There are inserts from a number of films released in the 70’s and early 80’s that are available from a small number of sellers on eBay in rolled near mint condition and in seemingly endless supply. They are probably the most controversial posters in the hobby and opinion is divided on them; those who sell them say they are genuine NSS printed inserts, everybody else in the hobby thinks they are bootlegs. They are the infamous “minty white” inserts, so called because of the bright, glossy and white cardstock they are printed on, so bright, glossy and white in fact that they could have been printed yesterday! (If in fact the general consensus is that they have been around since at least the mid-90’s.)

Fortunately they are relatively easy to identify and you don’t have to put them side-by-side with originals to spot them. In most cases either the art was cropped in reproduction and/or there are small printing defects which will allow you to identify the bootlegs.

The Return of the Jedi Style B insert features artwork attributed to Kazuhiko Sano.

The key differences between the bootleg and the original are:

1. The contrast between Darth Vader, the Death Star and the space background. In the following photo the bootleg is on the left, the original on the right.

  (click on thumbnails for full-sized photos and again for zoom-in)

2. Art crop on the left border: the Gamorrean Guard has the tip of its fourth finger cut off on the bootleg

3. On the right border Lando’s microphone(?) touches the white border.

In both cases the bootleg shows cropped artwork.

There are many people selling bootleg Return of the Jedi 8×10 lobby cards as real. Most of the sellers list them for $19.99 and show crappy pictures to make it difficult to determine if they are real. I don’t know if these are the only bootlegs for these lobby cards, but they are the only ones I was willing to buy to see what they were like. First, the easiest way to determine if your cards is fake is to check for a number at the bottom left corner of the cards. For some reason, the person who scanned in the cards cropped out the order number of the card. Take a look at the picture. The bootleg is on top. Notice the missing number

.            (click on thumbnails for full-sized photos) 

Another way to determine the bootleg is to check for printing errors. I don’t know if this was only done on my copy, but there is a noticible streak on the upper left corner of this card.

The bootlegs are also a bit smaller and the card stock is noticibly whiter than the original. An original card should have a slight yellowish or cream tint.

Finally, if you shine a flashlight on the bootleg cards, the ink on the cards produces a photo-negative effect. The original cards do not have this problem.

eBay scammers will try to take poor photographs to pass these off as originals. I recommend that you ask for better pictures or skip the auction.