Just saw some Lobby Cards for the 1976 movie Gumball Rally (Loved the movie as a kid)

Never knew these existed

What exactly are Lobby Cards?

Look to be oversized cards that are individually wrapped

Are they hard to find (other than the auction site)?

They are usually 8 by 10 or 11 by 14 in size and are in sets of about 8 of them, but there are exceptions to both of these points.

They were literally made to be displayed in the lobby of the theatre showing the movie depicted on them, hence the their name. There are lots of nice sets and most are affordable. Some are very valuable, though, the ones from the original Star Wars being a good example of that. Those from the Golden Age of cinema are most valuable ones of all. Only one known example is known for some of them, and some are lost entirely. They weren't meant to be saved, and not many were in the early days of film.

One nice thing about modern ones is that they are often made for the international market, too, and while the titles on those kind aren't often in English, they tend too show different images from the movie than the U.S. set, so if you really like a movie, you can chase all the international versions of them. They are great for autographs, too.

They were never supposed to enter the public domain, they are the property of the film distributor and were supposed to be sent back when the film run ended but in lots of cases they became " lost " along the way.

There are lots of copies about though so wary.

True, and the movie posters themselves are usually marked the same way, but most of those eventually get onto the market, too.

I have picked up a few lobby cards and posters over the years. Years ago I was really into the film, "Zulu" with Michael Caine. Picked up a full set of Lobby cards and poster for a great price. I still see lobby cards for sale, often at the Chicago card show, there are a couple of dealers who have had them and I picked up a couple of odd ones. Usually they are in pretty good shape, sometimes a pin hole in corner. Because they are large, 11 x 14 or so, they are hard to display so I just keep in them in a folder.

Along with these, there are also "press kits". These usually have fact sheets, production notes, and cast lists along with varying numbers of 8 by 10 glossy photographs from the movie, usually in black and white for reproducing in newspaper reviews and the like.

These have generally been replaced by "virtual" kits, cd-roms and the like, but the hardcopies were available for most movies up until about 10 years ago, and some of those are also very collectible.

I have quite a large number of Lobby Cards in my Ray Harryhausen collection covering all of his films from the original 'Mighty Joe Young' through to his final film the original 'Clash of the Titans' back in 1981. As has been said, they range in size from 10" x 8" up to 14" x 11". Sets are generally eight cards but can be 10 or 12. There are variations in different countries for any given film too. For example in addition to using different pictures from the film, the Golden Voyage of Sinbad cards are mirror images in the US and UK sets, i.e. they use the same images but reversed so the sets appear to be different.

The press kits can be really nice if you can get complete ones. 'Clash of the Titans' included all the usual fact sheets, photos and such but also came with large 10 x 8 transparencies. Sadly, I have never been able toget my hands on a complete set of those

I would hate to have to try and replace some of the cards and photos I have collected as they are either very scarce or would be very expensive or usually both.