- This topic has 5 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
I used to work part-time at Barnes & Noble and I have a few of these sitting around my house. They’re 2′ x 2′ promo transparencies that hung over a light box in the music dept. Basically, like viewing an x-ray in a doctor’s office. I’m doing a household purge and, before I get rid of them, I wanted to see if they have any value. Tried a bazillion search terms, but didn’t come up with anything. Does anyone know if there’s an official name for them? Thanks. Here’s a picture of one of them:
-
I do not know the exact name of that kind of promotional material but here are a few ideas.
1. Go to or call Barnes and Noble and simply ask to speak to someone in the music section and then ask them what it is called.
2. Harry Connick Jr. is still a big name with a big fan base, so I would not throw that away.
3. Promotional materials seem to have some value
https://www.amazon.com/harry-connick-jr-poster/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aharry%20connick%20jr%20poster
4. See if there is something else you could pair it with and then sell them as a set. -
Yes.. they are called “Translites”. We used to produce many of these types for various customers who used flourescent light box type of displays.
We produced them by first starting with a thin, translucent styrene plastic sheets. Then we silk screen printed the images, menu items [Menu strips or food items], tools for Stanley Hardware, clothes and models for Victoria Secret’s and many national store chains, on the back side of the styrene in a mirror image sequence. We started with the darker detail colors first [wrong reading image], then worked our way backwards to the lightest color white usually was a thin transparent white – milkey color. We then took the sheets to the bindery department and either cut them down to a square or rectangle format if they were going to be slide into a light box style [your x-ray description] type of box or into sub-way light boxes up around the roof of the train car or bus, or die cut them to an irregular shape if they were going to be hung from something or applied to a window. We did large ones for bus shelters which we called translight shelter signs.
The thickness of the styrene would vary depending on how we quoted the job and what type of back lite display box was to be used. Thin ones could be rolled and shipped in tubes but also had to be slide into a box type display that had a milk translucent piece of plexiglass to support it. Thicker material was used for pieces that would go into displays that did not have any such support or hung from some structure.
You did not say how thick yours was but is probably a thin translight based on the type of light box display you described.
Prices to produce them usually ran [depending on size] from about a $1.50 to $2.00 +/- for a small size, and a large human size such as for Victoria Secret and tight quality control of the color and dust spots [cleanliness] to $10 to $20 each. We usually produce 5 to 15 varying images per store, them times the number of stores. Sears [in it’s day] along with Walmart was a larger customer and we would produce thousands for them per promotion and did numerous promotions for our various customers.
In my opinion, there is no real value in the object but more so of the image of the person, subject or celebrity. We used to do life size images of NASCAR Drivers and various sports figures which were high in demand. Also the Life Size Victoria Secret Angels were extremely popular, especially right before and after their annual fashion show. I actually built a large percentage of over run [extras] into those jobs knowing full well many were going to grow legs and walk out the door, especially during third shift.
We also produced many styrene pieces on “opaque” materials where we surface printed in a correct reading format. We did all the clock faces for Swatch, Seth Thomas, West Clox and General Electric for years. The plastic was preferred because it was moisture proof and did not buckle in humid conditions like paper litho printed dials did.
Hope this helps and also gives you a little back ground just for fun.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
-
Wow, Mike! You’re a veritable fountain of information. Would’ve never come up with “translite”. Thank you so much! In a cursory search, looks like they’re popular as replacements on pinball machines. Not sure how much value they’ll have unless someone decides to invent a Harry Connick, James Taylor or Michael Bolton pinball machine, but you’ve given me a great start on the research.
Thank you, too, AdventureE. Calling B&N seems like such a logical first step. Don’t ask me why I didn’t think of that myself.
-
Terri.. the local B&N may know, but usually those types of promotional items were purchased by corporate buyer from the main office. Those purchasing agents cut PO’s for all of the material from vendors like us and then had us drop ship them to all of the stores in kit form. We included instructions in each kit on how to apply, insert, assemble and so on. Many times the local stores, managers included did not know a whole lot about the individual items. Just that they had a promotion for the next two weeks, corporate told them to hang these items and so on. You may hit pay dirt so it’s worth a try but don’t be disappointed if you strike out at the local B&N.
mc in atl.
-
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.