Remember the nice old days of going to your local video store and foraging through their film posters bargain box for a couple of latest items to stay up in your wall?
Well, should you were a very conscientious teen and preserved those precious finds, you would possibly just have the ability to generate profits from them today.
Here’s a fast guide to a couple of things it’s best to learn about buying and selling old film posters.
Why are old film posters so popular?
Well, the rationale is pretty easy – they were never created to be preserved. As with all promoting, these posters were simply used as a fleeting approach to grabbing people’s attention.
So, it’s hardly surprising that the few saved and preserved by collectors or film buffs are actually considered worthwhile rarities.
This is very true for larger posters that were displayed on billboards. Unless they were salvaged, they’d simply have been pasted over with the subsequent big blockbuster. Some of those posters are so rare that lower than 10 may be found anywhere on this planet.
What are collectors after?
There are plenty of aspects that influence the worth of old movie posters. As mentioned above, rarity is one essential aspect.
However, there are a couple of more things to think about:
Title
Obviously, the posters of popular and cult movies are more sought-after than their B-grade counterparts. For instance, the costliest old film posters currently listed on eBay include The All New Dracula, Oliver Twist and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Striking artwork
There are, nevertheless, cases where posters of less popular movies are highly sought-after as a consequence of the standard of the poster’s artwork.
According to Sothebys.com, a comparatively unknown film called New York (1927) is a working example. The poster encompasses a particularly beautiful impression of the Big Apple skyline that collectors fall over their feet to search out.
Condition
Because having actually been in use adds value to a poster, the condition doesn’t must be perfect. Unlike other collectibles, equivalent to toys, collectors consider folds, stamps and slight fading part and parcel of the deal.
Most would, nevertheless, not put money into something that’s badly torn, completely faded or damaged in other unsightly ways.
Origin
In many cases, European versions of movie posters are more sought-after than their American and British counterparts. The reason for this is solely that designing movie posters was considered more of an art quite than pure commercial.
How much are you able to make?
Well, this relies entirely on how most of the boxes mentioned above your posters tick.
If you head on over to eBay, you’ll see that posters go for anything between £0.99 and £5,000.
The seven most costly posters on eBay straight away are:
Original Bullitt1968, Italian 4-Foglio, Film/Movie Poster – £5,000
Dracula 1958 – Original UK quad film poster – £4,999.00
Oliver Twist original UK quad film poster – £5,000
Quatermass and the Pit original UK quad film poster – £2,000.00
School for Secrets original UK quad film poster – £1,800.00
Large framed Goldfinger poster (With solid signatures) – £1,800.00
Large original Beatles Help poster – £1,550.00
So, there you will have it! If you will have something you’re thinking that suits this bill, you possibly can be making big bucks on eBay!
An odd story about finding film posters under a carpet
If you’re still sceptical about just how lucrative a couple of good old film posters may be, gather round for this crazy story published by The Guardian last 12 months.
In 1985, two builders uncovered a stash of gorgeous cinema posters dating from the Thirties and 40s under the carpet of a house they were renovating in Penarth, Wales. That’s right! Under a carpet. It all checks out, because the home belonged to a Cardiff cinema owner’s relative and the posters probably gave the impression of a great and easy-to-access barrier to make use of on the time.
Strangely enough, this appeared to have been a great way of preserving the posters, as they were all still in really good condition.
The builders were allowed to maintain the posters and correctly decided to carry onto them for a few years.
Well, in 2017, their collection was put up for auction and sold for a whopping £72,000!
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