Mexican lobby cards are fun and cheap collectibles. Unfortunately, bootlegs started to come to the market over the last few years.

Here is an authentic Mexican lobby card. Notice the Storm Troopers head extends into the border area of the card. The card is also pretty beat up. All original Mexican cards that I’ve seen have condition issues. This doesn’t bother me and I tend to stay away from mint looking cards because they may be bootlegs.

            (click on thumbnails for full-sized photos) 

The first bootleg is very obvious. The bootleg has a much bigger border around the entire image. The card also is mint and very white compared to the original. The artwork in the bootleg is also much smaller than the artwork in the original and the Storm Trooper head does not jut out into the border. The paper is also much rougher than an original, but you won’t notice that on a picture.

Now, there is another type of card that is currently being sold. I am not completely positive that these are fake, but my gut tells me they are. These bootlegs do not have a border on the card, which could mean they were trimmed at one point. The problem I have with this theory is that a quick search on eBay shows about 99% of all Mexican cards regardless of the movie has some sort of border. The artwork on the card is slightly smaller than the artwork on the known original. They seem to be in better condition with slightly more vibrant colors, and finally the cards are much whiter than the original. As a careful measure, I am staying away from these cards.

Here is a card without borders.

Notice the slight size difference of the artwork. The bootleg is on top.

Here you can notice the color differences. It’s easier to see from the back.

Like I mentioned before, I can’t be conclusive that the no border cards are bootlegs, but evidence seems to be against it. At this time I have not seen a bootleg Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi card.