert on SW posters. He identified a batch of posters we had as >the Deko posters. Of the 30-40+ posters we had sent to heritage, we had >included 3 sections of the Deko 17 section posters. for his help in identifying and organizing our SW posters, we had promised to give Paul 1 of our 2 sets of mint, uncirculated Deko posters. Of course,we didn't have 2 full sets as we had mistakenly sent 3 of a set to Heritage. I called Heritage to inquire about getting back our posters. Heritage pitched us on auction in their weekly the remaining balance of uninventoried posters. > >You, Rudy, got involved and tried to convince us the weekly posters would net >us enough that we should just go with Heritage. In the midst of this >conversation, we also found out a poster we had sent to Heritage -- which was >not on the signed inventory consignment contact -- was valuable -- a 1971 >Clockwork Orange. > >We contacted Heritage and was told the inventoried contract only included >posters which would be listed in the March 2010 auction. > >Being the naive, trusting souls we are, we waited. After the Oct 2010 >signature auction of Clockwork, we received a check for $11,050 as you and Heritage received $1,950 commission on the sale. > >This Clockwork Orange poster was never included in the Feb 2010 inventory -- >just like the Deko posters and 30 other posters. There is not signed contract >we have with Heritage for consigning of selling this poster as Heritage never >inventoried it.... or as far as we known, its never been inventoried, nor have >we signed a consignor agreement for the $13,000 poster. > >Nevertheless, pleased at the sale and believing our unsold lots were safe, we >sent another 30-40+ posters, including a 2nd John Lennon & Get Carter. Charley >and I packed them together. It took the two of us to roll them and secure them >into a shipping tube. Charley then mailed then. > >At 72, Charley is not the same man as he was when he contracted with Kenner to >produce Star Wars toys. He's older, and like a lot of us, has more problems >doing things which came easily to him when he was in his 20-30's. He has memory issues, and it takes him longer to type. > >Several months after shipping the second batch, I emailed Heritage. To make a >long story short, they claim that the only posters they received were 24 >posters they received in an inventory they had gotten from Charley -- which >does not include the Lennon & Get Carter posters.. > >After publicly denoucing Heritage, Grey offered to sell our posters without a >commission. You contacted us and said this was a good deal, we should go with >it. We refused. Grey sent a batch of posters back. It took a lot of emails but >Grey then stated he had returned all of our posters to us. > > >All? Based on an inventory procedure which did not include Clockwork Orange >and the Deko posters? > > > > > > >________________________________ > >From: rudy franchi <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Sent: Friday, June 1, 2012 1:08 AM > >Subject: [MOPO] Article On Busted Collectibles Mention Movie Posters > > >I gave an interview to Business Insider on collectible trends and movie posters >were covered: > >http://tinyurl.com/7q3p988 > > 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. > -- Bruce Hershenson and the other 26 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 our auctions 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. 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