The lines were insane, but I always managed to be at the front. It also made me realize that Mondo and the print market are not going anywhere any time soon. This market is getting bigger and bigger all the time. Hundreds of people were lining up without even knowing what they were lining up for. People of all ages, all backgrounds. . . Being exposed to all this craziness made me realize how sound Mondo's business plan is. They basically own the market. And it also made me realize how indispensable the flippers are to the whole plan. Mondo and the flippers feed off each other.
My problem with the whole thing is, in order to support the prices and the cachet of the posters, the market for them needs to keep growing. There needs to be a steady stream of poster collectors that come in an say, Oh man, that Tyler Stout is amazing. Oh I love that Martin Ansin poster. Then wonder what else he has done, and go try to acquire it.
When Mondo started, they were really the only game in town. Now there is Galley 1988, Alien Corset, the Colony and countless others in the market. They are still the biggest and the best when it comes to the properties and licensing deals they have access to. The artists that they work with are very talented. Rob Jones and the the rest of the Mondo crew have done a great job of cultivating and promoting the talent, but now they compete with themselves with the Mondo gallery. Mondo alone had 77 releases including variants before Comicon. Adding the gallery to the mix probably takes this total to greater than 100. When you factor in all the other competitors, the "limited" movie print release market is huge.
If your fortunate to buy the poster when it drops, who cares. If price is $30 or $40 or $50, not a big deal. However, I missed the Struzan Thing drop with work travel. I have the original rolled OS, but would like the print. Why? I am a Struzan fan. I love the Struzan Frankenstein print. It is amazing. What should I do?
I can't touch the regular for less than $350 and the variant for $600 on the secondary market. If I am going to spend that kind of money, I would like to believe that the value is going to hold steady. Maybe for that one . . . who knows? For others, I just don't believe the current market prices can be justified over the long term. Maybe they can be for some of the Stout and Ansin and Moss Star Wars or Evil Dead items, but can anyone honestly say a large number of people will be chasing, for example, a Whalen Hawkeye for $125 or more in a few years? ( Someone is trying to sell one for $179. That must be the Cinemasterpieces of the print business on eBay
)
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=hawkeye+whalen&_sacat=0With so many posters, if they cannot maintain the cachet of collecting them, I think Mondo will suffer. If that happens and the values start to decrease, then most of the newer people in the market, who are fickle, will stop. I agree with most of what Tob suggested as I see it on eBeans all the time. It looks like Mel and Holiday have already come to this conclusion. Anyone else feel the same way?
I don't want this to seem like I am down on Mondo, or want to stop collecting their stuff. I am a huge fan. They obviously have a lot of fans out there too as evidenced by T's Comicon report. I am just on the fence about some things.
And BTW. I like the timed Moss release idea for limited prints.
