The other day I said that I might post some of the boxing cards I got if people were interested and since I got a comment about them here they are.
51 Ringside Boxing cards is a 96 card card set that was released in two series. The first series seems to be way more plentiful because while I have about a third of the set almost all of them are from the first series.
Most of the boxers in the set I have never heard of. It has many famous boxers like Marciano, Lamatta, and Lewis but there are way more Goldstein's than stars.
Of the cards I got in this batch Beau Jack is the only guy I heard of, probably because of his four fights with Bob Montgomery. Although he was a two time champion his most famous fight was his fourth bout with Bob Montgomery in 1944. It is known as the War Bond fight and the only way to get a ticket to the fight was to buy war bonds. Purchasing a 100,000 war bond got you a ringside seat. They sold almost 16,000 tickets and brought in $36 million, a record at that time.
Every now and then I will search COMC for 51 Ringside cards and sort by the lowest price. Each of these cost me $3 or less. I used to get them for less than $2 but the prices on common boxers has kept rising over the years.
1951 Ringside has that little logo showing the guys who were champs. Out of curiosity I looked up Bartolo. He was called The Pride of East Boston and won the title in 1944. He lost the title in 1946 to Willie Pep who is considered by many to be the greatest Featherweight of all time. He is probably most famous for winning a round without ever throwing a punch.
Oddly enough when I think 1951 Ringside I think of the backs of the cards. To me, they have the best numbered cards of all time, baseball, football, you name it; these are my favorite numbered cards. They are big, they stand out, and they feature a boxing glove outline.
3 comments:
Nice looking set. I picked up the Ray Robinson years ago, because my father was a fan.
Great pick up. Robinson is one of the big cards in the set that sells in the $100 range.
I've thought about trying to collect this set multiple times over the years, but so far that's all it's been, a thought. I do have Max Baer, and that's only because he showed up for a couple of bucks on Sportlots like ten years ago. And I don't know if I'd say that they're the absolute best ever, but I do agree that the backs are pretty great.
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