There seems to be a lot of confusion on the part of some collectors on how to use a price 'Guide'. A price guide can be extremely useful... but at the same time, it can give very false values, so you need to know HOW to assess the information and use it to your advantage. Let's take a look at several variations and how to really understand how to get the most out of the price guides.

Types of information

There are 2 basics types of prices in a price guide:

Actual sales results OR prices ASKED by a seller.

REGARDLESS of which type of price (actual or asking), here's some information you need to consider

STYLE - you need to make sure, if possible, that you're dealing with the same STYLE. A lot of times this isn't listed AND sometimes there is only one style. BUT other times the style can mean a GREAT DEAL of money difference in the value. A major example would be the different styles of original Gone With the Wind posters. Gone With the Wind originally issued 5 different styles of one sheet ranging from just the words ot the famous framed Seguso kissing scene. BUT on a smaller scale (in case you're not buying an original GWTW), sometimes there are review styles or teasers that have limited artwork that greatly affect the value.

CONDITION - this ALWAYS affects the value, so you need to assess the difference in conditions if possible. Condition is also subjective from dealer to dealer. What one dealer calls excellent condition may only be good condition to another dealer. If you are buying...always try to get as large of an image of the actual poster as possible from the seller. (and preferably of the front AND back)

AGE OF INFORMATION - how long ago was this value set. The internet has had a major impact on values... not just in movie posters, but in ALL collectibles. For example, poster prices from 10 years ago are basically of no value except for rarer posters.

Impact of the Internet

Before the internet, you didn't have access to the vast variety of sources. Everything was done on a more regional basis and DEALERS had more control of the regional values that were set for posters. Normally this was done by the popularity and rarity of the poster in THAT REGION. The prices were more stable. Occasionally you would find individuals that didn't know anything about posters and get excellent bargains.

When the internet first became a factor, there was a sharp INCREASE in values. All of a sudden, posters that were RARE in that region were available. Posters that had NEVER BEEN SEEN were available. There was crazy bidding because of this new found availability. But as DEALERS and COLLECTORS realized that THEY could put their inventories online and collectors could make posters available to people all over the world, there was a RAPID turn in the market. Suddenly there was a GLUT of posters. Posters that had been RARE in one region were suddenly available from MANY different sources. Prices plummeted and it has taken several years to start to stablize.

This creates problems that greatly affect your assessment of the value. You have to consider the age of the information and the market changes in that period of time.

Prices Asked By a Seller

The first thought might be.....
This establishes the VALUE of the poster...... WRONG!

Just because a value is listed, that doesn't mean that THAT is the actual value of that poster. There are MANY things to consider even when the price is set by a seller. Let's take a look at a few:

TYPE of Dealer - ok.. you might ask WHY would this be important? Especially since the internet, this has become EXTREMELY important.

In days of old.. you had dealers that had a retail store and dealers that sold via catalogs and shows. NOW.. because of the internet, ANYONE, whether they know ANYTHING about posters or not, can be a DEALER on the online auctions. The housewife trying to earn a little extra, the theater manager that is trying to get rid of his leftovers, or someone that inherited or found some posters can be portrayed as an expert in movie posters on the internet.

The next part of looking at the dealer is to try to find out what KIND of Dealer it is. This is also important to know if a dealer sells from his home or whether he has a retail store. This doesn't mean that one is better than the other, BUT it does affect the pricing.

Since we had a retail store for many years, we have a LOT of respect for the dealer that steps out to open a retail store. They have to be knowledgable enough and have enough confidence to make the commitment to open the shop. That commitment entails shop rent, insurance, employees, matching funds and retirement payments, commercial phones, credit card machines, retail equipment, storage bins, racks, shelves and a WIDE variety of expenses. YES, this does affect their pricing. They have to keep up with a lot wider variety from walk-in customers.

The Dealer that works from his home could also be just as knowledgable, BUT they don't have ALL the expenses and overhead to pay. PLUS this can also be done on a part-time basis so the assignment of prices isn't influenced by additional overhead and expenses.

The first thought would be then to only buy from dealers from home.... NO! Not necesarily.... The dealer with the shop would have a tremendous amount of turnover and inventory constantly changing.. so HE is the better to FIND material that is rarer or harder to get. The dealer from home would normally have cheaper prices but be more limited in inventory AND you have to be more cautious of fraud from the dealer from home not being who they say they are.. They could be anyone CLAIMING to be a dealer, so be careful on rarer and more expensive pieces.

Another factor with the Dealer is LOCATION. Believe it or not, location DOES affect pricing. For example, let's say you have a David Hasselhof poster. It might not be worth much here.... but in Germany, he's a mega-star.... So the Dealer from Germany will price his poster up a LOT higher than a US Dealer. As another example, when we had our retail store, I was constantly trading excess inventory with other dealers. I had a friend that owned a shop in Washington that had a batch of Angel Heart posters. He said he couldn't GIVE them away up there. In New Orleans, they bring a PREMIUM price because it was made here and a lot of locals were in the film.....

So it's always best to look over WHO the dealer is and try to know as much about them as possible.

Ok, let's look at the OTHER pricing.......

Actual Sales Results

Well, you might think that THIS has to be good values because they are ACTUAL sales....... well, let's take a closer look

Was the sales results and actual SALE or an AUCTION sale?

If it was an actual SALE and NOT an auction sale, then the standard questions asked above apply. Normally unknown dealers are not included in a price guide. These are actually the best kind of results to use... BUT unfortunately the majority of the actual sales are auction sales.

The problem with auction sales results is that there is such a wide variation in the price results. It's hard to count on ONE price result because you don't know the situation of THAT particular auction. 2 bidders that each want a particular piece can run the price WAY over the normal value. Then the next time that piece is auctioned, if no one is around, the price can be ridiculously lower than the normal value..

You will notice that auction HOUSE sales results are a LOT better than ONLINE auction sales results. Why, you might ask? There are NUMEROUS reasons, but let me bring a couple to your attention.

When you auction an item at the Auction House, normally a catalog is prepared; notices are sent out; interested parties are gathered together for individual items; THEN the Auction House RARELY has more than ONE of a particular item. Because of this preparation BEFORE the auction, it gives a slightly (well, sometimes more than slightly when it's a really rare item) elevated price. So you need to consider that when looking at the results.

BUT, in an ONLINE auction, there is NO preparation.... NO gathering of interested parties.... and there's NO CLUE how many might be presented.

I have seen where a decent poster was presented on the online auction and the bidding starts to rise... so a DIFFERENT dealer will place the same item to try to get attention to it and then other dealers put the SAME item on because there's so much interest in it..

Well.. the first item normally does the best, THEN the second one presented will do less because some of the people don't continue down to see another one... then the later ones RARELY do anywhere NEAR as well as the first one... SO on the same day, you can have the same item being sold at VASTLY different prices (Sometimes 3 or 4 times higher). I have seen an item go for $10, and then at a different time when numerous people were after it, the same item go for $300.
So, which price do you use?????

There are also incidents where too many good titles come available at the same time. Some titles then get overlooked and sold far below the amount that they should, thus giving another type of false value.

To use auction sales results, you really need numerous auction results on that piece. Then you eliminate the highest and lowest prices and then average the remaining. This will normally give you a fairly accurate idea of the value of the item. To use a single auction result is no better than a dealer just picking a price that he's going to sell his poster for.

I hope this is a help in better understanding the use of a 'Guide