For all in-demand collectibles, numerous price guides exist, but if there were a fair price guide of price guides, many wouldn't be worth very much, even in Near Mint condition. By the next sale above or below the guide's most recent price, if not the moment the guide is printed or posted, it's out of date.

In addition, the guides cannot take full cognizance of the differences between sellers and circumstances: The price for a collectible presented "live" over tea and crumpets in a well-lit and well-established gallery is inevitably going to be much higher than the price for the same item offered on auction this week with nothing more to go on than a dark and skewed photo and some unknown entity's assurance that the poster (or card or whatever) is MINT! and can be shipped essentially for postage in a free US Post Office box.

We have no tea, we have no crumpets, but we try very hard to give accurate descriptions, to answer queries politely and informatively, and to ship items securely, and we spend a lot of time working at getting you good images. Between us (suppliers as well as lister-proprietor) we also have several decades of experience collecting and selling. We also have access to all of the same guides that any of our buyers can consult, as well as to eBay auction histories, on-line boutiques, and other lists and venues.

We put a lot of thought and experience into the prices we ask for "retail," but it would be impossible for us not to end up way off base from time to time - too high or too low. If you see us offering an item at some price way above what you think it's worth, and can show us where an equivalent item is being offered at a much better one, please feel free to let us know, and we'll take it into consideration when you ask for a discount.

On the other hand, the fact that some similar item sold on auction one time or another for much less, or that so-and-so's price guide says it's worth less than we're asking isn't likely to impress us very much. Many areas of the collectibles market are, for lack of a better word, irrational. The same item that sold or would have sold just a few years ago for $25 may be worth $250 today, and the opposite is true as well. You can look many items up in either of our two favorite framework references - The Poster Price Almanac and emovieposter.com eBay Results - and see for yourself how widely retail and auction prices may vary for the same or apparently the same collectibles. For other items there may be virtually no relevant sales history at all, and the fact that somebody out there believes, on the basis of who-knows-what calculations and assessments, it's worth a lot less than we're asking just isn't of great note to us if in our opinion it's very cool, and if we know we'll likely never see it again once it's packed up.

So, in short, when we put a poster or record or button or anything else up in the store for $99.95, we mean it. We're quite willing to take sales histories and competitors' prices into account, but we can't make it a practice to give steep discounts just because someone sends us an e-mail or two or three asking for same.

There are two main exceptions to this rule. The most obvious would be on listings where we're inviting eBay Best Offers. We wouldn't even experiment with this feature unless we were already willing to acknowledge room for discussion - though that's not the same as saying "buy it for half off." The other main area of exception is package deals. We're not at all averse to offering discounts and other incentives to buyers ready to make our day or week or month or year.

A final word on auctions and auction prices: The vast majority of the time, we start items at $0.95 with no reserve. That means we'll often sell collectibles far below "fair" retail, though occasionally the market will discover prices much higher than we would have set (and isn't that fun!). Sometimes, we auction items because we happen to have them in quantity, or because they're not in good enough condition or just the right kinds of pieces for us to want to keep them on hand. At other times we know from experience or observation that they'll do very well - and that start price is virtually irrelevant.

More generally, we see auctions at least in part as promotions, and we also see them as a way to generate "liquidity." If you see the same item offered in our store at some earlier or later time at some higher price, that's how it should be. Even without the tea or crumpets, there's a premium for getting the particular item you want, often in superior condition and on your schedule, rather than on an auctioneer's schedule - to get it today right now or whenever you happen to be ready rather than when some auction happens to close (if it's not already too late). Similar considerations apply to price guides and sales histories: The most important price history is always going to be the history that you choose to make when you move a unique collectible from our holdings to yours.