Questions for Bruce-EMP

Duke · May 20

I was thinking more along the lines of selling a large collection as a whole versus individually for the best value, or return. I have many posters and thinking the return would be better if I sell the whole lot versus selling individually now and then.

Charlie · May 20

Well Morris should know the answer to that one! Didn’t he try to sell everything as a package some 10 years back?

dedeposter · May 21

If I was you I'd consign the whole collection to Bruce and let him do the selling, he'll get great prices, has a large mailing database, you'll get the widest coverage for your items, which means more competition for each item. I've sold most of my collection with him and have been very pleased with the results. He will do all the photos, descriptions and selling for you. You just receive the proceeds.

Duke · May 22

All good stuff, and Morris has had success going on his 33 auction. I was wondering what Bruce thought.
Thanks

Bruce · June 2

Sorry, I was out of town. I am certain there is NO ONE looking to buy an entire collection, for any other purpose that to re-sell it to make money, so they MUST buy at wholesale.

Say you decide to collect Harrison Ford one-sheets. If someone offers you a set of ALL Ford's one-sheets, if you buy it, your collecting is over right after it starts!

The joy of collecting is to put it together piece by piece, like a jigsaw puzzle.

Several high profile collectors gave gigantic collections to a few different auctions, and they were sold on one day, with all lower priced items shoved into random bulk lots.

Not surprisingly, most of those large bulk lots sold to dealers, and a lot of those dealers re-consigned the items to me, and they made money doing so.

And the original consignor still had to pay the auction houses sky high premiums, and they ended up with far less than they would have had they sold by any other method.

Bruce · June 29

Both the Post Office AND UPS have "declared" war on tubes, and that this has created MAJOR headaches for us at eMoviePoster.com

Around a year ago the Post Office added a $4 added fee for all tubes up to 30" long and a $15 fee for tubes over 30" long. At the time, we did not think that much of it, because we had already advised all our U.S. customers to switch to UPS, because their service was SO much better than the Post Office.

But then, several months ago, UPS added even worse added fees, of $29 and $31 to long tubes. That WOULD have been catastrophic, but our UPS representative, was able to get us special relief from this, reversing all those charges, and saving our customers a massive amount per tube.

But two weeks ago, with no notice, UPS announced that, starting immediately, we would have to start paying those added massive tube fees!

This was especially bad since we had just had our all-art print auction with over 2,400 prints! Unlike UPS or other auctions, there was no way we were going to simply tell our customers that they would have to pay these massive added fees. So instead we searched for the best possible solution.

The reason the fees were added solely for tubes is that all the shipping companies are shifting to automation, and packages and tubes are moved on conveyor belts, and tubes often fall off and then sometimes hit employees in the head (bad) or roll on the floor and sometimes get caught in the gears of the machinery, getting crushed, and damaging the machines.

So they have added these massive surcharges so they can be handled separately, which costs them more, and also helps explain why so many more tubes (and packages) are being delayed, because having two systems is time-consuming, and the automated systems have many bugs in them.

So the only answer is for us to send rolled posters in a "non-roll-able" way! One answer would be to use triangular or rectangular tube boxes, which DON'T roll, but the problems is they get bent or crushed at a FAR greater rate than our gorilla proof tubes. SO THEY ARE NO ANSWER.

So the only answer is for us to buy custom-made rectangular boxes that we can put our tubes in, and that solves the problem (and adds an EXTRA layer of protection to our tubes, making them better than they were before.

But naturally it takes time to get these manufactured, and in the meantime we are having to custom make our own boxes one at a time, which is VERY time-consuming, but there is no better answer.

SO IF YOU HAVE A TUBE ORDER FROM US, PLEASE BE UNDERSTANDING IF IT TAKES LONGER THAN USUAL TO ARRIVE, AND DON'T BE SURPRISED TO SEE THE TUBE INSIDE OF A BOX, BECAUSE NOW YOU KNOW WHY THAT IS!

John · June 29

This has been happening in Australia for about a year. It adds a significant amount to the cost of shipping rolled one sheets but also means more time spent in packaging.

Duke · July 1

I wonder if a tube inside a box is still cheaper than the amount they want to charge?

Bruce · July 2

Duke said:

I wonder if a tube inside a box is still cheaper than the amount they want to charge?

It is, but sadly box makers are slow to realize they have a massive new market

Bruce · July 25

In 1987 I took a month long trip to Australia. BEST TRIP OF MY LIFE! I spent a week in Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Barrier Reef and Christchurch.

Now, my 21 year old daughter, who has been fascinated by Australia for most of her young life, wants me to take her there.

I am thinking to go for two weeks, and the best time for me is late March.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU GUYS!

1) How many places do you think we should go and where? Obviously 2 weeks is half the time I went the first time, so going 4 places seems to not make sense to me, and if so, where do I sacrifice?

2) Is late March a peak weather time? I don't want to go when it is too hot or too cold. Is there a better time?

3) What places do you think we should surely try to see, and what (if any) should we avoid?

4) Better or worse airlines or hotels?

5) Anything else you can think of!

Thanks much for whatever advice you guys can provide!

HONDO · July 25

It sounds great. What form or forms of transport do you intent to use to get around in Australia?

Rick · July 26

End of March/early April should be nice weather, early March can be hot.
Sydney and Melbourne would be the peak cities to visit.
The `outback' is fascinating but a long way from anywhere.
Northern Queensland - Port Douglas/Great Barrier Reef.
Great Ocean Road in Victoria.
I know of a big movie poster collection in Warrnambool at the end of the Great Ocean Road if you want to visit.
We have a state park 10 minutes away where it's easy to see kangaroos, wallabies, emus (they will try to steal your food) and koalas, and a lovely national park two hours away.
The easiest mode of transport would be to drive - remembering you're on the other side of the road. I've always managed it no problem in America, though i don't drive when visiting Europe (luckily this year I'm travelling with a friend so I get to go on a road trip!)

Bruce · July 26

Thanks Lawrence and Rick for replying, and I hope to hear from others.

I apologize for not re-replying, but I have a great excuse, as my other daughter is getting married today!

I will re-reply tomorrow!

HONDO · July 26

My top recommendation is to visit is the Blue Mountains. Katoomba is situated there and is approximately 63 miles west of Sydney. There is beautiful scenery to see in the mountains and great walks if you are inclined to do so.

Three Sisters at Katoomba.

Scenic skyway cable car at Katoomba.

Scenic railway at Katoomba.
There are some great walks to do once you reach the borrom.

Also highly recommended is a visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney.

Bruce · August 19

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Our trip has been postponed until next September, so I will re-post about it when it is closer.

Bruce · August 19

Did you know that there has never been a million dollar movie poster at public auction, but there have been multi-million dollar coins, stamps, baseball cards, classic cars, rare books, and comic books?

This is an amazing statistic! One by one, EVERY other major collectible has in the last few years (at the latest), first shattered the million dollar mark for the most wonderful item in that hobby, and then, there are not only ones that then sell for two or three million or much more, but there are also other "not as wonderful" items that start selling for stratospheric prices as well.

Yet not only has this NOT happened in the movie poster hobby, but we are not even very close. Many of the very highest priced reported sales are often items that later sell for FAR lower amounts of money, and it is still rare to see even a $50,000 or $100,000 poster, and many of the very best ones can still be purchased in the $10,000 to $25,000 range.

IS it "just a matter of time" before movie posters catch up to those other hobbies? There are clear signs it might. The last couple of years have seen some wealthy collectors surface and buy lots of the best of a specific type of poster or other movie paper collectible (with each different collector buying in a completely different area) and it seems very likely that, even if they are primarily doing so for the love of what they collect, they likely also think these are very undervalued, when compared to top items from other types of collectibles.

Look at it this way. A million dollars won't get you even ONE of the very best items in those other fields, but not only WILL it get you one of the very finest movie posters known to exist, but you would have enough left over to buy an entire amazing collection, maybe hundreds or thousands of great items!

And movie paper is now including a lot of items over a century old (making them "antique", rather than "collectible") and in just 15 years EVERY pre-1940 movie paper item will be an antique!

And only a small segment of the population can relate to comic books, or baseball cards, or the rest, but EVERYONE has favorite movies! I believe the question is not IF movie paper will catch up to those other fields, but rather WHEN just a small number of the world's top collectors realize how massively undervalued the best movie paper is!

Will it be a year, or decades? I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that when that happens, many collectors will be shaking their heads and saying, "if only I had known"!

Questions for Bruce-EMP

Comments

Contact us

Get In Touch