Last week, I told you all that we would no longer auction lesser condition low value rolled one-sheets in bulk lots (ones from the 1980s on that have tape or tack holes). The just take too much of our time, and they sell for so little money that it seems a massive waste of time for ALL concerned (the consignors sometimes don't every get back their shipping costs, we lose precious time we could be spent preparing ANY other auctions (and we lose money counting our labor cost), and the buyers often don't really want the posters in the bulk lot (they often ask for a few titles, and tell us to throw out the rest, because they are not worth the cost of shipping them).

Once I realized this was true for lesser condition rolled one-sheets, I realized I needed to make two important changes to our business model in 2019, which are as follow:

1) As I said, it is a MASSIVE waste of time for all concerned if we continue to auction super-low value items that NO ONE really wants. So starting January 1st, we will ask ALL our consignors to quit sending REALLY low value items of ANY type, UNLESS they give us permission to simply "throw out" items that figure to auction for less than $10 each individually, or for less than $3 per item if they are in bulk lots.

Please know that this only applies to a relatively small percentage of items we receive, because most items DO have sufficient value to be auctioned either individually or in a bulk lot. What are the types of items that might fall into the "throw out" category?

First and foremost are items that are already pretty low value (like most newer rolled one-sheets, magazines, or low quality repro posters or photos) that are in lesser condition. That roll of posters where you took out all the "good" titles and left the ones you don't want, and they all have some creases tape or tears? Just throw them out, or use them for wrapping paper, or try to donate them to Goodwill, but DON'T send them to us! That stack of old People magazines (or just about any other mass market magazine of the past 20 years)? Don't send those either!

There are also a fair number of items that have WOULD have been worth something in decent condition, but have "negative value" (are worth LESS than zero!) because of their condition defects. Those three-sheets or six-sheets that are literally falling apart, or almost any posters that are water stained and have mold or mildew, or photos that have discolored significantly? The cost of restoring them is greater than their value after restoration, so they have no value at all, and should go in a dumpster, and NOT in a box of consignments for us!

REMEMBER THAT THESE TYPES OF ITEMS ARE A SMALL AMOUNT OF WHAT WE RECEIVE FROM CONSIGNORS, AND MOST OF OUR CONSIGNORS ALREADY KNOW TO NOT SEND THESE. We are just stressing this because when you receive well over half a million consignment items a year, if 5% of them are worthless dumpster items, that still amounts to over 25,000 items every year!

Getting these items completely out of our auctions will improve their overall quality, which is a "win/win" for everyone!

2) We started out in 1990 (28 years ago), primarily auctioning U.S. movie posters and lobby cards. Over the years we added in a number of other types of items on an occasional basis, but the biggest change in our auctions was in adding non-U.S. movie posters. Our auctions of those have grown and grown to where we a really significant portion of our auctions are for non-U.S. movie posters.

But most other auctions of "other types" of items (not U.S. movie posters and lobby cards OR non-U.S. movie posters) have mostly been items we auction every few months or so, sometimes more often, but always irregular, and sometimes only a couple of times a year. I am talking about stills, non-movie posters, signed items, and so forth.

THE OTHER BIG CHANGE IN OUR BUSINESS MODEL IN 2019 WILL BE TO WORK HARD TO INCREASE OUR AUCTIONS OF STILLS, NON-MOVIE POSTERS AND SIGNED ITEMS!

Why do we want to do this? Because there are only so many movie posters and lobby cards in the world, and we can't keep auctioning the same ones over and over again, and expect to maintain a "fresh" quality to our auctions. Look at all the other movie poster auctions other than ours. You see the same exact items over and over and over. But in our auctions, we are constantly seeking out new and different items (but individually and in terms of types) that OUR auctions constantly have lots and lots of items we have never auctioned before (or have not auctioned for many years).

We want to greatly expand our auctions of single vintage stills, non-movie posters, and signed items to where we have one of each auction every single month in 2019 (but of course that can only happen if we are consigned enough material to do so). One reason to think this may well happen is that we see clear evidence (on the part of both consignors AND bidders) that they are VERY happy with our entry into these new areas (because they like our way of auctioning, with honest descriptions and honest bidding), and that leads us to think that we will be able to continue to grow in these areas. And maybe we can also expand into some other areas, like collectible books, magazines, comic books, and more. Only time will tell!

See Also
Did you know... that eMoviePoster.com will no longer auction lesser condition low value rolled one-sheets in bulk lots?