Looking for some advice selling an Avatar lenticular

[Disheveledamethyst]

A colleague of mine is wanting to sell his lenticular Avatar poster. He's asking for my help and will give me a cut for a successful sale.

However, I've only ever done poster business on eBay and he's never done any business at all. With something this potentially valuable and volatile ($400-$1,200 is a big gap) we're not sure how to go about selling it for its maximum value. We're not looking to break any records here for receiving the highest recorded bids, but we do want to ensure we end up on the northern end of the price range.

What is the best way to go about this? Should we simply list the item on eBay for what we want and see if anybody bids? Should we attempt to sell it somewhere more exclusive? All of my poster excursions have been modest and I've never sold movie memorabilia worth more than $70 so this is sort of a big step.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

[eatbrie]

It's a tough one.  I think you guys are a little late.  You could have sold it in November 2009 for $600-800.  Now, I don't know.  The main problem is that it looks exactly like the advance, and the lenticular effect is not that great.  The main problem with lenticulars is that most of them drop value by half a few months after the movie's release.  Very few hold their values.  I'd think that the Jurassic Park: Lost World is still worth something, mainly because the Dino design is cool, the NBC is probably the most expensive of them all, but the rest, like Spidey, Men in Black 2, The Day After Tomorrow, Lilo and Stich, Monster House, and unfortunately Avatar, has dropped considerably.  I may be wrong, but $300-400 seems to be the most right now.  If you guys want to try your luck, I'll put it on Ebay at a $600 starting price and see if anyone bites.

T

[Disheveledamethyst]

I brought the value of the poster to his attention when I saw this:



The poster that sold for $1,000+ was only five days ago and had twenty bids before the auction ended, meaning there's at least one (probably more) collectors out there who were willing to pay over a thousand dollars who DIDN'T get the poster they wanted.

I don't have a lot of experience, but I do try to keep myself educated, and this seems like it could be a perfect storm. There don't seem to be any others currently listed on eBay or eMovieposter either, so there's a good chance his may be the only one on the market at the moment. However briefly.

Edit: Unless of course the seller was driving up their own price and there's one Na'vi freak out there who HAD TO HAVE IT.

[eatbrie]

Really?  Interesting.  John (Aslanentertainment) is a close friend of mine.  He actually lives a couple of blocks away.  I'm going to shoot him an email to congratulate him.  It's a great price.

And I guess I was completely wrong.  I'm baffled by the amount of money people would spend on some stuff.  Baffled.

T

[Disheveledamethyst]

Truly incredible, isn't it?

I remember when the lenticular first came off the wall at my theatre. When my friend took it down he commented on how it was a depressingly boring poster but was going to take it home because it will "probably be worth something". I wasn't high enough on the employee chain at the time to get anything Avatar, but I remember thinking nobody would ever buy that thing and I wouldn't take it even if I could.

Looks like we were both wrong.

He's been using it as a weight to weigh down and flatten his collection ten or so posters at a time. That's one valuable paper weight.

[eatbrie]

Ah!  I just emailed him and he was like, "Dude, that was a year ago!"  I misread it.  I thought it just happened.  I'm losing it tonight.  I should not go on the forum when the Lakers are playing.  A little too distracted

T

PS: Which goes back to what I was saying earlier.  That lenticular sold at the height of the Avatar craze.

[Disheveledamethyst]

Oh, well, that's an important detail... It's 2011 now, not 2010.

Good talk.

[CJ138]

If I were trying to sell something potentially worth this much I would probably try to go through Bruce (emovieposter.com) OR I would be sure to set a reserve on ebay.  Just my opinion.

Conor

[CineMasterpieces]

http://www.cinemasterpieces.com/consignment.htm#dfg

[Neo]

Personally, I've never bought or consigned anything from/with Heritage, but you might want to suggest him looking at Heritage.  I almost posted in the "post auction..." thread about an Avatar lenticular that sold there recently for over $1,500.

[eatbrie]

Give it to Bruce, then.  We all trust him and he doesn't charge zillions of $$$ like Heritage does.

[MoviePosterBid.com]

I brought the value of the poster to his attention when I saw this:



The poster that sold for $1,000+ was only five days ago and had twenty bids before the auction ended, meaning there's at least one (probably more) collectors out there who were willing to pay over a thousand dollars who DIDN'T get the poster they wanted.

I don't have a lot of experience, but I do try to keep myself educated, and this seems like it could be a perfect storm. There don't seem to be any others currently listed on eBay or eMovieposter either, so there's a good chance his may be the only one on the market at the moment. However briefly.

Edit: Unless of course the seller was driving up their own price and there's one Na'vi freak out there who HAD TO HAVE IT.

that's 2010 buddy

[Disheveledamethyst]

that's 2010 buddy

Yeah, I figured that out after I made the thread when Thierry called John to congratulate him only to be told it happened a year ago. Felt pretty dumb. I saw another picture that went for over $1,000 in November 2010 though, which was only four months ago.

I'm not expecting or even pushing to get that much money, it was just the picture I saw that made him/us want to sell it.

[MoviePosterBid.com]

you've gotten pretty good advice in this thread so far.. the best time has passed by, but it's still going to get something good.. just not $1000 anymore

[Disheveledamethyst]

Again, I'm not expecting a thousand, but the more I sell it for the larger my cut will be.
I might wind up going through eBay just because eBay will only take $50 as opposed to 20-25%. Plus it seems to sell fine on eBay. It's just a less focused market. While I might get more for it on one of the consignment sites, the fee would knock it down to what I hope to get on eBay, so I might as well go with what I'm familiar with.

But if that doesn't work, which it very well may not, I'll go for the more dedicated method.

[MoviePosterBid.com]

I recommend that you read this post

http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,1915.0.html

[erik1925]

Here's an Ebay listing that ended just 7 days ago on 2.17.  It had no bidders/buyers at this reduced price. The same seller had it listed previously, 2 weeks earlier, with an opening bid of $800.00 or a BIN of $1,500.00.

[Bruce]

Does eBay still take $50 out of $1000? Wasn't that about ten fee increases ago?

 

Bruce

[Disheveledamethyst]

Does eBay still take $50 out of $1000? Wasn't that about ten fee increases ago?

 

Bruce

eBay takes 8-9% depending on the category but caps it at $50.00.

[Disheveledamethyst]

Here's an Ebay listing that ended just 7 days ago on 2.17.  It had no bidders/buyers at this reduced price. The same seller had it listed previously, 2 weeks earlier, with an opening bid of $800.00 or a BIN of $1,500.00.

This is also very discouraging.

[holiday]

If you can, I'd wait until Avatar 2 comes out or there is some other event that reinvigorates interest in the lenticular.

[eatbrie]

I agree.  When Avatar 2 comes out, your Avatar 1 will sell north of 1k, guaranteed.  Maybe even much more.

T

[MoviePosterBid.com]

This is also very discouraging.

why is it discouraging? that something your friend got for free is only worth a few hundred instead of a new Mercedes? Why should that be discouraging? Free money isn't just as good as real money?

this is the same thing that happens with lots of new stuff.. It sell for 3 weeks and then it dies a quick death. Interest may increase when Avatar 2 comes out, but I wouldn't expect it. You could get another disappointment then.

[Disheveledamethyst]

why is it discouraging? that something your friend got for free is only worth a few hundred instead of a new Mercedes? Why should that be discouraging? Free money isn't just as good as real money?

this is the same thing that happens with lots of new stuff.. It sell for 3 weeks and then it dies a quick death. Interest may increase when Avatar 2 comes out, but I wouldn't expect it. You could get another disappointment then.

You misread me. It's not discouraging because it's not worth a thousand dollars, it's discouraging because it didn't sell at all. It's also much more difficult to sell if there's somebody else trying just as hard to sell the same thing.

[holiday]

Why not keep it and enjoy it.  A lenticular for the #1 grossing movie in history is not a bad thing to have, and it's a pretty good lenticular to boot.