What’s My Rare Movie Poster Worth?
Posted on May 23, 2008
Filed Under Movie Poster Value, Movie Posters, Rare Movie Posters |
The price of anything is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay. This is true for movie posters, collectible cars, or ice cream cones. When dealing with rare and collectible items, there are several factors that must be considered that you don’t normally worry about. By their definition, rare move posters are valued by the fact that they are hard to find. What makes them hard to find, is usually their age, availability, and authenticity. Quite often very few of this pieces of art were ever made, and those that were have been lost in antiquity.
While it’s true, that reproductions are often available, and quite easy to create with todays technology. They just don’t have the same significance as a true original. It’s kind of hard to explain the mind set of a collector. They are more then willing to spend significantly more money for a poster or print the is an original. It’s a nostalgic sort of thing.
There are several ways of determining, if rare movie posters are the original posters or simply reproductions. The size of the paper, is one indication. The sizing used for most modern movie posters is pretty standard, yet different for say movie posters prior to 1940. Paper texture can also provide clues into the age of the posters. Any movie prints developed after 1940 contain dates and codes near the bottom of the prints distributed by National Screen Services.
During the sixties and seventies, movie poster art was extremely popular and profitable for several companies. One of the more established being Portal Publications. While there is nothing wrong with these reproductions from a quality or copyright perspective, to the die hard movie poster collector, their simply not the real deal. Remember that “nostalgic” thing? Most true original movie posters were 27 inches by 41 inches. Any poster you find, that vary from those dimensions, are likely reproductions.
The reproductions were very authentic, and even today after 30 or 40 years, they will seem somewhat aged. But if you check in the fine print near the bottom of the prints, you may find copyright printing by Port Publications or other reproduction companies. This is a dead give away that poster is not an original.
The other thing to look out for, is if the artwork is actually a re-release. When movies were re-released, there was often a batch of new promotional posters created at the same time. While this may seem like an insignificant point to many, it’s not to serious collectors. These prints are not true original posters. These can be harder to identify, as they were printed by the original movie companies. If there is any text or lettering that suggests the movie is having a second go in the theatres, then your probably looking at a non original poster.
While authenticity is one big factor to influence the value of your rare movie poster, it’s not the only one. The quality of the specimen, and the number of posters actually printed will have a bearing as well. While it’s somewhat ironic, the lower quality movies that had less posters printed, will likely be worth more due to their rarity these days.
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