Dan

It's depressing to see so many of these Jurassic Park prints already on ebay. It's to be expected with this kind of thing, but still. Savages.

candyrocket786

I wonder how many of those are Mondo employees or have connections?

It's amazing how fast these auctions go up.

MBoyd

I can guarantee its not Mondo/Alamo employees. They keep the potential scalping locked down. A couple of people were fired last year for it.

BambooLounge

I still don't get this sentiment that is rampant all over dvd/collector forums. Why not curse Mondo for pricing the posters initially at a price over that, which it costs to make and license them?

It especially cracks me up how in a down economy people are so ready to begrudge others trying to make some money in a perfectly legal way.

Did I want one of these prints? Yes. Did I get one? No. It happens, if I wanted it bad enough, I would've tried to snag one on eBay, but I just don't want it enough to pay a premium (I paid one back when I missed Moss' Godfather Part II and On the Waterfront prints).

If you want one bad enough, then pay the market price, if not, then fine, that is your choice to make. But, this silliness about bashing people for trying to make money is ridiculous. These prints are limited edition print runs of artwork. Is every person who has ever bought and resold anything for a profit a "savage?"

auto

You must love scalpers.

BambooLounge

If I really want a ticket last minute and have extra cash to pay for it, you bet I do.

I do not care if people buy something then re-sell it for a profit. Call me a crazy capitalist, but people making a profit does not offend my moral sensibilities. Markets set prices, especially in the reselling market and the market for limited amount items. If you do not want to pay the market price, then exit the market. If I walk into Best Buy and find their price for a Blu-ray to be obscene, I don't bitch and moan about their mark-up, I leave without buying that particular item and hope to find it for a cheaper price elsewhere b/c I know that that price is not representative of the market and it can be had cheaper.

Maybe collectors just happen to all be non-capitalists or something, but I just cannot comprehend the silly hating on people who make a profit. It is not like someone hacked the site and bought every single poster to resell. Everyone played by the same rules, some people kept theirs and who knows for how long, maybe they get bored of looking at it and they throw it on eBay or trade it. Others just went to eBay right away, big deal.

candyrocket786

You think posters that double, triple their value within minutes of selling out is representative of the market?

I call it bullshit.

Hell... you don't even see that crap in the comic/statue/toy collectible market. Sure maybe in 4-6 months, but the way the edition sizes on these posters are exploited is down right disgusting.

Dan

scalpers are savages. These ebay resellers are no different. Just my opinion.

JordanGLC

Thanks. They did one for King Kong in 2008. I can't say I'm impressed. I'm guessing it's for the 1933 film and if so they should have made Kong look like he does in the film.

I do like their The Valley of Gwangi poster.

Josh-da-man

But Mondo encourages this behavior by issuing the posters in such limited quantities. When you see demand outstrip supply, the price goes up. It's not that different from people selling super-rare Beanie Babies for thousands of dollars.

superfro

I'm with you sir. I don't get it either. Well...I do get it. I mean it's just because someone wants something for "retail" and not at the after market price. So I do GET it, but I don't understand why people continue to bitch about it. As you said, it's completely set by the people actually purchasing the items aftermarket at those inflated prices. If they didn't, the problem wouldn't exist.

Also, if it wasn't for the limited nature, desirability, and buzz that these releases generate there wouldn't be a thriving community for them that we have currently. "Value" factors heavily into that. And if you're going to have anything associated with "value" there's always going to be an element of the public that will be using that for "profit".

And specifically how would this situation sit with folks? I missed out on the Olly Moss Werewolf prints. What if I bought a JP print today (I didn't), "flipped it" for $200, and used that money to buy a Werewolf print on the secondary market? Am I a bad person for selling the print to a guy that missed out on the sale today and wouldn't have one normally but is obviously ok with paying $200 for it? Is the guy I'm buying the Werewolf print from a bad guy for maybe doing the exact same thing?

I guess I just view anyone complaining about the secondary market of collectible stuff to be mostly sour grapes because they missed out on something. It's a collectible world. This will always be the case.

Josh-da-man

They are running the risk of creating a bubble. People are buying these things up just because they're (currently) desirable and highly limited in availability. See Beanie Babies, variant cover comic books, "chase" trading cards, and other manufactured collectibles.

superfro

Completely. All of that shit is cyclical. It will burst for sure. And when it does, the sheer amount of stuff that's out there and being made will be scaled back as well.

BambooLounge

Why would everything be scaled back? If so many people want these and miss out then bitch about the second-hand market, won't the releases still sell out, but just not to re-sellers. I highly doubt people are buying off eBay to yet again resell. And most posters sell out even on eBay. The real problem would be if Mondo and other print makers began to ramp up the print runs, thus ruining the collectibility of these prints, which may kill the 2nd hand market, but would likely also ruin the retail market because many people buy this prints because they are limited editions.

arminius

I think the only people who buy these because of their limited edition status are those who want to resell them. The people who buy them to keep would not care if there were 10 or 10,000 produced. They just like the way they look. It would not ruin collectibility for those who want them, only to those who want to resell them.

MBoyd

Ok but were any beanie babies ever available in only editions of 200-400 and at one single store somewhere in the country?

BambooLounge

I beg to differ, the cache around these prints is there limited availability, which is why there is a collector's market for them and people trade them. But, if that is your position then you should just complain that Mondo does not mass produce these prints. That would kill their resale value right there.

Yet, most people don't just want to frame and hang run of the mill posters on their walls. Some of the appeal for some people, as with all art, is that the particular work they own is not and cannot be on display in thousands or millions of other homes.

Again, these are limited works, so there will always be a resale market, be it out of print DVDs, tickets to sporting events, etc. I just think as another pointed out, it is simply sour grapes that people missed out on the prints and don't want to pay the market price.

Dan

I actually agree! I hoped that this specific run would only be a couple hundred more copies (say 500 or 600 total), but I completely understand why Mondo keeps the numbers down; both for the collectible factor and the logistics of trying to print and distribute so many posters.

I still think the resellers are smelly stupid jerks, but I "get" it. I just don't have to like what they're doing.

Navinabob

What most people don't get is that there is licensing issues to consider as well. They usually have to negotiate how many they are allowed to print and sell. Lucas Arts was very involved in exactly how many they could make... if they wanted to print 2,000 of Stouts prints they would have to charge significantly higher for the prints. Would people pay more for a print that is less collectable? They only way that they could lower the price of the print is if they mass produced them. The only ways retail stores would carry them is if they lowered the selling price, then Mondo would cut down on the manufacturing cost by killing the screen printing and go to standard printing...

Basically... if everyone could buy one, nobody seriously would want one.

candyrocket786

Hell no!

That was fad was the product of hype and greedy retailers.

candyrocket786

They could always reissue.

That's seems to be Hot Toys answer to scalpers. Most of their figures have crazy secondary market prices a few months after they hit stores (nothing like this eBay shit within minutes of pre-order).

Since Hot Toys wants a piece of that pie, they decided to reissue "improved" versions of previous releases.

...and you know what? Collectors are still buying their shit (including me).

candyrocket786

You've pretty much proved Arminius' point regarding resellers as Mondo's target customer.

Shit... other folks and I spend money on replicas with set and open edition sizes all the time. Look at the number of dealers that specialize replica movie posters.

Hell, I spent $700 on this (at the time it was Open ES). In the end, Sideshow made about 1500 because of some paint issues. Did I care that 1499 other people had the same damn bust as me. Fuck no! Why? Because it's simply a badass display. Guess what, Sideshow later released a "Battle Damaged Version" with an open ES. Once again, did I care? Hell no.

BambooLounge

It is not their target customer, but merely the reasoning behind the popularity of their prints. I mean, look around the net for prints without print runs and they do not sell for very much. Mondo created a name for itself by being first on the scene and by creating a feeding frenzy atmosphere around its releases. A lot of people, not just re-sellers, buy because they know that the release will sell out within minutes.

I am sure there are collectors out there that get a thrill from the Mondo drop process and "scoring one." And yes, many people sell replica movie posters, but such posters are generally looked down upon by people that collect vintage movie posters b/c to them they are simply "fakes."

But, the larger point in all of this was to get people to see that there is no reason to bad mouth the re-sellers themselves. If you are frustrated that you cannot score a poster on drop day, then blame Mondo's business model or the collector's market for these posters itself. But, the resellers are not some sort of evil cabal, they are merely participating in the market, which is perfectly fine.

Kory

That Iron Man bust is fucking amazing.

Geofferson

Agreed. It's hanging on my wall. :-)