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1. You have a Star Wars poster
listed on your website that I would like to buy. Is it for sale?
- See our (Shop) website.
We list everything that we currently have for sale on those pages. E-mail us
if anything interests you. As far as all of the other posters listed in this
archive, they are usually not for sale individually. However, we do
entertain trades sometimes for stuff in which we are looking for and as
always if you have the desire to become one of the few Star Wars
super-collectors instantly, we are always interested in offers for the whole
collection. So, if you have a poster that we are looking for, we might
be interested in trading it for something that you are looking for.
Poster Shop - Wants / For Sale
2. Why are some
of the Star Wars British quads trimmed?
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It is common to find
some of these quads trimmed, however, each poster was originally printed
in the standard 30" x 40" size. The Empire Strikes Back Style A quad,
along with the UK Triple Bill and one version of the UK ROTJ are
commonly found slightly smaller than the traditional 30" x 40" size.
Corroborated speculation from many UK movie posters houses that we have
talked to, gives us these plausible reasons some of them show up with
smaller dimensions is because - 1. Collectors used to cut or fold them
to fit the standard American frames - 27" x 40/41". 2. Many were used in
the London underground subway system - they were cut slightly smaller at
the printing facility to fit the transit ad frame boxes. 3. They could
also be original reprints. (However, every trimmed copy we have ever
seen is exactly like the original 30" x 40", only cut slightly smaller
for some reason.)
3. Do you have a Japanese
Return of the Jedi Yamakatsu "Starfall" poster for sale?
- Simply put -
"Usually No". This Japanese premium poster is the most requested e-mail
that we get. Back in 1983, the poster started out as a rare item, but it
was not as incredibly rare as it has become today. This foreign poster
is one of the most favorite artwork posters (by
Noriyoshi Ohrai)
that Star Wars poster collectors often seek. Our suggestion to you on
finding this poster, - is to watch the eBay auctions - (2 of them were
for sale last year) & also if you are more determined, I have seen them
for sale on the Japanese Yahoo auction website. Lastly, you can also
e-mail other foreign Star Wars collectors or visit our movie poster
links webpage. By talking to some of the "big time" movie poster house
dealers about these posters, they can sometimes find things through
their network of sellers that you can't possibly stumble on to by just
searching the internet.
Japanese ROTJ
Yamakatsu Poster
4. How come the bottom
description fonts on the Star Wars Happy Birthday One-sheet look weird?
(Also, take a look at the Empire Strikes Back teaser Studio version - same
weird font.)
- The description (Star
Wars Happy Birthday One Sheet) was left off of the printing template and
they had to paste a piece of clear tape in the area with the information on
it. Employees at Gore Graphics used an IBM selectric typewriter to type up
the description, and that is why the font looks different than the normal
Star Wars descriptions in the bottom white borders. Print run was
originally 400, but only ended up with 250-280 usable copies.
Lastly, most of the copies were not distributed to the theatres. Most went
to the employees at Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox. That is why most copies
of the posters are still found in rolled condition. (Thanks for the awesome
information - Source - Ron Kalter - Gore Graphics employee '77 - '82).
5. Is the Jawa meter accurate?
(eg. - Star Wars Style "A" One-Sheet)
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About the Jawa meter - first,
realize it's just for fun, however it is pretty accurate when you
consider it gives you a good idea of what might be easier to obtain
amongst the different one-sheets and other posters.
Here's what criteria was used for the Jawa
meter. Also, I helped my friends at Lucasfilm that published the Star
Wars Poster Book and they included some other factors for the ratings in
the back of book to get a scale of 1-10.
(eg.) Star Wars style "A" One-Sheet (1˝ Jawa
Meter). The reason this poster was put at this setting is because I have
been collecting these posters since 1981 and I am using personal data from
the beginning of the trilogy, not just what current posters are selling for
in the last few years. The SW Style "A" one-sheet starting in 1977
until around 1995 could easily have been acquired for $50 - $100 because it
is/was common and there are no shortage of them, real, bootleg or otherwise.
(Movie poster houses have always wanted more money for it because it is one
of the most recognizable one-sheets of all time). It's only in the last six
or seven years that collectors have become obsessed with paying outrageous
sums for these Star Wars theatrical posters. They have always been popular,
but people seem to forget they are just pieces of paper and in the case of
the recognizable poster it is rather easy to obtain - just look at the
number of them for sale currently on eBay. I hope this helps to explain how
the ratings were factored for this poster.
6. Lucasfilm watermark on the
new Ep1 prequel posters. (Answered e-mail)
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Here is my
understanding of the Lucasfilm watermark after talking with friends at
Lucasfilm/printers and having collected almost every copy of these Ep1
theatrical posters from around the world.
In '96/'97 after the
release of the SW Special Edition teaser posters, there were bootlegs
and/or reprints of the US theatrical posters distributed out to the open
market, almost as soon as the originals became available and issued to
the cinemas. I think Lucasfilm wanted to make sure they didn't lose
control again of all these non-licensed prints. They also, wanted to be
sure to profit from the next round of posters issued (Episode 1)
- which ultimately insured collectors that they could authenticate and
would tend to buy the known original posters from the Fan Club
(Lucasfilm) - ones with watermarks. This also helped to curb the flow of
materials out of the cinemas to individuals who were buying and also
stealing originals that had been issued for theater use.
**********************
From MoPo:
"A new attempt at insuring the authenticity of a
poster has been undertaken by LucasFilm: the addition of a watermark to
the face of the poster which is visible only under black light. Posters
sold on the official "Star Wars" web site (http://www.starwars.com)
for "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" feature this black light
watermark.
So far it appears only LucasFilm has adopted this
practice and posters being shipped directly to theatres do not carry
this watermark."
***********************
Anyway, posters sold
thru the US Fan club contained the watermarks (single-sided versions),
however, posters sent to the theaters may or may not have the watermark
and are more likely to be double-sided versions used in the
light-boxes. A lot of what happened with these watermarks has to do with
money and marketing costs.
Also, most of the
countries other than the USA, that have versions of the Ep 1posters, do
not have any watermarks on them - simply because there was no real need
for it. With the market flooded with real ones and licensed
reprints printed in the 10's of thousands of these new US prequel
posters, you can get a legitimate copy for a reasonable price.
Opportunists from around the world can't really profit much from the
reprinting/bootlegging of these posters, because there is no foreign
demand for them, and most collectors don't really care about the
foreign/international ones, except the British quads and a few others
sometimes. That is one reason you will have a hard time finding some of
these newer and older posters, from countries like
Hungary/Romania/Finland for eg., because no one there cares about them.
They are just advertisement and after the movie is over, they thrown
them in the trash.
The only ones that are
really that valuable and collectible are always the US versions. I think
Spain (Ep1) and maybe one other country has the watermarks on them,
but my original DS British Ep1 quads (regular/teaser) don't have them,
along with most of the others.
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