my Shaw lobby card collection (question)

[Guest sevenhooks]

I pride myself on having a great collection of Shaw Brothers lobby cards. Over 700 cards, many complete sets in varied condition but most are very good to excellent.

They include nearly all the Venoms films, all of Liu Chia Liang's films, sets for Shaolin Prince, Shaolin Intruders, Opium and the Kung Fu Master, To Kill a Mastermind and several of Sun Chung's classics, Long Road To Gallantry, Bastard Swordsman and a bunch of Lu Chin Ku's films, a lot of Chang Cheh's earlier Shaolin cycle films, all the Brave Archer films (even Little Dragon Maidon), 5 Superfighters, etc., etc.

Most sets come with these little synopsis sheets written in both chinese and english.

Some sets even include color pressbooks which are very cool (see the one for Invincible Shaolin in the pic below).

Anyway, I've never given this much thought, but what do you suppose I could expect to get if I ever tried to sell this collection as a whole?

I'd no doubt make more money selling the individual sets and it would no doubt take longer to sell as well.

Honestly I don't think I ever actually would part with the cards.

These and my Southern Screens are the jewels in my kung fu collection.

But I am curious.

I'm not going to fool myself and expect that there's this huge market out there for this stuff.

But I gotta imagine that there's at least a few people around the world who are serious enough.

I wouldn't have as much of an issue getting rid of my Shaw posters for example, as I have doubles of many of my favorites anyway and you tend to see the posters around a lot more than the cards or the magazines.

At least it seems that way to me.

[Guest 500Fan]

I just wanted to say that I'm seething with envy. Very nice collection.

[Guest Ninja Sinai]

:eek Damn! Now that’s a collection!!

Do you have the lobbys for Soul Of The Sword and Deadly Secret by any chance?

I would love to get me hands on them, even if there just jpeg scans.

If you have them, im sure we can come to some deal.

My email: ninja.sinai@gmail.com

[Guest tino]

Nice collection. I don't have lobby cards or posters. I am interested in buying some if you want to sell. I would really like to have Opium, To Kill Mastermind, and Long Road for sure and possibly many more.

[Guest sevenhooks]

Do you have the lobbys for Soul Of The Sword and Deadly Secret by any chance?

I know I have a Deadly Secret set.

Don't think I have Soul of the Sword.

If I do, it's only a card or two.

[Guest Ninja Sinai]

Sorry my mistake man..

I meant Sword Of Swords, not Soul Of The Sword.

Ive been trying to find lobbys and stills for those two movies (Sword Of Swords and Deadly Secret) for ages without any luck..

If you wanna trade or sell lobbys/stills for them, even the scanned jpegs then please drop me an email Mr 7 Hooks..

[Guest sevenhooks]

Okay, definitely don't have lobby's for Sword of Swords.

But I might have some luck with a friend of mine who's the master of older Shaw lobby cards.

Like I said, I might have some cards for Deadly Secret if you're interested.

Not sure about the condition.

I would have to check.

The scanner thing ain't gonna work.

At least not for a while until I can get it out of storage.

I'll try and emailing you later today/tonite.

What do you have in the way of trade?

[Linn1]

an excellent collection. You clearly care so much for them, I wouldn't sell them unless you had to. But if you do, make sure it's to someone that will take as good a care of them as you have, and perhaps keep them as a set. Honest, I'm jealous as hell. I have some things, but I haven't been as focused.

[Guest teako170]

Actually, you've answered some of your own questions.

Yes, selling off the parts will net more money over time but it will take longer as opposed to unloading the whole (but would net you less).

Yes, there is a market for these items and thanks to the global community we find ourselves in, locating a buyer has become slightly easier.

There are two things that determine a collectibles worth: condition and scarcity. Baseball cards, comic books, coins, etc. Only problem is, while these other collectibles have price guides, these lobby cards do not.

If you haven't already, I would catalog these lobbys and create high-rez flatbed scans. Make notes regarding defects. Since there is no set scale for grading lobbys, you would be creating one yourself.

Then keep an eye out for the eBay auctions and the like to see what these sets sell for. Over time, you will have created a rough estimate of what this collection might be worth.

Of course, an item is only worth what the other guy is willing to spend.

[magicpoe]

Sevenhooks,

I have a small lobby card collection and can tell you there is a market but it can be difficult to part with something that took several years to not only find but buy. What I have is nothing compared to what you've shown in the photo.

Would you be willing to share with us how you managed to build up a collection of this size?

Posters have become common I'd agree but unfortunately there are to many reproductions floating around. It took several years of searching before I found someone who had originals and I've been buy from him for a couple years now.

teako170 is dead on when he says to make high res scans. That's the first thing I do when I get a set because if something happens to the originals, well who knows.

Having said that, if you feel you can make a decent profit on selling these, if that's your motive for selling I don't want to put words in your mouth, you might want to consider it.

[Guest sevenhooks]

Thanks for the input guys.

If you haven't already, I would catalog these lobbys and create high-rez flatbed scans.

Good idea. Wonder why I never thought of it.

Wait a minute, I think I know why... because it would take FOREVER!

But seriously, I really should get on that.

Problem is, my scanner is packed away for a while.

Also, I don't know how to use it very well.

Seems like a good scanner but the cards are a bit too big to fit on it.

How would I fix that?

Of course, an item is only worth what the other guy is willing to spend.

So true.

If working in a comic book store all those years has taught me anything it's that.

Which is also why I posted in the first place.

If there's any way at all to gague what sort of money can be had from these things I have to imagine that the kung fu fandom boards is a good place to start, no?

[Guest teako170]

Seems like a good scanner but the cards are a bit too big to fit on it. How would I fix that?

Its time consuming but....

scan the card in two halves and then paste together in Photoshop, etc.

If working in a comic book store all those years

Never knew that. Comics are cool.

[Guest sevenhooks]

Would you be willing to share with us how you managed to build up a collection of this size?

It took many years of slowly picking up things here and there really.

Started in the mid-late 80's after I saw some NY kung fu movie collectors carrying a few cards around with them to show off whenever a bunch of us would meet up to trade tapes.

Private collectors were really the only game in town back then.

There was also the occasional chinatown score.

Sometimes a bookstore would have a few laying around.

One time on a fluke, a guy who ran a hobby/model shop in c-town pulled out a huge pile of Shaw lobbies, all mixed together and in various states of condition.

My friend and I weren't leaving that place without em!

Also, people like Golden Harvest Greg and "Pai Piao" were very influential and inspiring to me.

Or I guess you can say I "blame" them to a certain extent for my hobby/habit!

It wasn't until about 4 or 5 years ago that I really picked up steam and found one guy in particular on eBay out of Canada.

Back then, I had the money to spend and for better or worse I did.

I spent $1,000's with this one seller for a couple years straight; bidding $2-3-400. a clip on auctions.

I'd guess that almost a third of my collection is now from that one seller, who apparently had access to a stash from the basement of the old Shaw Theater in Toronto.

I still see him posting stuff on the 'Bay, but most of the good stuff has been cleared out by myself and a few other collectors.

[Linn1]

Never knew that. Comics are cool.

I might be buying a comic store soon.

[Guest teako170]

I might be buying a comic store soon

Linn is cool.

[Guest venoms5]

I'm in the process of selling my silver age comics (around a thousand of those). I've cataloged them all and made scans of about 250 of them. I'd dealt with comic shops before, but never silver age books. I took a FANTASTIC FOUR #48, the Silver Surfers first appearance in the 8.0-9.0 range and they were only going to give me $12.00 for it.

[Guest teako170]

Allow me to share with you some advice from someone who has bought/sold/collected comic books for 25 years. Do not sell GA/SA books to a comic book store. They have overhead, taxes, insurance, employee costs, blah, blah, blah. Not saying all shop owners are like that but your best bet is eBay. A VF copy of FF48 for $12? That's just plain criminal! :eek

[Guest venoms5]

Yeah, I'd dealt with Comic shops before I wanted to see what they would give. I'm dealing with an Overstreet Advisor right now who is interested in my silver age books. I've quite a few key titles. An uncle of mine has the real key titles such as AMAZING FANTASY #15, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #84, FF #1,

the first IRON MAN in TALES OF SUSPENSE, etc... The condition on these is only good though.

[Guest sevenhooks]

Crazy ass story.

When I was still working at the comic store in upstate NY back in the late 80's, this guy came in with a long box of books, probably about 150 of em.

He was one of these guys who had no idea whatsoever what to look for or anything. He just wanted a quick buck.

We used to get a lot of that. "How much can I get for this?"

And it would usually turn out to be a bunch of crap, torn up Richie Rich books.

Only this guy on this particular day brought in the sweetest box of Golden Age books I had ever seen.

Vic the boss was out of town for the day, so it was just myself and my friend Ric who ran/managed the store in Vic's absence.

The condition of the books were all over the place.

Some were pretty damn close to mint, but a lot of them were not so healthy looking.

Ric offered the guy $300. cash if I remember correctly.

His eyes lit up and he was definitely a happy man.

We then went over the books one by one and started looking them up on the Overstreet guide.

If all the books were mint (which they weren't) we were looking at about $300,000.

Yup. Over a quater of a million dollars.

I suddenly felt really bad for the guy who only walked away with $300.

But that feeling was short lived.

Once Vic got back, he thanked us for a job well done and proceeded to keep a few dozen of the very best books for himself while selling the remainder to another local dealer for about $1,000.

Some of the books he kept?

Batman #2, and #3, an issue of Worlds Fair (first app. of Superman and Batman and Robin team up). All Star Comics #3 (first app. of the Justice Society), Captain America #1, Sensation Comics (2nd or 3rd app. of Wonder Woman), a couple of early Whiz Comics (Captain Marvel), etc., etc.

Vic ended up putting money down on his retirement home in Vegas as a result of us copping those books and being honest enough to NOT walk away with them ourselves - which we could've very easily done.

Our reward? Just a thanks. That was it.

Actually, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure we actually got criticized for paying the guy TOO much!

I suppose we couldn't get too upset.

After all, perhaps it was karma as a result of what amounted to stiffing the original seller.

But what're you going to do?

[Guest FarEastPirate]

Hi Sevenhooks

By the way cool collection

I was wondering were did you get those Lobby card holders you know the plastic folders to put tem in.

I have maybe 1500 orginal cards amd thier just packed in boxes i would like to make them neat by sorting them out like you did in a plastic folder.

[Guest gfanikf]

I think there just photo books.

[Guest HANZOSTEEL]

I might be buying a comic store soon.

LOL really? Linn you live in the same state as me. I have thousands and thousands of comic books i have

been collecting as a kid when my father used to buy spider man and daredevil. Ive sold a lot of them and i

hate it but then again what can i do right? If you buy a comic book store let us know i will pay you a visit.

I used to go to Titan's and Odin's but i grew out of it.

My favorite writers when i was collecting are Pat Mills (Marshal Law, Slaine The Horned God, Abc Warriors)

Alan Moore Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman.. Favorite Artists Simon Bizley, Bill Seinkeweicz, Mark Beachum, Mark

Texiera George Perez, Dave Mckean, on and on. I havent collected in over 9 years.

I pride myself on having a great collection of Shaw Brothers lobby cards. Over 700 cards

Seven Hooks that looks like a total of 70 lobby cards to me in that photo do you really have 700? The Lobby

cards are so select you must have some from almost every movie.

Fareastpirate, hello..

[Guest sevenhooks]

Seven Hooks that looks like a total of 70 lobby cards to me in that photo do you really have 700?

:rollin

Surely you do not doubt me??

HA HAH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

(evil, maniacal laughing continues throughout the remainder of this post....)

But seriously, each lobby card album holds a total of 48 cards.

Just did a recount and presently have a total of 14 (fourteen) FULL ALBUMS of Shaw cards making a total of 672 cards.

However, that's just what I have in terms of the ALBUMS.

There's at LEAST another 50-75 Shaw cards still laying around here which are presently WITHOUT albums.

So yeah, that would be over 700 Shaw Brothers lobby cards.

This DOESN'T include whatever NON-Shaw Brothers lobby cards I have as well (some GH, some indies ie: One Foot Crane, stuff like that).

Bear in mind that photo I posted is also a couple years old.

I'll take some more photos later on today or tonight to give you all a better assessment of what it is I really have here.

The Lobby

cards are so select you must have some from almost every movie.

Hardly. I have a lot of sets (either complete or near complete) of the kind of films I like.*

I DON'T have too much in terms of the earlier films, ie: stuff from the late 60's / early 70's swordplay flicks.

My collection of Shaw cards definitely reflect my tastes in Shaw films.

I DO have a lot of cards from the Chu Yuan wuxia cycle post '77 (Magic Blade, Death Duel, Clan of Amazons, Bat Without Wings, Legend of a Bat, Sentimental Swordsman films, etc.).

But the vast majority of my Shaw cards are from kung fu flicks from '77 - the time they closed shop.

* Bear in mind, when I finally started acquiring these cards in "sets" like this, they were from an old theater basement collection.

And almost always without fail, they came in sets of 12 (twelve) per film... sometimes 14 (fourteen)... but almost always 12.

At least that's how the Shaw cards came to me... which, I have to admit, seemed a little strange to me at first.

Mainly because I was so used to seeing the indy lobby cards come in sets of at least 14. Sometimes 20 or more.

Anyone here have ANY idea as to what the Shaw policy was for distributing their cards?

At least in terms of numbers?

[Guest teako170]

Crazy ass story.

Good gravy indeed. Your old boss should be taken out and flogged. (or at the very least forced to read anything drawn by Rob Liefeld).

That story reminds me of the film "Blast from the Past" when Alicia Silverstone's boss at the card shop tries to take Brendan Fraser for a sucker.

Oops, sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread with pulp fiction. Let's go back to them lobbys. Yeah, don't look like 700 or 70 either to me. More like 7.

[Guest sevenhooks]

Hi Sevenhooks

By the way cool collection

I was wondering were did you get those Lobby card holders you know the plastic folders to put tem in.

I have maybe 1500 orginal cards amd thier just packed in boxes i would like to make them neat by sorting them out like you did in a plastic folder.

It's been so long - at least 3 years - since I last ordered from them, but there was one site I went to that carried these lobby card albums that you see in that photo.

As mentioned in the previous post, they hold 48 cards (although I seem to recall the advert citing 50).

The cost I believe was just under US$30. per album.