Sell to Us · Movie Posters & Hollywood

Sell the posters that came home from the theater.

Free visit · cash offers · no obligation

(949) 449-1255Text photos

California Vintage Buyers buys original movie posters and theater paper, from one sheets and lobby cards to studio worker estates: a free visit and a cash offer, no obligation. Call or text photos to (949) 449-1255.

Southern California is where movie paper comes from, and its houses still hide it: the one sheets a projectionist saved, the lobby cards from a theater that closed in 1968, the stills and scripts of relatives who worked the studios. Original release movie paper is a serious collecting field, and titles people assume are common can be five-figure rarities.

We buy posters, lobby cards, inserts, stills, pressbooks, and studio ephemera across the region. Folded is normal, restoration questions are our job, and reprints versus originals is exactly the judgment we bring to your kitchen table.

Hollywood paper we buy

One sheets and inserts

Original release posters from the silents through the 80s, folded as issued.

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Lobby cards

Single cards and full sets, especially horror, noir, and the golden age titles.

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Stills and pressbooks

Studio photographs, campaign books, and the working paper of film promotion.

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Studio worker estates

Scripts, call sheets, department items, and the keeping of careers behind the camera.

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Theater pieces

Door panels, standees, and the survivors of closed picture houses.

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Folded is original. Do not flatten anything.

Posters were shipped folded for most of film history, so folds are not damage; they are evidence of originality. Resist the urge to iron, tape, or frame anything before we look, and never trim edges to fit a frame. The studio-town estates we visit, from Burbank families to retired craft workers across the region, regularly hold paper the collecting world has been hunting for decades. Let us turn the stack together.

Sam and Jake of California Vintage Buyers behind a truck bed loaded with vintage denim from a buying trip
Sam and Jake with a truck bed of denim from one Northern California buying trip.

Our Word

One phone call is the whole process. A real person answers, we come to you, and you decide with a cash offer in hand.

How it works

01

Call or text photos.

A real conversation about what you have, no pressure to sell.

02

We come to you.

We look at everything, at your pace. We know what we're seeing.

03

Cash offer, same visit.

A fair price on the spot, or a full estate sale run for you.

Common questions

How do I know if a poster is an original or a reprint?

Printing process, paper stock, dimensions, and tell-tale markings. It takes minutes in person and is the single most valuable question in this category, since the answer can move a price by a hundred times.

Are stills and black-and-white photos worth anything?

Good ones, yes: key set stills, portraits by named photographers, and horror and noir scenes all have markets. Quantity helps; we happily go through whole boxes.

A relative worked at a studio for decades. What should we not throw away?

Paper, above all: scripts, call sheets, IDs, department memos, and photographs. The everyday material of studio work is the hardest to find and the most loved by collectors and archives.

The posters are creased from being folded. Should we iron or flatten them before showing you?

Please leave them exactly as they are. Studios shipped posters folded for most of film history, so those creases are part of the object and often help confirm an original release printing. A household iron sets the fold permanently and can lift the ink, tape yellows and stains through the paper, and dry mounting for a frame is close to irreversible. Professional flattening and linen backing exist, but they are a decision for after the poster is identified, not before.

We have a stack of lobby cards from a theater that closed decades ago. How do we tell what we are holding?

Original lobby cards are 11 by 14 inches on card stock and were issued in sets of eight, usually numbered in a corner along with the studio name and a release code. The title card, the one with the artwork and full credits, is normally the strongest card in the set, and a complete set is worth considerably more than the same eight cards sold apart. Keep the set together, keep them flat and out of sunlight, and do not trim the borders or peel off old theater tape yourself.

One call. We’ll take itfrom there.

(949) 449-1255
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Mon-Sat 6 am-8 pm · Sun 8 am-5 pm

A real person answers seven days a week, weekends included. Photos sent today are usually answered the same day.

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