Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

My parents and I, about 18 years ago, were at an estate sale. And these posters were mixed in with some admission tickets for a local theater in our town, and my dad was very interested because he knew these movies and had seen them in the theater, so...

APPRAISER

And how much did he pay for them at the yard sale?

GUEST

A dollar for the whole lot, which included some other posters.

APPRAISER

Wow. Well, they are called lobby cards. They're 11x14, printed on card stock paper and they were meant to put in the lobbies of the theaters to kind of show some of the scenes from the film. This is a title card, and it has the portraits of the two stars, and that's the most important thing about these, that it's Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

Who were huge horror icons. And because of that, they're really collectible. There's a major market for them. The film was put out in 1940. These cards look like they were made yesterday. There's virtually... look how white the borders on them are. The corners are very crisp. They're in really excellent condition. And perhaps it's because you had that original sleeve helping to protect them all these years. You have seven of the eight cards. There would be eight, so we're missing one scene card, which is not as important as the title. Title's always the most important one. So the cards would probably at auction sell between $3,000 to $5,000.

GUEST

(laughing): I'm shocked.

APPRAISER

Yes, and this card in particular, the title, is the most expensive one of the set. This card alone would probably be anywhere between $2,500 and $3,000 at auction. So you did well on a dollar.

GUEST

Yes, I am so excited!

APPRAISER

If this were a Dracula title card or a Frankenstein title card because of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, their most famous roles, they would be over $50,000. They could be $80,000 and $100,000.

GUEST

I'm very happy with that.

APPRAISER

You would be even more happy.

GUEST

Awesome, thank you so much.

APPRAISER

Thank you.