Ian here, I have started commenting and posting some of my collection already and enjoy reading others' advice and interests on this hobby/passion/profession.
I actually lived in Ealing (UK) in the late eighties and began collecting movie (film) posters at that time. I had a goal of building up a significant collection of the Ealing classics, but even back then they were hard to come buy and relatively expensive (although nothing like today). Anyway, I knew of dealers, there were poster fairs in London back then, that had some and they would trade so I placed an ad in the ‘Exchange and Mart’ (An old UK nationwide classified ads newspaper), something like ‘private collector buys any and all pre-1970 film posters for cash’. Back then the market was a little ‘grey’ and I would find myself going around the country on the weekend with empty boxes and filling them with hundreds of posters (all quads), nothing that valuable but enough to trade for the ones I really wanted.
At some point I had around 3,000 quads, mainly from the 60’s and 70’s and about a dozen Ealing posters.
When I came to the US, mid 90’s I sold most of the collection to a dealer as I was ‘starting a family’ and the cash came in handy, also they were stored at my parents house in the UK and they told me to ‘get rid of them’.
Fast forward 20 years, kids have grown up, and I started getting the ‘bug’ again for movie posters.
I am mainly thinking about ‘poster preservation’ these days and I have turned my attention to the sad blight of the fragile acidic Mexican posters from the 40-60’s, so I have started acquiring them and I will be reading, with interest, posts on preservation and archiving.
Yes I am now on a mission, so any non-Ealing (or non-Mexican) poster you see me post will be for sale at a competitive price (all for a good cause).
Regards
Ian
