Tommy Lee Jones Lonesome Dove Autographed Picture - Collecting Movie Memorabilia

Popular culture has become so linked to the movies that these days nearly everything connected with the movie business is considered movie memorabilia. 

The At auctions or in specialist magazines you can get quite a sum of money for Mickey Mouse wristwatches, plastic models from science fiction series, and assorted promotional items. Merchandise from the original Star Wars films has been selling for between two and four hundred dollars. Mickey Mouse watches have been selling as high as seven hundred dollars at auction sites. However, in order to get the maximum money from your movie memorabilia you need to have them in near mint condition and, ideally, in their original packaging.

What Sells

So how do you know if you have a fortune in movie memorabilia in your house? There is no way to tell specifically which items are going to sell for the highest amount and which aren’t, but there are few general categories that have been selling for a lot of money. The best prices have come from original items such as costumes, props, autographs and posters. When it comes to specific actors, the paradigms continue to dominate the market, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Greta Garbo. Monroe and Garbo are the two highest selling, with autographs going for between eight hundred and five thousand depending on the item you have signed. There are also movie stars who are still making films who already have a lot of money coming from their movie memorabilia. One of these is John Travolta. Recently his white three-piece suit from Saturday Night Fever sold for $145,000 at auction.

One of the most notable trends in movie memorabilia today is items connected to the popular science fiction and adventure movies. There is a high demand for any memorabilia from the Star Wars, Star Trek, Batman, James Bond, and Indiana Jones film series. While most ordinary collectors probably can’t afford to purchase items such as costumes and props due to their high prices, most film posters can still be found online for low prices. Posters from cult science fiction and horror films from the Fifties bring in up to eight hundred dollars, while James Bond posters will sell for up to a thousand dollars. The most expensive posters are from vintage films of the Thirties and Forties.

The Future of Movie Memorabilia

The market for movie memorabilia is expanding so rapidly that many collectors are beginning to buy up small items such as T-shirts, hats, and replica props from current blockbuster movies in order to stockpile them in the hope that sometime in the future they will be worth a lot of money. It may even be a good idea to save the complimentary gifts that are given out at certain locations prior to a movie’s opening. A free promotional wristwatch that was given out prior to the release of The Nightmare Before Christmas is currently selling for about two hundred dollars.

Each new film release causes a growth in the market demand for movie memorabilia, but the sharpest increase has occurred within the last five years. One thing that led to the success of the movie memorabilia market is the success of Planet Hollywood and their chain of international movie theme restaurants. The success of this restaurant and other factors has driven up the prices of movie memorabilia and started a whole new generation of memorabilia collectors.

Just as people want to know what is valuable right now, people would like to know which movie memorabilia is going to be worth a lot in about ten years. While there is no concrete way to tell what will be the next big thing, some collectors have suggested that the top selling collectibles will be anything with Julia Roberts, Winona Ryder, Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp. These are the stars that had a lot of success early in their careers and continue their popularity today.