Rich,
In the case of the notorious minty white repros... I have a gut-level
suspicion that when these bozos decided to embark upon their enterprise
that the titles they chose to reproduce were simply the titles they
happened to have *originals* if in their possession at the time, and so
they used what originals they had to make their fakes. I could be wrong,
but it seems the only way to explain the otherwise very odd kind of
scatter-gun assortment they decided to reproduce.
Calling the minty whites forgeries is giving them too much credit.
Anyone who has ever held one who knows inserts at all immediately
realizes they ain't kosher. It is only casual buyers and
poster-collecting newbies who would ever get one of these in the mail
and think, "Wow, what an absolutely perfect condition original mint
white authentic movie poster -- and on such great paper, too!"
The Mintys are just reproductions that are being sold as originals by
unprincipled sellers and that makes them a fake -- but a "forgery" is
something created well enough to fool most people and the minty whites
don't really qualify in that respect.
But Fred is totally right about their low-con logic: By selling
reproductions as "low cost" originals they fly under the radar of any
enforcement agency that might stop them. Those who get taken and later
find out they were had tend to shrug and say, "Well, I didn't pay that
much for it..." and let it go. Those who try to get their money back are
barraged with all kinds of propaganda that shows that what they
purchased was indeed a genuine authentic insert and they should ignore
all the people telling them otherwise because those are jealous people
who are just out to discredit an honest guys who made a great warehouse
find and is passing it on to the public at low cost out of the goodness
of their hearts. In the end, virtually everyone who buys a Minty either
keeps it or trashes it... some try to resell them to recoup their loss
and so are even worse than the original con men... but I doubt many
purchasers have ever got their money back.
That means if these guys only make $50 to $100 bucks on each sale and
they sell 1,000 of them that they suck in a cool $50,000 - $100,000
selling worthless junk and, as a practical matter, they are in no danger
of ever being prosecuted for it or ever having to give the money back.
-- JR
Richard Halegua Comic Art & Movie Posters wrote:
Freeman..
forgers and bootleggers don't always follow an intelligent theorum
I mean, one o fthe titles on the minty white list is the insert for
Manhattan.
why would anyone repro that piece of crap?? or any of the other crap
titles on that list?
one good thing about the ESB half sheet
seeing as I have an authentic one here and I will be taking a photo
(and we all know I take great photos and big!)
I'll be able to have side by side pics for examination against the pic
I took for the Star Wars sale in February
I wish we had such a reference for all the minty whites
Rich
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.
