Doing eBay, my way

I am a man obsessed.

My obsession? eBay. Specifically, selling posters on eBay.

For 30 years I’ve collected vintage posters. My specialty is airline posters -- mostly Air France -- and posters issued by Intourist, the Soviet Union’s travel bureau. Most are from the 1920s through 1950s. In addition to my core collection which I’d never sell, I have 300 other posters. Some are worth a lot. Some aren’t. I bought whatever caught my eye and now they're stashed all over the house, taking up storage space.

For years I've been promising my wife I'd sell most of them so two weeks ago, I took photos of five posters, re-activated the eBay account I hadn't used since the early 2000s, wrote descriptive copy and checked web sites of leading poster dealers to establish prices. Five minutes after I posted them on eBay, I had sold two posters for just over 25 percent of what I earned in a year at my first job out of college. That got my attention.

Now I’m obsessed. Almost every day I place three or four new posters on eBay… respond to questions from buyers … and make a run to FedEx to ship them.

The part of this job I am enjoying most is writing the descriptive copy. After a career of writing ads for corporate clients, I’m the client here. I can write whatever I please. And I do, writing to both inform and entertain any prospective bidders who might be out there.  

Thought you might enjoy seeing some of the posters I’ve put on eBay and my descriptions of each.

Lufthansa Airlines original travel poster

Remember when flight attendants – they were called stewardesses back then – had to be pretty and have pleasant personalities in order to get hired? Yeah, those were the days. Most flight attendants these days treat you like a virus. This 1950s poster for Lufthansa German Airlines takes you back to a bygone era. It features a pretty, anorexically slim stewardess who, based on her happy smile, is undoubtedly pleasant as she waves a ticket aloft. Check out the Connie (Constellation) aircraft in the background, along with the happy passengers representing the airline’s destinations across Europe. the USA and South America. Artist: Von Fohnseca. Linen backed and in great condition, this original poster measures 24 7/8" x 39 ¼." 

Moscow Soviet Intourist original poster

Street cars. Red flags flapping in the breeze. Lenin’s tomb. A river teeming with commerce. Stalinist-era high rises. Issued in the 1930s by Intourist, the Soviet Union’s bureau that was charged with attracting tourists to a country that was known as anything but a vacation destination, this vibrant poster invites Germans to visit Moscow – an invitation the German army accepted a few years later (though they certainly didn’t find it to be as welcoming as this poster suggests). There is a repaired tear, approximately 8” long, that runs from the A in MOSCAU to the top right margin, and all four corners have been repaired where the poster was once pinned or taped to the wall. Consider this poster a valuable piece of history that, like Communism itself, has certain flaws. Size: 27 3/8” x 40”. 

Try our Cleaning of Your School Clothes poster

Created to be displayed in a dry cleaning shop, this colorful, fashionable poster from the late forties features a mom and her two impeccably dressed progeny – a daughter in a straw hat and a son wearing a … yarmulke? The bizarrely phrased headline sounds like it was written by someone whose first language wasn’t English but that adds even more character to this strange but endearing poster. Linen-backed. 21 ¼ x 27 ¾. 

Spring is Gay original Greyhound poster

This 1959 poster has so much going for it that we hardly know where to begin but we’ll give it a go. It’s springtime. A couple in a park is strolling past a spurting fountain. Jonquils are in bloom and the trees have just budded. There’s a birdie that is probably chirping a Judy Garland tune. A rainbow – yep, a rainbow – arches above the happy couple. Our favorite part of this poster (other than the headline) is that – get this – they’ve taken a Greyhound bus to get there. There are paper tears along the left margin at the lower edge that won’t show when it’s matted. Size: 26” x 38.” Bid early. Bid often.

American Airlines “Arizona” original travel poster 

Perhaps you had to be a kid growing up in the 1950s, as we were, to fully appreciate this extraordinary and rarely-found poster created for American Airlines by noted illustrator Fred Ludekens. Back then, every other TV show was about cowboys. Kids lived, dreamed and breathed the Wild West. Every boy wanted to grow up to be a cowboy but knew, deep down, he was destined for something more mundane -- perhaps a career as an investment banker or as a member of Congress. American Airlines, when it commissioned this poster, had to know that every kid who saw it in the window of a travel agency would beg, plead and cajole his parents to take him to Arizona where he could play cowboy. But we digress. This extremely vibrant (notice the hot pink sky against the yellow background) poster features a Lockheed Electra flying high above it all. It’s impossible for a camera to fully capture the vividness and vibrancy of the colors. Wouldn’t this look great hanging in the living room of your southwestern-style home, or in the bedroom of your own little cowpoke? The condition is absolutely perfect, and this original poster is linen-mounted to make sure it remains that way for generations to come. Size: 30” x 40.”

Fly BOAC to the Rhodesias

BOAC (British Overseas Air Corporation) debuted the world’s first passenger jet, the DeHavilland Comet, in 1951. It entered service between London and Britain’s African colonies, which included Northern and Southern Rhodesia (today’s Zambia and Zimbabwe). Unfortunately for BOAC, not to mention its passengers, the Comet had a tendency to break up during flight. After three such break-ups, BOAC grounded its fleet. The magnificent, vibrant poster features a springbok, blissfully unaware that a Comet is flying overhead. Don’t miss this opportunity to own a piece of aviation history. (Or, as the case may be, infamy). Linen backed, this original poster is in perfect condition. Size:19 3/4" x 29 3/4". 

1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics original poster

There are many things we don’t understand. We don’t understand, for example, why bad things happen to good people. Why folks find Adam Sandler movies to be hilarious. Or why anyone would willingly eat Brussels sprouts. Nor do we understand this poster, created for the 1984 Sarajevo Games by pop artist Jim Rosenquist. We’ve done our research and poster dealers and art galleries around the world are offering it for what we consider to be a goodly amount of money. If you understand it, this poster can and should be yours but you have to promise you’ll explain it to us if you are the successful bidder. Size: 24 3/8” x 33 ½.”