Rudy Franchi, long time appraiser on the PBS series Antiques Roadshow, has launched a new web site called PosterAppraisal.com. Franchi recently sold his company, The Nostalgia Factory, and its associated website, nostalgia.com. He continues to work as a consultant to Heritage Auctions of Dallas, the firm he now represents on The Roadshow.

PosterAppraisal.com is an information-only site. Approximate values of what an item would fetch at auction will be given, but nothing will be bought or sold. Franchi will offer advice as to the best way to realize the value of the item, but he will not be involved in its actual disposition.

Franchi and his wife had run the Nostalgia Factory for 36 years and the web site since the mid nineties. They are authors of Miller’s Movie Collectibles, a major text on collecting movie posters. The couple ran poster auctions for Skinner of Boston, Heritage of Dallas and Christie’s New York. They have done appraisals of posters and ephemera at several major institutions and Franchi regularly speaks before groups about trends in collecting

The site contains links to a large number of other poster information sites as well as a guide to posters sizes and formats. There is also a link to Poster News Bulletin, Franchi’s widely read blog.

http://www.posterappraisal.com