An original poster for classic western Stagecoach (1939) sold for £39,000 ($52,680) in a Welsh auction last week.
The lot was one of a cache found by two builders under the flooring of a home they renovated in the mid-1980s.
The posters were found in the home of a former cinema owner
They kept hold of them for decades.
The haul also featured a poster for the 1939 Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone. It made £13,000 ($17,560).
In all 70 prints of varying condition and rarity appeared in the September 15 auction.
Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones told Wales Online: “The builders who found them were at the auction and one of them got quite emotional as they were being sold...
“We made just short of £60,000 from the sale of the items...
“To see them go for how much they did was fantastic...
“The main competition for the higher priced items came from America, but there were also some British buyers who got the less expensive items.
“We knew there was going to be a demand for them because these are 1930s never-been-seen posters.”
Incredibly, this kind of thing happens more often than you’d think.
In 2013, a Minnesotan builder discovered an ultra-rare Action Comics #1 (featuring the first appearance of Superman) that had been stuffed into a wall as insulation in the 1940s.
It later sold for $175,000.
That said, it’s not a great idea to go ripping your floors up looking for treasure (unless you have the homeowner’s permission of course).
Please sign up to our free newsletter to receive exciting news about movie memorabilia auctions.
