By Pete Vilmur

If you’re a Star Wars collector, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve had to pare back some of your hobby purchases in these economically challenging times. But there is still a great way to get that collecting fix on a budget – if you’re willing to explore the world of vintage collecting!

Not the world of mint-sealed-on-card vintage collecting, but the eccentric, exotic, eclectic world of ticket stubs, disco singles, foreign paperbacks and iron-on transfers from the ‘70s to ‘90s. Treasures abound in the under-$10 category of collecting, if you know where to look – and what to look for.

As an exercise in budget collecting – and a way to relive some great finds of the last year — I thought I’d go back through my collectible purchases of 2011 to find those pieces I felt were exceptionally good deals, even if they’re not what some would categorize as mainstream (which frankly makes them even more appealing!). Most of the following – with a few exceptions – were had for under $10, and required just a little bit of adventuring beyond the usual Star Wars collecting categories on eBay:

Jan 10: British Jar Jar Binks Pencil Case (£3.97)

Yeah, I know, first one out of the gate and it’s a Jar Jar collectible. This was actually the fourth piece I picked up after the new year, and just couldn’t resist those cool retro-style graphics that just scream galactic-groovy.

(See more 2011 frugal finds after the jump!)

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Star Wars poster collector John Williams (no, not that John Williams) recently linked us to a blog maintained by poster restoration studio Poster Mountain to share a rare insider’s view of mounting a billboard-size Return of the Jedi poster on linen.

“Linen-backing” — a reversible technique which bonds a poster to a sturdy, acid-free linen/substrate to both strengthen the original and make it easier to display — is the preferred method of conservators to preserve fragile or large pieces of paper, and we can think of no more stunning an example to showcase the technique than Williams’ uber-rare 1983 French Return of the Jedi billboard, a strikingly beautiful artwork by French illustrator Michel Jouin measuring a monstrous 118″ X 156″ (which means you’d need a 10-foot high wall just to display it!).

“I have owned this poster since the mid-eighties and have wanted to do this since then,” says Williams. “It has only been opened 3 times — once when I bought it, once to make sure that it was complete upon delivery, and once for linen-backing.”

The huge, 8-panel poster is quite rare and few, if any, have ever been linen-backed for display. Williams is just glad to finally have a chance to display such an exceptional piece of early Star Wars advertising artwork. “Life is good in the Star Wars poster universe for me.”

Click here to see step-by-step just how this rare poster masterpiece was prepared for viewing for the first time in nearly 30 years…