The magazines appear to be un-circulated with no mailing labels. There's also mention of early prototypes that I imagine hard core completists would be going after.
I think many here are under-estimating this collection. Maybe not 100 Grand, but I have to imagine Heritage knows what they are doing in regards to this grouping.
It also appears that the grading craze has caught up to Sports Illustrated collectors based on recent realized prices on Ebay, and I imagine some of these issues will bring surprising prices if they score high grades without mailing labels.
In particular: Anything from the first few years, first Cassius Clay, first Michael Jordan, first Larry Bird, first Magic Johnson, Prefontaine, first Lebron James, first Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, many of the swimsuit issues appear to be popular, etc., etc., etc....
Unfair to compare them to a typical mid-grade collection of these that several select issues might be cherry picked out of.
.......and I'm saying this as someone who really does not like handling Sports Illustrateds at all. I handle thousands of boxing publications and the boxing related Sports Illustrateds I have are all stacked in boxes in the far corner of my attic, and I won't even go near them, because nobody wants them unless they're 1st appearance Cassius Clay.
I won a huge publication collection from an auction house a few years ago, and I flew out to pick them up in a moving truck and drive them back home. I was so worn out from carrying boxes to the truck and I wasn't convinced I had enough space back home to store them, and I left most of the monster boxes full of SI's behind. A part of me wishes I had gone through them better to cherry pick them a bit, but looking back, I don't think I really had it in me at the time.
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