Andy,
They don't have vast amounts of disposable income per person, not
compared to America and Europe. And that's the key to collecting
stuff, lots of disposable income that you don't have to use to live
on. I'm not saying there are no collectors in the 3rd world, but the
number must be very small compared to America and Europe (and places
like Australia and Japan).
The actual sales we see taking place on eBay (sales, not listings that
don't sell), the various auctions and best-guesses for private
sellers, based on what they say in public, indicates to me that not
much more than 100,000 movie posters are sold on average per year.
Subtract at least 20,000 from that number for the occasional buyer who
usually purchases a poster for a new film (but likely doesn't keep it
more than a year or two before moving on to something else) and that
leaves 80,000 going into the hands of "collectors" (based on the 4 or
more per year definition). That would mean 20,000 "collectors" --
except that a lot of collectors buy a *whole lot* more than 4 per
year. So, I have to conclude that the best guess would be a maximum of
10,000 active collectors at any given time.
If there were anything close to 100,000 active collectors out there,
we would see a whole lot more posters being sold.
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Andy Neal <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*To:* MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU <mailto:MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
*Sent:* Friday, December 16, 2005 4:33
*Subject:* Re: [MOPO] How many poster collectors are there?
JR
China, India and Europe are not 3rd world countries, they have Vasts
amounts
of wealth!!!!!
World 6,446,131,400
China 1,306,313,812
India 1,080,264,388
European Union 456,953,258
United States 295,734,134
So what you are saying doesn't really make sense and therefore I have
every
reason to have an opinion based on world population.
As i said this is my opinion
Thanks
Andy
----Original Message Follows----
From: JR <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
Reply-To: JR <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU <mailto:MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
Subject: Re: [MOPO] How many poster collectors are there?
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 18:18:49 -0500
No way. The nearly 7 billion people live mostly in the impoverished 3rd
world -- they don't money to live on, much less spend on movie
posters. You
can't use the world population as a guide. The only practical approach
is to
go with the evaluations of long-time dealers -- they are the ones with the
best feel for the market. I'd guess somewhere between Bruce's 5,000 and an
upper estimate of 10,000 collectors are active at any given time (meaning
those who buy at least 4 posters a year). Of course, people drift in
and out
of collecting. I've drifted in and out 4 times in the past 40 years,
sometimes staying away for as long as 10 years. But I think if there were
more than 10,000 currently active buyers that we'd see a lot more
sales. At
4 per year, that's a minimum 40,000 posters sold just to "collectors" --
with the number probably closed to 60,000 - 80,000 a year (since 4 per
year
would be a minimum and many collectors do much more than that). Then there
are at least another 20,000 "contemporary" posters sold to casual
buyers who
just want to have a poster or two from their current favorite films to
display. So, that's 60,000 to 100,000 posters sold a year -- about what I
seem to see changing hands on eBay and other auctions, plus factoring in
some private selling. Of course, we have no real way of gauging how much
private selling is going on.
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
From: Andy Neal
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU <mailto:MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 4:49
Subject: Re: [MOPO] How many poster collectors are there?
I think David is the warmest to the figures mentioned so far....
The World population is approx 6.4 Billion
I would estimate at least 50,000+ serious and casual collectors.
If I had to put a bet on it, I would say more like 100,000. You only
have to
look on ebay to see how many dealers and the number they are trading in -
Their feedback scores are a giveaway.
I am certain there are many many collectors (serious and casual) that need
to come out of their shell, many won't like using mailing lists or forums,
or just may not know about them.
I'm not claiming to know something that everyone else doesn't here,
this is
just my humble opinion and this is purely food for thought.
I would be interested in seeing ebays stats on individual original movie
poster purchases.
This is an interesting link on the CIA website regarding world
populations....
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html
Thanks
Andy
----Original Message Follows----
From: David Lieberman <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU <mailto:MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
Subject: Re: [MOPO] How many poster collectors are there?
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 18:41:23 EST
I'd say 10,000 at least. Probably more like 20,000, or even much more.
Might as well ask how many licks it takes to get to the center of a
tootsie
roll tootsie pop.
The world will never know.
David Lieberman
CineMasterpieces.com
602 309 0500
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
<http://www.filmfan.com>
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