This last Cinevent showed that the hotel is being refurbished - the new owners are investing but it's like any business they will want a guarantee and in the hotel business that sort of thing happens at airports and major cities not out in the boonies. The standard is not that bad...I have stayed in worse places!
This Never Happened to the Other Fella.... Adrian Cowdry jboh...@aol.com -----Original Message----- From: Franc <fdav...@verizon.net> To: MoPo-L <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> Sent: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 19:46 Subject: Re: [MOPO] Ray Court and other fairs - from over the pond. My biggest fear I connection with the Columbus show is that one day without a moment’s notice that hotel will be condemned by the city and suddenly Steve will have no place to hold the show. The hotel is that disgusting. FRANC From: MoPo List [mailto:mopo-l@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU] On Behalf Of peter contarino Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 9:36 AM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: [MOPO] Ray Court and other fairs - from over the pond. That is a good question Bruce. I was not even aware of it. Regarding the Cinevent show in Columbus I will have to side with Adrian on that one. We all know the hotel is horrendous but the show itself is tolerable only because I get to see friends and do some buying in person(as Frank points out). Unfortunately, the dealers seem to be outnumbering the poster buyers. In fact, most of the commerce happens between dealers. There is less and less incentive in getting a table as most of the sales are out of the dealer’s actual hotel rooms. I still get a table to support the show. This year the number of dealers was down. You will hear that attendance was great, etc but most of the attendees watch movies(I assume, they certainly are not spending money). This is a real shame because there is good material there. I realize it is a thankless and not a particularly lucrative effort to put on this show and I appreciate Steve’s commitment to it. That said, it has the appearance of being on auto-pilot, which is to say that there have been no improvements/enhancements in quite some time. The hotel continues to give way to entropy, the dealers are dropping out(the largest volume seller in the world doesn’t even bother to make an appearance), the customers are not buying and the auction is akin to the Bataan death march. It is held all day Saturday, which is the biggest sales day for dealers. The auction should be a premier event that draws attendees to the show, not an event that draws whatever poster collectors attending the show away from the dealer’s room(s). So I will applaud anyone who is trying to revive shows. I would love to see that happen. From: MoPo List [mailto:mopo-l@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU] On Behalf Of Adrian Cowdry Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 3:04 AM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: [MOPO] Ray Court and other fairs - from over the pond. From Over the pond.... The London Westminster fair is the most well established fair in the UK for movie memorabilia - there are a slew of other conventions that take in more than just movie memorabilia (comics, toys etc) - however the London film fair is fast becoming a signing fair with the emphasis on celebs signing autographs. Talk to the dealers and there is disappointment as the attendees are more interested in meeting the celebs and getting their autographs. It is extremely tough to get a good mix with a smaller event. The bigger events bring in bigger crowds - not necessarily there to spend money. But the dealers will not complain if there is a good amount of attendees. At the end of September we had the Paris film fair which is turning very much into a Columbus type event where dealers meet to buy and trade. This year the attendees were down - there was plenty of inter dealing but again the comments from the dealers were negative concerning the amount of attendees and it was very obvious that there were a few dealers missing - the price of the table and time taken can be restrictive with little return. It has to be said that bargains were available - dealers were making reductions when being bartered. The Paris fair is a tough call - the attendees like to hunt and rummage but do not spend on higher end items now. The one thing I can say is that most collectors do still like to attend a fair and feel the quality so to speak - however many collectors now have what they want or cannot afford the big items - from my generation examples would be Hammer Collectors and Bond as well as McQueen etc. They have been collecting now for the past 30 years or so and have a reasonably complete collection - Those who collect Universal Monsters and the like are very wealthy now and can afford the pocket change that a poster will cost. Few fresh new blood is not coming to the hobby - the collecting avenue for such people lie elsewhere such as Manga and Anime, Game of Thrones etc. This Never Happened to the Other Fella.... Adrian Cowdry jboh...@aol.com -----Original Message----- From: Franc m <fdav...@verizon.net> To: MoPo-L <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> Sent: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 7:09 Subject: Re: [MOPO] How was the revived Ray Courts Show last weekend? I attended. It was a good first show. Ray rounded up a solid celebrity list and most of the usual dealers were present. Based on the e-mail Ray sent out after the show, he realizes he still has some work to do to get the show back up to the level he had achieved before he sold it. His last e-mail indicated that he's negotiating dates with the Burbank Marriott. As for Columbus, I've attended consistently over the last ten years, and it's still a terrific show. As a dealer, I would never miss it. Granted the hotel is the absolute pits end but I gave up on staying there a long time ago before it descended into its current condemned state. Buying and selling at this show offers an opportunity that the Internet simply does not. You actually get to meet people with the same unique passion as your own. I'd never miss this one. I'm a little less fond of The Hollywood Show which is terrific as an autograph show but less so as a movie paper event. I detest the endless maze at the parking lot at the Loews Hotel, so going forward I only plan to attend the Westin shows at LAX airport. Franc Martarella Sent from my iPad On Oct 7, 2014, at 5:14 PM, Bruce Hershenson <brucehershen...@gmail.com> wrote: I had feared that collectibles shows are not what they once were, and I doubted the wisdom of starting a new one, but when I heard that the Ray Courts show was being revived, I figured it had a great chance of being a major success, because the last ones I went to a decade or more ago were packed with people. How did it go? When is the next one? -- Bruce Hershenson and the other 29 members of the eMoviePoster.com team P.O. Box 874 West Plains, MO 65775 Phone: 417-256-9616 (hours: Mon-Fri 9 to 5 except from 12 to 1 when we take lunch) our site our auctions Complete Buyer Protection - No time limit on our guarantees & NO buyer beware Hershenson Help Hotline - Direct line to Bruce (our owner!) for urgent problems Also, please read the following three pages of in-depth Customer Reviews of our company - Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, which shows you in our customers' own words exactly what makes our company and our auctions so very different from all others! To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.