How To Collect Vintage Poster

Being a collector is not easy as most people think it is. Vintage poster collectors need to be very careful in choosing the posters that they buy and very meticulous in taking care of these expensive prints. Here are some tips on how to start your collection of vintage posters.

Buying Posters
The 2 most important questions you need to find answers to are first, where to buy vintage poster and second, how to determine if the poster is really vintage or not.

Collecting vintage posters is like going on a treasure hunt. Searching the market and even the internet may seem easy, but with the proliferation of fake vintage posters and scammers in the market, you might fall prey to these predators who are just trying to get your money.

Auction houses and websites are good places to look for rare vintage posters. Once you've found a poster that you would like to add in your collection, research on the poster first before buying it. Check if the poster deserves the amount written on its price tag. Of course, time is always of the essence as there might be a lot of vintage poster collectors that are planning to buy the same poster that you have found.

You can use these factors to determine a poster's value.

• Rarity
The more copies that a poster has, the lower is the value placed on it. This is why posters with limited number of copies are very expensive. If there are only 3 copies of a poster, serious collectors will be willing to pay a high amount just to have one of those 3 copies. Imagine the price of a very rare poster that does not have any other copies.

An original poster of The Metropolis, a movie produced in the early 1900s was sold for almost $700,000 because that poster only has 3 copies left. One is in New York, USA and the other one is in Australia.

• Preservation
If a poster is well preserved and did not undergo too much restoration, expect the poster to be expensive. Posters that are in good condition and those only have a limited restoration done are priced higher because of aesthetic and authenticity factors. A nicely preserved poster is very nice to look at and would be a very good addition to any collection. A poster with only minimal restoration is more expensive compared to those that have undergone rigorous restoration. The more original the parts of a poster are, the higher will be its value.

• Popularity
Movie Posters and Political posters are the most common posters collected. They are also the most expensive posters you will find in the market. Also, posters that are made by famous artists like Jules Cheret and Alphonse Mucha are priced higher than other posters because these are posters artists that have contributed a lot to the development of poster art.

• Achievement of the Poster
Some posters are also valued because of the history of the poster. Block buster movie and famous political propaganda posters are expensive not only because they are popular but also because of the historical value attached to the posters.

Having a good vintage poster collection is a very nice accomplishment. Just like in any treasure hunt, you have to know the real gold from the fake ones.