As rain fell on the Reitz Union on Tuesday evening, dozens of students scampered under the colonnade. They joined about 60 other students who were looking for that perfect decoration to put in their rooms.
"Do you have a poster of that painting with the dogs playing poker?"
"Yeah, it's in that book right there."
"Where's that ‘Pulp Fiction' poster?"
"It's the second book from the far end."
Jeff Apostolou, the manager for the College Poster Sale Company's tours in the Southeast, has worked for the company for 25 years.
He knows where to find every one of the 2,000 posters offered during the sale.
He organizes where the posters will be categorized before his company's fall college tour.
Someone asks Apostolou for help finding a poster about every five minutes every day of the sale, which started Monday and will continue every weekday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Sept. 3.
Apostolou never leaves the Reitz Union Colonnade during that time. For lunch, he'll eat a burger, but he eats it while standing at the poster sale.
He's also there until he puts the posters in storage, which usually lasts until 9 p.m.
Monday was one of his more stressful days, he said. The rain and winds made handling the posters difficult.
Before visiting UF, the eight-week college tour stopped at the University of Georgia, which began classes Aug. 16. He said Athens, Ga., is his favorite stop because it's a true college town with "funky clubs and nice coffee shops that aren't corporate and homogenized."
But one of the first colleges he visited was UF. He was 23 then.
The Gallery, which is located on the second floor of the Reitz Union, is entirely funded by 20 percent of the proceeds from the sale, according to Jill Keezer, assistant director for campus programs, which sponsors the sale.
The poster sale has been in existence for at least 30 years, Keezer said, because it was here when she came to UF 30 years ago.
There are about 1,000 customers a day, buying about two or three posters each, Apostolou said.
This year's popular posters feature Li'l Wayne and "Inception."
Each year, about 600 to 700 posters are switched out for new posters, he said.
Apostolou's New York City apartment doesn't have posters hanging on the walls.
"You find that when you see a poster for eight weeks under intense, stressful circumstances that it's not the most relaxing thing to have on your wall."
