Does collecting ever end?

[eatbrie]

Let me rephrase that...  Do you still see yourself collecting posters 10, 20, 30 years from now?  Will you still be collecting in your 60s, 70s, 80s?  When does it end?  When is too much - too much?  What will your children, let alone grandchildren, think of you?

When I started collecting, I remember telling my wife I'd only stick to the 80s (my favorite era) and stop when I'm done.  What a joke!  The more I have, the more I want, and the less I see an end in sight.

T

[wonka]

Good topic..

I don't really know.  I am Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to posters. 
Some days, I wake up and wonder what the hell I am doing with all this stuff and think about it only in terms of me selfishly wasting money on paper that will never see the light of day.  Other days, I can't leave the computer or the hunt...I just buy and buy.  I think I have a By-poster disorder.

The days I cannot stop my poster high, I figure I will collect forever and leave everything to my family and friends when I am gone.
The days I hate myself for buying all this crap, I plan on quitting that weekend.  Who knows.  I will say, however, that my collecting has been drastically narrowed in terms of collection niches...but not sure if that is a good thing, since now I buy less posters but spend more money on them because of higher price tags they bring.

Sorry this doesn't really answer the topic's question...ultimately, I have no idea.

[Bruce]

There is a life cycle to collectors. It is the same for everyone, the only issue is how gentle of a parabola it takes.

1) You discover posters and buy a few
2) You are hooked! You buy too many, and spend too much
3) You realize you can never display all you own, and you slow down buying
4) You start to sell a few items you "never look at"

Finally either
5) You get tired of it all, and sell everything
or
5) You get old and realize your kids have no interest and you sell everything
or
5) You die, and your kids sell everything

Bruce

[brude]

It NEVER ends.
It is a TERMINAL affliction. 
It will RUIN your life.
The only respite is to take your 100 MOST VALUED posters...
...and send them to ME!
I will then carefully evaluate the degree of your specialized addiction and take the next appropriate step: Request that you send me 100 MORE!
This evaluation process can take several steps (and cost quite a bit of postage) but in the end, when I have all of your posters in my possession, I can truly say you are CURED!!!



It's like a blood transfusion in reverse.

Note: This spiritual/medical evaluation will also work for any member on this board.
I'll be at the mailbox!

[Bruce]

P.S. I have seen some collectors run though the cycle in less than a year, and others take 30 years, with a very few making it their entire lives.

Thierry strikes me as a "lifer".

Bruce

[eatbrie]

My God, Bruce, if my wife saw your last reply, she'd divorce me on the spot.  Sadly, you may be right.  Unless I suddenly run out of money, which can always happen, I don't see myself slowing down.  I keep jumping from one small collection to another, Spielberg to Truffaut, Truffaut to Polanski, Polanski to Hitchcock, and going back in time.

So how do you make your kids like your collection enough to keep it up once you're on the other side of the mirror?

T

[brude]

I make it a habit of buying posters for films that I took the kids to see.  I also buy them posters for their own use.  Pass the addiction on, I say.

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

Like Wonka, I'm buying fewer but more expensive posters.  I never get tired of my very best stuff.

[Bruce]

Mel

Sounds like you are a "#3"!

Bruce

[CSM]

I think I have a By-poster disorder.

 

[CSM]

I have to admit - Bruce's analysis is almost exactly what I was going to post...

I find it very humorous that in the end, it all gets sold by someone who doesn't care about all the effort and passion put into building the collection.

[Ari]

As I deal in other collectables, I also assume its the same, every day I get a little old man or little old lady come in, been collecting coins and/or banknotes their whole life and they say "I AM GETTING TO BE 80 NOW, ITS TIME TO SELL, MY GRAND CHIDREN COULD DO WITH THE MONEY" (or whatever)
But then we have a client with over 1,000,000 ounces of platinum, buried on his farm, he is 98, and wont sell. I can imagine the family with metal detectors fighting over it when he passes  - scary.
I think as you get older you become more fussy and refine your collection, for me, my personal stuff, fits in one suitcase, the rest is for sale (or in frames.

[CineMasterpieces]

1.7 billion in platinum?

so where is this farm? 

[Bruce]

I have dealt with more movie paper collectors than ANYONE else. I can't tell you the number of times someone has said to me, "I am never going to sell anything", and that is one of the great lies, like "The check is in the mail", or "I'm married, but we're getting a divorce" or some unprintable ones!

I can count maybe 20 guys who still collect actively who started buying from me in 1990, and maybe 100 more who left this mortal coil with their collections untouched.

The rest followed the pattern I outlined above.

Bruce

P.S. No doubt Jeanie would delete this post as a disguised "for sale" post, if she still had a working computer.

[CineMasterpieces]

I've personally been collecting on and off since the 70's. Many of our customers at CineMasterpieces.com are long time collectors. 

[holiday]

I see myself ratcheting down to the core of what I really love.  After 7 years of collecting, now, I'm already moving towards that goal.  Similarly, I've collected modern first edition books for the better part of 17 years, and I presently have about 50 or so in my collection, down from about 2000 at its peak.  But I'll tell you this -- when I look at those shelves, the books that have made it to that final 50 really say something about me as a collector, and I think that's the whole point.

I only know at this point that my two really-loved areas of collecting are clearly Japanese and Advertising posters.  There's a few in other categories that are keepers, but buy and large I've begun to focus on those two areas.  Even so, believe it or not, I think I will end up collecting only advertising posters, keeping only a few handfuls of the Japanese material that I really love.  And, believe it or not, most if not all of that Japanese material would be that from the 70s and earlier, like the two-panel I have for The Diary of Anne Frank.

The joy is truly in the journey, though, and I'm glad that I can enjoy that journey taking some experience from the first round I went through with the first edition books.

[Ari]

I often say to customers, who complain that we don’t have the particular items they need to complete their set.
“IT’S THE THRILL OF THE CHASE, IF YOU COULD WALK IN AND BUY EVERYTHING YOU WANT IN ONE GO, YOUD PROBABLY SELL IT SOON AFTER”
Collectors love hunting, gathering, seeking, sniping,

[paul waines]

And making deals OFF Ebay......Oops..

[ddilts399]

I have kind of been through the cycle on sports cards and comics. Sports cards turned their market into a lottery to try and get chase cards and everything else being worthless, so I quit that one. Comics; the CGC joke started to turn me off on the back issue market, then the way the publishers kick out trade paperbacks completely turned me off. I still buy new comics, but havent bought a back issue in years now and I will not spend a nickel on a trade.

Posters are my remaining hobby; I don't forsee a slowdown anytime soon, but who knows...

I still havent dumped a collection though. I am in the "wait till I am gone then do as you please" boat right now.

[easyenders]

in bruces's life cycle i'm 3/4.....and hopefully at the next stage 5(a)

[brude]

I am a lifelong collector. Started as a 10-year-old, inspired by Forry Ackerman.
When I hit puberty, the ladies looked a lot better than my posters and I traded and sold a lot of classics.
In 1973, The Exorcist drew me back to the hobby. 
In 1975, Jaws reinforced it.
In 1977, Star Wars sealed my doom. That year-long poster campaign was the shit.
In 2000, I joined Ebay.  I would've joined sooner, but I knew what was going to happen.  It was going to bleed my bank account dry.

Luckily for me and my collection, my three kids love the hobby and I think they will keep everything I leave them.
The oldest already has more posters hanging than his dad.  Go figger.
I have asked them to have my One Million Years BC one sheet rolled up under my pants leg when they bury me.
It was my first and still gives me wood.
 

[easyenders]

In 1973, The Exorcist drew me back to the hobby. 
In 1975, Jaws reinforced it.

pleased i never went out with your girlfriends 

[CSM]

I am a lifelong collector. Started as a 10-year-old, inspired by Forry Ackerman.
When I hit puberty, the ladies looked a lot better than my posters and I traded and sold a lot of classics.
In 1973, The Exorcist drew me back to the hobby. 
In 1975, Jaws reinforced it.
In 1977, Star Wars sealed my doom. That year-long poster campaign was the shit.
In 2000, I joined Ebay.  I would've joined sooner, but I knew what was going to happen.  It was going to bleed my bank account dry.

Luckily for me and my collection, my three kids love the hobby and I think they will keep everything I leave them.
The oldest already has more posters hanging than his dad.  Go figger.
I have asked them to have my One Million Years BC one sheet rolled up under my pants leg when they bury me.
It was my first and still gives me wood.
 

Great post Brude

[brude]

                                                                    Thanks, Chris.  It is a sordid tale
                                                                   of lust and danger surrounded by an
                                                                              ever-threatening
                                                                         avalanche of ephemera!

                                                               

[Dr Hackenbush]

I have kind of been through the cycle on sports cards and comics. Sports cards turned their market into a lottery to try and get chase cards and everything else being worthless, so I quit that one. Comics; the CGC joke started to turn me off on the back issue market, then the way the publishers kick out trade paperbacks completely turned me off. I still buy new comics, but havent bought a back issue in years now and I will not spend a nickel on a trade.

Posters are my remaining hobby; I don't forsee a slowdown anytime soon, but who knows...

I still havent dumped a collection though. I am in the "wait till I am gone then do as you please" boat right now.

Why don't you like trades?