Fort Wilderness Railroad Poster For Sale On eBay

Pop Hines · **Posted:** Fri Jun 22, 2012 6:57 am

Me thinks you are right. Something ain't just quite right.

mapper65 · **Joined:** Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:40 am **Posts:** 127

Wow! Remind me not to post from the iPad with one eye open when I just wake up. The grammar in my last post looks like it was written by someone in kindergarten.

If you look at the eBay post, the stains or deterioration on the very bottom of the poster is how I determined that they are using the same image for both eBay listings. Here is what I see happening. If in fact that photo that shows the stains was taken of one of the posters that he is selling and the photo didn't change in either of the two listings, one person is not going to receive exactly what is pictured, or it's a reproduction and both people will receive the same reproduced poster.

I actually hope they are reproducing them. Unfortunately the guy that paid $1700 may not be as excited. I'd go $75 or so for a decent reproduction. Sure, that's probably a lot for a piece of paper but someone had to take the time to coordinate having it reproduced.

mapper65 · **Joined:** Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:40 am **Posts:** 127

Interesting......they ended the listing. The bids were up to $150 or so and now it reads that nobody bid and the seller canceled the item.

Roy · **Posted:** Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:47 pm

I see the second poster listing has been withdrawn, "because the item is no longer available."

I also noticed the same staining at the bottom, and guessed that they may be using one set of photos to sell similar posters. For that matter, the poster is shown on a wood-paneled wall that could be anywhere.

Both listings state that "...Theme Park Connection is auctioning off an entire collection of actual Signs that were displayed at the Disney Parks and Resorts..." Also, the medium is stated to be "Paper with textured glossy finish." The seller does NOT claim that these are original Rudy Lord serigraphs, nor is it stated WHEN these were displayed. Based on the seller's language, these might be what Mike (WEDWAY67) referred to as:

"...The ones that have been on display for historical exhibits and inside Fort Wilderness today are neither ORIGINALS NOR original souvenir 70's posters, they are modern copies made by special services for WDW decorating copies from an original silkscreen..."

I would hate to have spent over $1700 on a Disney-authorized repo.

mapper65 · **Joined:** Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:40 am **Posts:** 127

Roy wrote:

I would hate to have spent over $1700 on a Disney-authorized repo.

Agreed!! I'd be in for $75 or so for a good reproduction of the same size but the guy that paid $1700 and the guy that was bidding against him must have REALLY wanted it for their collection. I'll admit that I've slightly overpaid for a few things over the years that are in my own collection of railroad memorbelia but I just couldn't bid on that poster once it got to a certain value.

I'm sure the buyer is happy and I guess that's all that matters.

I like looking at the bids that people put in one an auction closes. It always amazes me at these people that bid $5.99 and then never bid again.

Pop Hines · **Posted:** Fri Jun 22, 2012 10:37 pm

Sign me up for the $75 repro!!!

S. Towler · **Posted:** Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:51 am

WEDWAY67 wrote:

You are most welcome!

An interesting note: Over 40 images of posters and imagineering concept art were cleared from WDI and loaded to the Print On Demand system for the current Disney Gallery Railroad exhibit (which ends in a few days..) While some of these images are featured in the exhibit many others were not--including FORT WILDERNESS RR & CAMPGROUND BROADSIDE (the poster from this discussion)and the FORT WILDERNESS RR Loco over SWAMP TRESTLE concept by Collin Campbell. (IRONICALLY THIS IS THE ART ON THE GALLERY EXHIBIT SIGN!!!!)Neither these two as well as so many other HIGHLY wanted images were actually uploaded for guests to purchase!!!! To this date, only about 8 Imagineering images were ever made available from the Railroad exhibit. The Nature's Wonderland Coming Soon Billboard, The Clem Hall Disneyland Big Thunder Mountain overview, all those beautiful locomotive & passenger coach color elevations for Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland etc...never made it to the guest order screens (but they are loaded in the main system!!)

Again, I don't know why these images were NOT made available for purchase--my theory is that the merchandising managers had to pay SO much money for the commissioned artists series (the giclee and matted mini-print artwork images, they were afraid of the amazingly beautiful WED/WDI artwork would upstage the commissioned artist product line, and the merchandise. And if what they ordered doesn't sell.....they may not keep their position etc. I personally I' rather have art created by Disney artists for Disney projects of the Disney Railroads as opposed to artwork like custom Car designer Chip Foose being commissioned to do artwork of hot rods and Disneyland locomotive off in the background etc.

-Mike

Yeah, I was so bummed that only three pages were loaded in the system. Kept checking whenever I could for that Nature's Wonderland map. What I don't understand is that almost ALL of the Mary Blair pieces from the previous show made it into the system, and yet only a handful from this show was loaded. Disney missed an opportunity to vacuum my cash!

David Rose · **Posted:** Wed Jun 27, 2012 7:39 am

WEDWAY67 wrote:

Hey guys:

The ORIGINAL park used FORT WILDERNESS POSTERS were serigraphs---(elaborate silk-screening) they were done on the same equipment as the 1976 JUNGLE CRUISE and 1977 DISNEYLAND RR poster attraction posters. For WDW resort there was also a Pioneer Hall poster as well as a Empress Lilly poster done. Production was overseen by Rudy Lord. About 150 park -use posters were screened for WDW.

A FULL SIZE off-set lithograph poster was sold for a few years to Fort Wilderness guests when the ORIGINAL poster was produced. The guest copy sold for $4.95 --kinda pricey for a poster in the 70's. I'd suspect there are THOUSANDS of those FORT WILDERNESS POSTERS.

The real park-used posters are on tyvek paper that almost feels like a thin cloth and doesn't like to roll easily. The guest souvenir version is on a nice-weight paper, but the printing quality , while is ok--is a souvenir 70's poster and the color is slightly duller than the originals . The souvenir version also is completely smooth. The originals will feel kinda heavy (all those ink pulls!!) and if you run your fingers gently across the front, you can feel slight raises in ink levels. Also the color on the originals is EXTREMELY VIBRANT!

The ones that have been on display for historical exhibits and inside Fort Wilderness today are neither ORIGINALS NOR original souvenir 70's posters, they are modern copies made by special services for WDW decorating copies from an original silkscreen.

Most of the ones I've seen in the past years ( i've seen at least 30-35 since about 2003) on EBAY appears to be the souvenir copies. Awhile back however someone had a REAL one, but it had been laminated or plastic sealed at some point (odd).but none-the-less, it was a real silk-screened.

Just keep these points in mind when biding folks!

-Mike

Great info Mike. I believe I have an original poster (well I hope I do... LOL). I purchased it from someone whos dad worked at Disney, and brought a 'extra' copy home with him in the 70s (where it sat until I purchased it). I had it framed right away. The colors are very vibrant, and there is almost a feeling of a thin wax coating on the poster ... And I remember the paper being very thick as well.

David Rose · **Posted:** Fri Jul 06, 2012 9:21 pm

It appears this exact poster is back on EBay..... weird..

mapper65 · **Joined:** Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:40 am **Posts:** 127

yep, something is shady there.

Fort Wilderness Railroad Poster For Sale On eBay

Who is online