Okay Folks.. here goes.
Before I put this down, I want everyone here to know some simple
things, including Bruce.
Bruce is my friend and has been for a very long time. I first met
Bruce at the 1968 Comic Art con in NYC when I was just 11 years old.
We never really hung out much then for obvious reasons (I was 11..
hello), but over the years we definitely got to know each other and
about 1985 when I floated back to movie posters and we met again at
Cinevent, we became much more friendly. I have alot of respect for
Bruce and like many people who are my friends, I consider them to be
my brothers and my sisters. Chances are, if I couldn't think of you
as someone that close to me, I probably couldn't consider you my
friend. Bruce is definitely a brother
The story that follows is my personal experience, or I should say,
one of my experiences as a consignor, because I have a few times
consigned to Bruce. It is not anyone else's story as I refuse to tell
other people's experiences behind any anonymity and if I do know
anyone with a negative story, they just have to tell it themselves. I
just pass around gossip like "I know lots of people who have bad
experiences with Heritage". Sorry..
That's not my bag.
I'm not telling this story to infuriate Bruce. I'm telling it because
I've had enough of these accusations back and forth that looks like
one dealer trying to disparage other dealers. It's silliness, it's a
negative to the hobby, and MoPo as well as APF is just too full of
this bullshit and it has to stop. In kind, after I tell this story,
if someone wants to tell of some negative experienc e you've had
buying from me, selling to me or consigning etc.. Go for it. I'm a
big boy and the truth does not hurt me
my story...........
Back near the end of 2008, I had determined that I wasn't doing well
with stills in my auctions. It was too bad because I have lots of
great great stills. So because I was spending lots of money with my
friend Bruce, and because it was my opinion that he wasn't just doing
well with good stuff, but that he was kicking ass, I decided to ask
Bruce if he would take a consignment of stills. He agreed as long as
I sent him good stuff. I promised it would be a great load of stuff,
but I wanted them sold in a short period of time so that I could
spend the money with him as in 2008 and into 2009, I really wasn't
doing well enough, and though I can't muzzle my collecting habit, I
could at least find a way to get it to pay for itself a little better
at the time.
So I carefully went through my stock and I pulled the best of the best.
Silent portraits of Valentino, Nita Naldi, Nazimova, Harold Lloyd.
Scene stills from Wings with Clara Bow, It Happened One Night,
Petrified Forest. Great images of Jean Harlow, Gable, Clara Bow and
even great stuff from High Noon, and the Wild Bunch. This was great
incredible stuff and only the best images. There was absolutely no
chaff in this stuff. 492 stills. I sent bruce a link to an online
gallery of the stills so he could approve them before I shipped them
also. I got my ducks lined up.
So after I got them prepped and I photographed them all (yeah that's
right, that's my inventory. I practice what I preach!), I had Anna
box them up and they were shipped to Bruce on 4-17-2009.
I was spending some money with Bruce in 2009, and fortunately things
were also getting better, so I sort of forgot about them for a while
until I realized Bruce hadn't auctioned them yet, so on 7-28 I
emailed Bruce if he was going to get to them sometime soon. He
responded on 8-23 with the following email:
Rich
I have good news and bad news!
The bad news is that I got so backed up I did nothing with the stills.
The good news is that I opened them, and I am going to sneak in
around 40 of them in with my really great single owner collection we
are selling 9/3-9/10.
More good news is that I see that you weren't kidding and there are
lots of really good ones, and I will get most of them ready for the
next still auction at the end of September.
More good news is that I have a good collection of autographed items
for a special autograph only auction in late September or October
which is mostly stills, and I will add yours to that.
The only other bad news is that I likely will have trouble
identifying some of the stills. I will do all I can (and look at your
web page) and then I will likely send any back to you with Post-Its
on them so you can add the titles and return them.
But bottom line, you sent a shitload of great stills!
Bruce
So in other words, more than 4 months had gone by and he hadn't even
opened up my box! I was not pleased because I really hadn't expected
my consignment to be handled in this way and to make matters worse,
he was only going to be auctioning less than 10% of my consignment
the following month, which was not what I had in mind, and not what I
recalled discussing with him prior to the consignment. However, Bruce
is my friend, I understand sometimes work is tough, and Bruce did not
hear one single complaint from me. Not one gripe.
So he sold what he sold and I got a check for some $300 or $400. I
didn't keep track of what I was paid, because it had become
unimportant to me. I was letting Bruce deal with the stills. He did
of course pay me for what he sold within his stated period of 30 or
45 days etc. Now I will admit that I didn't think he got a
satisfactory price for my stuff.. But as a long time dealer, I
completely understand this issue. I did not gripe one bit, and I
continued letting Bruce sell my stills.
Then in December 2009, he listed a few more stills.. Maybe a dozen. I
don't recall exactly because.. well.. I trust Bruce. maybe I took the
pics of mine for an inventory, but not once did I check my visual
inventory against anything after the first time, largely because I
don't have the time and I trust Bruce. I did however tell Bruce at
the beginnig that if he had any trouble with identifications, he
should contact me, and clearly from his email copied above, he said he would.
well.. he didn't.
On 12/29/2009 he sold this still from my consignment, for $7.00...
http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/archiveitem/619346.html
the only problem was, he failed to identify the woman in the still as
Joan Crawford. Had Bruce done so, I suggest this still would have
sold for at least a little more than $7.00 and possibly quite a bit
more. sadly, I hadn't looked at his auction until maybe an hour
before they ended (I am just too busy), which was just too damn late
to do anything about. I shook my head, told Anna (she is my
secretary), took a deep breath and I moved on. I never said one word
to Bruce about this and this is the first time he will have heard
anything about it. In other words.. I didn't gripe, I sucked it up,
and I didn't bitch to anyone on any forum either. I don't have time
to dwell on stupid shit like this.. I moved on and I continued to let
Bruce sell the stills, although I don't recall if he did sell any
more of them. He can probably tell better than I.
Then in January 2010, I sold a great collection, on consignment, that
a friend had bought and after he pulled out some great stuff, he let
me sell 98% of the collection. There was great stuff. Lone Ranger
1sh, Bullit, Le Mans, Bond stuff, Rio Bravo..
here's a list of the results of that auction, or the first part of it
at least http://www.movieposterbid.com/sales_results/2010_january_27th.htm
Some of you may remember that after that auction, I posted to mopo a
message titled: Consign Your Posters to MoviePosterBid.com for the
best results!! (dated apparently Jan 30th)
Well, Bruce got into a little tete-a-tete with me, very friendly on
both sides. There was no animous, but he was trying to point out that
you would do better consigning to him, and I was arguing that MPB
would be just as good, depending on what you're looking for etc. At
some point, Bruce commented that (and this is not a direct quote. I'm
at the warehouse, supposed to be working, and I do not have a
complete email archive here) he was the fastest road to auction, and
that he always sold his cosnignments within a short period of time. I
think he even projected a specific time frame, but again, my archive
isn't here.
Of course, I disputed Bruce's claim with my own experience, and no
one else's. Bruce got a little angry at me, and shot me an email back
privately that he would be returning that consignment. I didn't ask
him to do so and I wasn't planning to, but honestly, I was glad he
did. Mostly because at the speed they were being sold, he might still
have some of them today.
I did consign something to him since, so obviously it didn't color my
feelings about consigning to him, and I still would if I thought he
could help me. Of course, being my own auction, I really don't have that need.
Anyway.. fast forward to sometime in either 2010 or 2011. I can't
find teh exact item because it's difficult finding a Gene Autry
autographed still in Bruce's archive and again, I'm not at my main
archive either, but Bruce was selling this Gene Autry autographed
still that was in my consignment to Bruce. Because I had never done
an inventory check when the stills were returned, because I 100%
trust Bruce, I couldn't tell you if I got everything back or not, or
if I was properly paid. I trust Bruce took care of my correctly.
Anyway, and Bruce should recall this well, the description in the
still listing had noted that this still was from a longtime collector
who had personally gotten this selection of stills Bruce had listed
and personally had each star autograph them back in the 1950s and
1960s. Well I knew this still, and I knew that was incorrect, so I
let Bruce know that I believed the consignor was lying to him,
because Bruce had gotten this still in my consignment, and presumably
had sold it and so the consignor could not have had the still signed
in the 1950s. I didn't realize what Bruce was going to tell me after
he did his research.
what did Bruce find out?
He found out that this still was from my consignment. He had neither
sold it nor returned it to me, and it was incorrectly placed in this
other guy's consignment. He thanked me for pointing it out. He
correctly apologized to me for screwing up, changed the description
and a month or so later, I got my check.
Did any of you ever hear me tell this story before?? I know the answer... NO
What would have been the purpose to do so? I was not then and I am
not now trying to embarrass my friend. The story is only being told
now because after everything that has gone in, not just concerning
Bruce v Heritage over the last few years, but particularly with
Geraldine's story within which Bruce has very clearly aligned himself
with Geraldine indicating that Heritage makes lots of mistakes, I
have to point out that with just this one consignment, Bruce made
numerous mistakes, including misplacing part of my consignment with
someone else's!!!! By the way.. I did not gripe to Bruce about it. Not one bit.
Simply said, my consignment of stills was handled poorly at every
juncture, but I have only once even alluded to it publicly, which was
here on MoPo in a single email in a single statement. I do not as a
matter of course try to damage my competitors. I have never felt it
was necessary. If my competitor does a poor job, they will go out of
business all on their own and then I will benefit maybe. But I get no
benefit by continually beating on my competitor's reputation and I
wouldn't do that to Bruce anyway, just as I would never do it to Heritage.
One of my best friends got into a very heated argument with me on
what he considered me taking it easy on Heritage. Hey, I"m not taking
it easy on anyone. I deal with facts and in Geraldine's case, I don't
jhave enough FACT to say Heritage got posters they say they did not.
I didn't believe my parents when they would say "you have to believe
me because I say so" and I'm certaionly not going to agree with
Geraldine under the same circumstances. I'll make up my own mind thank you.
No one I know is perfect. Not Grey Smith, not Geraldine Kudaka, not
Bruce and certainly not myself.
This overly long post is only to add some reflection and pragmatism
to that idea.
and now that that is done, I hope MoPo can stop being a battlefield
between us and we can all live together peacefully, as we should,
without people attacking each other. Geraldine has an issue with
Heritage. I suggest Geraldine you let your attorney handle it with
Heritage's attorney, so we can stop listening to it, and alot of other stuff..
Rich
PS: I think everyone should consign posters to Bruce when
appropriate, to Grey Smith when appropriate, to Sean when appropriate
and to myself as well. They are all honest (including myself) and I'm
positive that none of the people mentioned wold intentially hurt anyone
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