Latest Pickups

[G1911]

A pair of Queens to add to the set. These qualify as good image quality for this series.

[Exhibitman]

Yes they do. Worst stock of any T boxing set.

[sthoemke]

Back from PSA. Short print blank back. Only one graded.

[G1911]

Found some Tolstoi's at a low price so I couldn't resist. Sedley ended up being an upgrade, and the rest go to my trade box. I will trade several Tolstoi's for a Jack Goodman to finally finish my set. Snagged another Jeanette error too just because, which isn't that hard a card. His card is my favorite image in the set among the boxers, with the yellow ring backdrop

[G1911]

Picked up a Red Cross James J. Jeffries for a whopping $30. Makes for only 11/50 on my Red Cross set, but 159/200 for the T219 master set. Red Cross pickups are extra fun now because pretty much any new one completes a pose run.

Jeffries has a C52, 4 different T218's (Hassan and Mecca from each factory), and the 4 T219's, with Honest Long Cut in two colors, Miners Extra and Red Cross. Many T219's slightly change the back text to cut out a handful of words to make everything fit, Jeffries' card for example dropping the "recently" in context of the Johnson fight. Jeffries' card is one of only a couple though that update the fight catalog on the bottom portion, adding in his loss to Johnson. The C52 is not easy, but the Red Cross is the hardest and smallest. Why is a mystery to me, it wasn't a huge brand but it really was not some obscure regional brand as the rarity of the RC T cards alone would suggest.

[G1911]

And got in 5 more Red Crosses for my set build that a friend was kind enough to send these my way. The N266's are easier than the T219 Red Crosses, but still not easy at all, with typically 0 available on the market at any given time. This set is going to be a real pain to finish, as I need 1 of each card in each of the 2 types with the different copyright credit lines, 50 in total. If a set takes less than 20 years to finish, it's no fun though. They are very nice illustrations, giving a visual guide to just how different boxing was in the bare knuckle days and the very different approaches to defense and punching, with each card depicting a real historical fight pairing.

Corbett & Sullivan and Donovan & McCaffrey I had with the other typefaces in the copyright line. Corbett/Sullivan is the key card in the set so it's very nice to cross him off my list entirely, but Donovan is my favorite. Diving into his history with tobacco to try and find evidence for the T220 short printing led me to a few biographies and numerous articles about him from the late 1800's and early 1900's. Donovan either was a saint who dedicated his existence for the second half of his life to mentoring troubled young men and improving other peoples lives, or he had the best PR team on the planet. He has very few cards, his various backed and bordered T220/T223's, an N332 SF Hess, this N266 Red Cross, and in 2013 Upper Deck gave him his first card in a century in their Goodwin set. That's pretty much it. I've been lucky enough to add a gigantic larger-than-imperial size Wood Cabinet of him, but he doesn't have a ton of CDV's or cabinets I have seen to chase either. Not left for me to buy if I can ever find an N332 of him at a sane price.

Griffin/Lynch, Hall/Pritchard, and McAuliffe/Myers I didn't have in either type. Note the top of the Griffin/Lynch card, clearly the sheet margin placing this card somewhere in the top row of a sheet layout. These put me at 23/25 on a basic set, lacking only the Edwards/Collyer and the Smith/Van Heest.

[sthoemke]

Back from PSA.

1955 Nannina Campioni Dello Sport - Rocky Marciano PSA 5