The True Rookie Card of Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali???

[steve B]

Certainly a lot to think about.
One of the great things about learning more is being able to essentially abandon the defenitions of Beckett and other catalogs or price guides and decide how to define things for yourself.

That may not work for dealing, but for collecting it's good.

I wasn't familiar with the early issues, so I went looking for pictures.
Here's how I look at it.

The Hemmetts I'd think of as cards, but only the complete pages. They came with a product- a magazine and were in a series. That they were made to be put in a binder isn't a big deal to me. I'm thinking of them like the SI for kids cards or the vintage style cards that came in baseball cards magazine. Although they're closer to the sporting news or LaPresse inserts.

The Rekord are a bit different, they're certainly unusual. I don't think they campare to the SI faces in the crowd because they have a defined sizeand a border. Faces is really variable and never a border plus the bio information is to the side. But they're part of the cover, so a bit borderline. I couldn't really tell, but if the magazine mentions something along the lines of "cut out and save the pictures of athletes on the cover two different each issue" Then I'd lean very far towards calling them cards as well. The card inserts in the first couple issues of SI are similar. (SI again.....hmm) The various cards printed in newspapers over the years are more similar. Series, intended to be cut out and saved, just made on newsprint. There are a number of more mainstream cards printed on very light stock, and the 1960's Topps paper proofs would be considered cards. If they weren't mentioned as something to be cut out and saved then maybe a bit less.

I'd count stuff issued as part of a game myself, but I can see where some people might not.

I'm also surprised there isn't an Italian olympic set from 1960. Hosting the games was a huge deal for them and there being no cards seems odd.

International cards I think should be counted, especially in a sport like Boxing. For sports that are less international counting cards from the main country makes some sense. But a lot of sports are more international than I'd have thought. Maybe the only one it makes sense to count only US cards for would be American Football.

Steve B