Most people know I dont care much for movies - I rarely see a movie. The posters I collect are for the art. I dont like the folds in my art. Apart from the parasite on rats posters I collect (Mex lobbies), I also collect a lot of large multisheet posters - 6 sht, 3sht, 4F. If I had the $, I'd back all those multi sheets.
I'd add an additional point to Rich's list
#11 linenbacking is used for conservation
Have you ripped a poster? I have... In hindsight I'd have preferred the poster on linen in one piece than having a gut wrenching rip thru it. Not saying back every poster to prevent rips, but you could back some of your fav's.
It also protects from further foxing on the folds (he says clutching at straws)
Actually I'll add another one
#12 more likely to be displayed
They handle better and is easier to pin to a wall. Also folds removed looks better to me and the average visitor.
Also note often backing things in 2 or more pieces the art doesn't match up.
Saw a bad example of this once.
I suspect displaying a
folded multi piece posters is more likely to be misaligned than a backed one, unless they are pressed flat and joined closely together (ie stick pin holes in them under tension or tape them aka Mel). If held under friction they likely will just drop. Yeah, backing is likely to cause some misalignment as it is comes down to the skill of the backer - using timers accurately/accounting for the paper grain direction, patience... but most misalignments can be easily hidden with watersoluable pencil touchup. The bigger problem to me is color mismatch between panels which is independent of backing or not.
To me a backed folded poster looks fantastic!
I buy posters for me to enjoy, not planning ahead for their resale value. Impact on resale value to me of a backed poster is not significant enough for me to worry about.
P.S. Would I back every poster? No!...
Just every folded poster (haha)