Great post Tob. And very much on point. Been in fine art forums for 10 years and plus and you are right (not mondo, real fine art; banksy and al). I know you speak mostly of the Mondo - Expressobeans collectors which is different than fine art collectors... below some remarks but more related to fine art...
- They see the prints as an 'artisan' product - Totally right, they see it as artisan/designer print even it is a giclée. They prefer lithography though but as long as it is limited, they will buy anything, even ugly glicée. Ironically, as you said, they see movie posters are commercial mass products; they like to make remark like "dude, this is commercial mass product". Bit condescending!
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Thriving aftermarket - Crazy isn't but that's how things work. It is limited so all theses dad-kiddies with business/marketing diploma are spending daddy's money on fine art, sneakers, vinyl, clothes, etc. in fact pretty much everything as long it is limited and has market value. Old collectors or professional such as galerists are much more selective in what they buy and indeed often sell few canvas at fair price to gather money for their graal piece
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Strong community - Indeed there is a very strong community and quite nice I am gonna say, lot of swap or items sold at cost, giveaways, etc. but things turned nasty some years ago with new players arriving and buying anything (many using robots/tools, just like they do with concert tickets or sport tickets) and putting it on Ebay or reselling it. oddly, I left the fine art world because I fail to justify prices of fine art released by artists, tired of dealing with Ebay kiddies and really dislike their over-pretentious attitude, (go tell them street art is an underground form of art for the mass) and decided to move to poster collecting as posters are cheap and I thought people would more friendly; but then as you said, I realised competitions and individualism is high here.
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The forces that affect market prices are clear - Sure, forces and biases are well known... Nonetheless, the main force here what you mentioned above, the community, meaning all the Instagram and social network pushers who are constantly promoting artists they like or they own, saying it is the big thing, hoping for a newbie to catch the bait. The forces is that all parties are happy on how things are going, blowing the bubble is great; artists can sell at higher price, stock in gallery are inflated, kiddies can make quick cash. Worst I have seen is Invader who inflated his prices by 300% in two weeks (after the Hong Kong show), map I bought at 50$ from an honest collector sold at 1,200$ the next day. Fine art has become a commodity, only the name tag counts.
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The 'freshness' of the new creations - Kind of addiction, isn't it? People constantly in forum or in FB groups and being "brainwashed" by other ("I need it", "Top print", "This is killer", etc.) and gossiping about limited edition, APs, etc. and possible values... to a point, they also fall for the "It's limited, hard to get, I must get one". Too many people buying prints to then say a week after that they don't want it (it's a giclée, it's small, wife doesn't like)... but why did you buy it initially dude?
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Price - So true again, investing in prints is normally a no, fine art print are "toys" for fine art collectors who normally prefer canvas. This said, prints is great way for artist to make their work affordable (although some have crazy price) and it's extra breadcrumbs of the artists; also it entertains the collectors, gallerist, etc. and occupy media space. This said, totally agree, getting prints from source is not easy but possible and if you get, you are guaranteed to make small benefits on it (unless you really bought crap)
- They're unaware of the wealth of great art in the theatrical poster hobby. They perhaps don't care about the history associated with a theatrical poster - Yes, they are. New generation. Do you really expect the Kardashian generation to care about precode movies or old movies? Most of them don't give a f*ck, they want fake and bling bling!
In a forum, people are "fighting" for the latest Kaws or Brantley or latest artist who Spongebob with Dark Vader clothes and Donald Buck mouth (there is a trend currently of artists doing mashup of TV/film icons) and yet, I tell them while fighting for a 2000$ print of Spongebob if you can get original cels of season 1 for less than 200$? I shall end this post with a great article, explaining that we are now facing an highly narcissistic period (social network doesn't help) and art produced nowadays is decadent, it is all about being seen, mannerism and provide instant sentimental satisfaction to the buyer... the parallel with the Rococo period is so on point... and that in few decades, many of these prints and artists will be seen as the dustbin of art history -
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/why-is-modern-art-so-badI guess with Mondo or music concert poster, the good thing is that is does both, it speaks to us (the movie being a classic, or the actor) and there is always a story behind the art (you can talk about the movie, etc.) which is much harder with fine art where it's more about showing off and being pretentious.
I agree with you about them being art fans or fans of a certain artist. I don't think there's a huge amount of cross over, but it's growing a little bit. There seems to be a recent trend for releasing screen prints of original posters - Bob Gleason's Halloween, a few of Struzan's posters, Barry Jackson's Escape from NY design etc, so perhaps that'll open the door a bit for cross-over into theatrical posters?
I think it's an interesting topic - of those thousands of collectors who collect prints...how many would be in the theatrical hobby if the print hobby didn't exist? They do love films and film art on paper. Is it important that younger collectors come into the theatrical collecting hobby or do we not care? It's hard to really know as there isn't much visibility due to being able to quietly go about your collecting on the internet...perhaps the number of young collectors in the theatrical poster hobby is the same today as it always has been?
Below is a copy and paste of some jumbled thoughts I posted on another forum on why I think the print collecting hobby seems popular with the younger collectors...
- They see the prints as an 'artisan' product - limited editions, created by an artist and screen printed to give it some individuality/personality...as opposed to mass produced advertising. For the films that they relate to (70s/80s onwards), they see some of the original posters as photoshop junk created the faceless studio.
- There is a thriving aftermarket of trading and selling which many collectors enjoy. Buying new releases to sell/trade up to acquire older grail pieces is part of the fun to some of the collectors.
- There is a strong community - gallery shows and conferences for meet ups, collectors helping each other out over the internet and in Facebook groups. The artists mingle with the collectors and communicate directly, even to the point of feeding into creative decisions. The galleries are very good at engaging with the collectors and making them feel valued. There's a social element to the hobby, where as theatrical poster collecting seems more individual (competitive?)
- The forces that affect market prices are clear - supply is controlled as the editions are limited, so demand is driven by the property, the image, the artist name/reputation, the gallery, the size of the run. Expresso Beans website also tracks sales on eBay and allows for buyers to feel confident that they're not getting ripped off when buying a print on the secondary market as there's a history of sales for that print. It feels more transparent to them than trying to figure out a fair price for an original poster with a couple of sales at auction houses in the last few years.
- The 'freshness' of the new creations - we all know what a Jaws one sheet looks like, but the thrill of seeing a good alternative movie poster and a different perspective on a well loved film is addictive to these collectors. The artists in the print scene have different styles, so the fans want artist A to do Jaws, then wonder what artist B and C will do with Jaws. There is always something new for a much loved film around the corner.
- There are currently no worries about fakes/bootlegs
- Being able to buy at source for a low price, then seeing the value on the aftermarket potentially shoot up. The attraction of your hobby feeling like an investment (even if this is dangerous and a bit daft).
- The prices are about right for the level of disposable income that these collectors have. At that age, they're not going to be shopping at Heritage. $60 on a new release, or saving up to buy more expensive prints on the secondary market is affordable to them and acquiring the prints they want is challenging, but not impossible. If they like Uni Horror, they can collect officially licensed pieces with very nice artwork...the original poster market for Uni Horror is not really open to them (as a slightly extreme example)
- They're unaware of the wealth of great art in the theatrical poster hobby. They perhaps don't care about the history associated with a theatrical poster
