Happy 4th of July from www.anndvorak.com!

In the last post, I spoke of the frenzied bidding wars eBay can induced in individuals, causing them to pay far more for items than they would ever pay in person. On the flip side, fabulous items sometimes get listed and slip though the cracks, leaving a very happy collector paying far less than they would in person. Which brings us to the latest collection spotlight.

The above picture of Ann Dvorak was taken on the set of Housewife (1934), co-starring Bette Davis and George Brent. As I had mentioned in a previous post, Housewife is not Ann’s best movie, but it’s enjoyable enough and only one of two times she shared the screen with Bette Davis. When this photo was listed, the opening bid was only 99 cents and the description was very vague, leading me to believe that it was a cheap reproduction. Still, I love candid photos and figured this great shot of Ann was worth spending a couple of bucks on.

No one else placed a bid on the photo and it was mine for 99 cents, plus shipping which was four times the cost of the photo. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package to find an original photographer stamped photo!

Between this photo and the candid from The Way to Love discussed last time, the cost of the two averages out to 40 dollars a piece. This is still really high, but at the same time allows me to justify spending way to much on some things, because it all averages out.

For over ten years, eBay has been a daily part of my life and has proven itself time and again to be a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, we collectors have access to items from all over the world that we might not encounter without online auctions. On the other hand, having access to items all over the world on a regular basis can really drain the bank account. I am always shocked by my monthly total on the “Items Won” section of “My eBay.”

Traditionally, I have found myself paying far more for items on eBay than I would in person. I guess there’s a sense of urgency and paranoia that once the auction ends you will never see the item again. Add onto it the sense of competing with the entire world and one can go a bit crazy with the bidding.

If there is one thing that 10+ years of collecting movie memorabilia has taught me, it’s that stuff always shows up again. It may take 5 years, but the poster or photo that got away on eBay will be yours eventually (esp photos which the studios printed and distributed in large quantities). Still, sometimes bidding can get out of hand and we are left with the consequences.

Which brings us to the week’s Collection Spotlight. I bought this still from The Way to Love a few years back on eBay. Behind the scenes shots are always pretty cool, but this particular photo showing Ann and director Norman Taurog is especially striking. Not only is the lighting very dramatic, but the two of them look so intense, you’d never know this was a comedy. I was so taken with this photo that I put in some ridiculous ceiling bid on eBay, never thinking that I would have fierce competition for it. While it is one of my favorite Ann-D photos, every time I look at it all I can think is “I can’t believe I paid 80 dollars for this!” Of the 845 photos I own of Ann, there are very few that I have paid more that $20 for, which is why this particular purchase was so painful, though I probably would have been really upset if I had not won the auction. Since then, I usually try to shy away from putting in high bids that I am not serious about.

The Way to Love was Ann’s first film in almost year, after walking out on her contract in July of 1932 to honeymoon in Europe. Warner Bros loaned her out to Paramount for this Maurice Chevalier musical, and interestingly, Ann replaced Sylvia Sidney who had been giving the studio a hard time. It’s a sweet film and a little bizarre, as early Paramount films tend to be, with Ann playing a forlorn gypsy.

Up next time…when eBay goes right.