The Poster Memorabilia blog

One Memorabilia Collection to Rule Them All

A decade of hounding, a gift he never expected, and a rainy-day find — one collector's whole trilogy.

By an anonymous Hollywood insider

Sometimes, as a memorabilia collector, you just have to know when to let fate lead the way. I have been collecting and acquiring autographed posters for years, as well as autograph-hounding, and I've learned I can't always control the situation. There are times when precious pieces just fall into your lap, and you don't need to do anything else but just accept them.

Let me tell you the story of how I completed my autographed posters of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. I already had the first one, The Fellowship of the Ring, that I got signed myself. To make a long story short, I ventured through all sorts of movie premieres and conventions to chase down the cast and ask them to sign my poster. It almost took me a decade, but I got most of them.

“Sometimes, you just have to know when to let fate lead the way.”

How I got the other two are far more fascinating.

I have a friend who shares my hobby of memorabilia collecting, and he knew many others like us. I was never the sociable type, but he taught me that expanding your network is vital for collecting. You never know who might have the pieces you're looking for.

One day, he brought me to a collector's meet-up, and I met all sorts of people with all kinds of collections. He wanted me to meet a lovely woman from Florida who also collected signed celebrity memorabilia, and we had a ball talking about our hobbies. She was only a few years older, but she had lived a full life of chasing down celebrities, so I almost felt like an amateur.

When I told her I wanted to complete Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy for my collection, her eyes gleamed as if she had an epiphany. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I didn't know she was about to change my life for the better.

Later that same year, I received a surprise package from her for Christmas. By the size of it, I figured it would be a poster, but I never would've guessed it was the one I was looking for. The package was an autographed Two Towers poster signed by the movie's main cast. I immediately called her after opening it, and her story brought me to tears.

She and her husband had loved autograph-hounding together, and he got the poster signed at the movie's premiere in 2002. He passed away a few years ago, and she told me she'd been waiting to find someone who would treasure it the way he did. When we met at that meet-up and she heard how long I'd been chasing this trilogy, she knew. That's the kind of person she is.

I tried to refuse something so precious, but she insisted, and honestly, I was overjoyed. We remained friends after that, and I learned more about her and her late husband every time we met up. The poster hangs where I can see it every day, and I like to think a little of their story hangs there with it.

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Now, for the third one, The Return of the King, I found it in a little store somewhere in the more hidden corners of Hollywood. I only stumbled upon it when it rained in LA, one of the very rare times it did, and the poster was the very first thing I saw inside.

The owner was reluctant to part with it at first, and I don't blame him one bit. But after an hour and a half of talking Tolkien, trading collector stories, and haggling like two hobbits at market, he could tell it was going to a good home. He finally said yes, and we shook on it.

Before I knew it, I had completed all of Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy of autographed posters. One I earned over a decade, one was given in love, and one I found by chance in the rain. I couldn't part with them for anything. And to my fellow collectors and die-hard Tolkien fans still hunting for their own: keep going. Fate has a way of leading you there.

Some things you watch. This one you keep.

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