I’ve been getting a steady stream of these packages in the mail lately. They’re large manila envelopes wrapped in string and covered with Mexican handwriting and rubber stamps. I am convinced my mailman thinks I’m smuggling drugs, but I assure you that’s not it at all — it’s even better!
I just can’t stop buying vintage Mexican lobby cards. They are readily available on eBay
and usually sell for less than ten bucks, unless they feature a popular movie. The lobby cards I tend to collect are for movies I’ve never even heard of, so they are fairly inexpensive. Compare these to the U.S. versions and you would easily have to double or quadruple the cost. Personally, I think the Spanish words with the low-budget illustrations make these even better than the U.S. versions.
The artwork on these is just cheesy greatness. I’ll do some detailed posts in the future, but for now, feast your eyes on some of the “great” art that attracts me to these mini posters…
Anybody else collecting these? What are some of your favorites?
Those Superman ones are awesome! Even though everything else is in Spanish, the Superman name is in English(is that because it is a trademarked name?). I also love the one with the giant octopus on the Golden Gate(?) Bridge. Nice finds Brian!!
Thanks, Jason! I don’t know why Superman is not translated. I think it’s probably based on the caliber of the franchise. If you’re big enough, your name needs no translation. Star Wars is another example of a movie that doesn’t get translated on these cards.
Those look awesome. Are they actually vintage posters or reprints of the vintage posters? Either way, i may have to look into these 😀
These are the real deal. They’re old and musty and printed on cheap paper, but I love ’em.
*jealous*
These are all killer cards! Would make an awesome addition to a movie room!!
I just wish I had bigger walls.
Just started to collect these. Lurid colors and subjects for the horror lobby cards. Pulpy style is wonderful. My postman will probably start wondering, too.
Excellent! Glad to have a comrade in the quest for these. The horror cards can be really amazing — and also really, really awful. 🙂
Well, awful and horror tend to go hand in hand often enough, so…I can cope 😉
Not being an expert yet, I’d still say it looks like the locally produced movies are a bit wilder in composition than the “foreign” ones. From what I’ve seen so far, anyway.
I just got my first Mexican Lobby card in the mail today too! I was wondering if all of them are printed on cheap almost poster thin paper like the one I received and unlike the nice thicker card stock of most other countries’ lobby cards. Did I get a fake? Or are all Mexican lobby cards really that thin and that cheap? Seems more like a poster to me, but damn, I love their cheezy art!
Johann- Welcome to the club! What did you get???
Most of the Mexican lobby cards I have bought are on a heavyweight, non-glossy paper stock. I think that the paper might have changed in the 70’s to a thin, glossy stock. I have a few of those and I definitely prefer the older, heavier cards.
I remember the first Japanese movie poster I bought gave me the same impression that you had — it was on cheap, flimsy paper and the colors didn’t pop off the page. I haven’t bought another Japanese poster since.
Got a couple ones from an old Cronenberg film, The Brood. Love the art and colors, I guess I was/am used to the older US lobby card’s card stock that has a thickness similar to a baseball card if that makes sense , not like the poster thinness of the Mexican one that I received. Film was from the early 80’s so I assume that the newer the film, the flimsier the paper right?
I have a few cards from the mid to late 70’s that are on this flimsy paper, so I suspect they just changed their technique around then. I have a couple of glossy heavyweight cards from the mid 70’s too. Prior to that, all mine are on heavy, non-glossy stock.
Hi, I was wondering if someone can please help me out…I have a bunch of lobby movie cards that my uncle left me they look old, and they’re all in spanish, some are American actors like John Wyne and lot’s of them are horror…someone plz help I wanna know how much they are worth.
Thanks!
Hi Bunny- Those certainly sound like old Mexican lobby cards like the ones I collect. I’ve written quite a few posts on this site about the cards I have in my collection, so you could view those and see if your cards are similar. Personally, I love these things, but their monetary value isn’t all that much. They typically sell for $5-10 on eBay, but if you have any horror or sci-fi movies, or ones with famous celebrities (like John Wayne), they would be worth a little more. You might check out eBay and see the “closing price” of “Mexican Lobby Cards” to get a good idea of what these sell for. If you have pictures, I’d be happy to take a look!