I feel a little like the guy at the party that nobody seems to know but has an awful lot to say. Since I hate being that guy, I would like to introduce myself even though I've already eaten all the Ritz and accidentally let the cat out of the master bedroom.
My name is Anthony.
I didn't start collecting movie posters until 2009 when I got a job working at a small movie theatre in my town. While the greatest privilege went to the two assistant managers, the staff was more or less allowed to bring home any poster they wanted as long as it was handled diplomatically and fairly. After a few months I was offered a job as a projectionist and my privilege over posters was increased.
Long story short, I was naive and thought that every piece of paper that came into the theatre was rare and valuable memorabilia. I amassed a surplus of useless paper that I was trying to sell on eBay for $20, $30, $40 a piece and obviously didn't make a penny. I was embarrassed and discouraged and threw most of the posters away and from then on only took home posters that I personally wanted.
Two years later I'm the new assistant manager and movies are still a very big part of my life. I have always liked animation, but the more informed I became about film the more passionate I became about the medium. Among the staff everybody seems to be an expert about something and for me that's animation. It's my niche. And naturally, I collect posters from animated movies. I only collect the poster if I truly loved the movie and so my collection is put together very selectively. It is small, but it's something I enjoy a great deal and I buy one or two posters a month if I find the one(s) I'm looking for.
Like James Bond and the like, animation is very "collectible". I've been working my way backwards through the timeline, of course making the posters more difficult to acquire. Having squeezed eBay and my known websites dry, I eventually found myself here.
While I haven't found any of the posters I'm looking yet, I've found a type of community I didn't realize existed. I'm surrounded by people more sophisticated and educated than myself and have learned a lot just from eavesdropping on everybody at the punch bowl. I have very little to offer the community (I didn't even bring solo cups) but hope to become a bigger and maybe recognizable part of it.
I swear I was invited. Great party, guys.
