I have the opportunity to pick up the marquee displays for movie posters for a cheap price. They are the things you put the movie poster in and it back lights it and has little blinking lights running around the outside in a nice solid metal frame.

What do you think one of these could go for on eBay or something? I'm thinking of buying them and reselling (keeping one for my HT of course hehe) but just wondering what they go for. What do you call these? Marquees, lightboxes, poster displays.. is there a 'standard' terminology for them?

Thanks!

Buy them. They're expensive new (in the 500-700 range), depending on the build quality, which is why some many of us make them. Most people call them lightboxes, I think or backlit poster boxes. The ones with the running lights are even more. Post them in the AVS marketplace so AVSers get a chance to bid on them first.

Bud

Sounds good, thanks. I picked them up today, got 5 of them. Shipping is going to be a PITA, they are large and heavy, but they're pretty cool. Thanks again!

I need 2, pick up in person, and pay cash.

PM if you want to talk.

They vary substantially in price by size, etc. You almost have to find someone locally as they often cost almost $200 to ship. I bought one locally for $140 after he couldn't sell it on eBay at $150 (because of the $200 shipping). He also put a lot of work in it.

Thanks for the replies, I've put an ad in the marketplace for them:

http://marketplace.avsforum.com/showproduct.php?product=629

Thanks again!

I was wondering when these were going to start showing up here...

I picked one of these up locally as well and went through the same issues regarding the light bulbs. I ordered 2 boxes which should cover me pretty much forever. For the signs that had blown fuses, check the inline switch. Mine wasn't making good contact and caused the 5 amp fuse on the isolation transformer to blow (probably years ago). I thought it was strange that the bulbs were 24V until I talked to the manufacturer. Apparently HV wanted to make sure that customers wouldn't get shocked if they stuck their fingers in an open bulb socket.

And you might want to note on your for sale post - these are undersized for standard movie posters. The inserts that fit in them are only 25 x 39 and once the frame is snapped down, roughly 23 x 37 or so shows. To fit a standard 27 x 40 or 27 x 41 poster in one would require quite a bit of trimming to the poster.

Yea, good point. I was wondering why I had to fold the bottom of my poster up a little, heh. I was on the phone all morning trying to track down those 24v 5w bulbs, then I thought to check the lightbox for the manufacturer and voila, nice and easy.

Thanks for the tip, I'll check that out. Some of the power wires were twisted together and exposed, couldn't be good either heh. I ordered stuff to rewire them and ordered 5 new poster backing plates. I was irritated that I couldn't find translucent plexi at any local hardware stores.

So you also have HV going out of business down your way too eh? Hmm.. if there are mass closings, I wonder if I could call and find out where the others that are closing are and go collecting hehe. The store was even selling the sensormatic security system for $500. I ebay'd it, I see one going for $800 right now. Makes me tempted to go back tonight and buy that too :)

They're actually closing 500+ stores. Only two in my area, though. Movie Gallery (their ill-fated corporate parent) is supposedly filing for bankruptcy in a week or two. They bought HV two years ago for a huge sum and its been red ink ever since.

By the way - I made the "Now Playing" light up on my frame. Believe it or not, Home Depot sells a 2 foot piece of rope light. I fished it through one of the bulb holder holes and down to the end of the "Now Playing" box, doubled it back and tied it to the main A/C feed in the first flourescent. Looks great.

Cool. I was wondering about that, it looked like it should light up. I wonder if those two holes are for optional sockets.. -shrug-

Wow, if you can figure out the safest way to ship those, then you are really offering a good deal on those. The temptation is almost too great! :-)

Cool. I was wondering about that, it looked like it should light up. I wonder if those two holes are for optional sockets.. -shrug-

Mine has 5 or 6 holes that could have accepted bulb sockets. I don't know if they originally intended on installing sockets there or not, but placing the iso transformer right in back of it made it pretty much impossible. I was originally going to see if I could track down the same bulb sockets and move the iso transformer to the center. I figured I could light both ends of the box that way. But after the nightmare that was tracking down those light bulbs, I wasn't even going to try to find the sockets. The rope light worked great. I never thought I would be able to find such a short piece.

Well, that's a good idea and it sounds like it worked out. As far as shipping, I'm going to take one to a few shipping places tomorrow and have it packed up so I can get a firm price on shipping. Hopefully it won't be too bad, but the eBay auctions I've seen have shipping listed in the $100s so I'm afraid it'll be scary.

Then again, ebay is also the place where items are $0.99 buy it now with $20 shipping heh.

I have been driving myself crazy trying to find bulbs for these marquees. A friend of mine works for HV and I got a GREAT deal on mine. They have also been removing them from active stores so check them also. as for the bulbs, the idiot manager threw away cases of bulbs before I could get to him.

Can someone PLEASE direct me to where I may get some?

I have my marquees installed in the bar area of my home theatre. Everyone loves em.

BTW HV filed bankruptcy today.

VarsityCrewCoach - talk to Sid at Video Marquee (they're the original manufacturer) - 1-800-228-5768. These bulbs were specially made for these frames and they have a large supply of them.

Gotta love this forum, huh?