Sports collectible finds in strangest places. Lets hear yours

[Writehooks]

I lived and worked in Beijing, China, for 14 months in 2004-05. As a lifelong boxing collector, you can imagine my shock and awe one winter afternoon when I wandered into one of the ubiquitous smoke shops that dot the capital and saw that every inch of the back wall — an area of about 8 feet high by 20 feet long — was adorned with photographs, posters and clippings of Muhammad Ali. About half the stash was printed in Chinese; the rest was English, Japanese, Korean, etc. The young lady who served as my interpreter explained to the shop owner that I was a huge Ali fan, and, through her, we had a terrific hour-long chat about 'The Greatest.' When it was time to say goodbye, the gentleman presented me with two pinbacks commemorating Ali's visit to Macau in the mid-90s.