Captain America

[jayn_j]

Need to add that the rules presented here are not universal.  A less than mint poster will take a hit in value, but will retain a portion, depending on how bad the damage is, age of the poster and how the damage affects the displayability.  There is also the folded/rolled issue, with rolled posters generally going for more.

I seem to run contrary to most members here.  I prefer folded posters, especially during the transition period of the '80s.  You are less likely to be bitten with a folded repro than a rolled one.  I also like my posters to show some wear.  I feel it gives them character and 'authenticity'.  It may be because my collection tends toward pre-1980 material.  The posters were not glossy back then, so folds didn't damage them as much.  Also, back in the nSS days, posters were used and reused in smaller markets.  By the time they were retired, they could have been up in a half dozen theaters, so staple marks and small edge damage was common.

When someone comes in with a genuine, rolled, uncirculated poster of Casablanca, my alarm bells are going off like crazy.  That poster would never have been rolled.  The odds of seeing an uncirculated one are very low as well.  In order to believe it, I would need to see a picture of it hanging on Louie B Meyer's office, pictures of it being removed from the wall, a seal being applied and the seal still intact!  Most of the cons on fakes are because of collectors, insisting on prefection and wanting to believe.

[Bruce]

I agree that it is unfortunate that "good" does not always mean it is in "good" condition. But we actually have the harshest grading scale by far. Our "good" equates to another auction's "fine" and our "very good" equates to their "very fine", etc!

The grades we use are "poor", "fair", "good", "very good", "very good to fine" and "fine" (and our fine is everyone else's "mint" and we almost never use it).

On that "good" condition poster, know that it is fine to return it, even now! We don't want unhappy buyers.

Because we auction items that are 100 years old and one year old and everything in-between, we use a harsher grading system for "newer" posters than we do for "older" posters. So a poster from 1932 that is in "very good" condition might have been only "good" condition if it had been from 1982. If we did not do this, most newer posters would get a very high grade and most older posters would get a very low grade, and we can't see how this helps anyone.

We get less than one out of 2,000 posters returned for condition, and we are known as very harsh and accurate graders (but we think it is really that many other auctions are too lenient, and "miss" flaws!).

I have taken a few surveys over the past 20 years and the number one gripe of collectors (far more so than high prices) has been over-graded or mis-represented posters!

Bruce

[jayn_j]

I will support Bruce there.  I have bought on the order of 400 posters from him over the years and cannot think of even one instance where the poster had a defect that hadn't been noted in the description.  His grading has steadily improved over the years.

[fallenangel1]

Sorry Bruce I hope you dont feel as if I were "calling you out" .. It was really just my ignorance of the grading systems that were in place nothing again you or your auctions

[Bruce]

I wasn't feeling picked on, but I just wanted to clarify! It IS a terrible shame that "good" actually means "not very good".

I have bought from many auctions and what is more important than the condition grade is a high quality large image of the ACTUAL item, plus a description in words of any defects you CAN'T see.

Bruce

P.S. Jay, thanks for the very kind words!