I just overpaid for this one for my type collection:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cZYAA...D7/s-l1600.jpg
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/p1kAA...EA/s-l1600.jpg

Nice haul. Never hurts to pick up a Hoppe. He's basically the Babe Ruth/Ty Cobb of his sport. There was also a boxer with the same name, active around the same time. Most famous for getting most of his hands blown up in an explosives accident, and still being a fairly successful boxer. Don't think he ever got on a card though.

That's an interesting Dempsey.

Yeah, interwar Italian cards are one of many backwaters of obscurity in which i like to immerse myself. Not as cool as Ukrainian chewing gum cards, though. :)

Here's a couple of newer cards compared to what's been posted lately! Here's two cards that I just got back from SGC, found a complete 1998 Cardinal set in my parents basement. I sent the Austin in as a test, will be sending more in for sure!

A stack of Mayo's. I don't know how many cards actually constitute a master set even; the name at bottom cards come in multiple varieties and tones with major differences between images. Divining what was an intentional change and what just happened during printing is a line pretty much impossible to know from this remove.

The panel is right up my alley, unique oddities to complement a set run. The Mayo's are about the best of the 19th century boxing sets, 35 cards is a lot by 19th century boxing standards and the images are nice. Unlike most of the black and white cards of the period, the images don't really have a fading problem.

The Mayo name on bottom tone variations are vexing. Here's a Hall which is the most severe of the variations:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...310%20Hall.jpg

The layer of artwork is missing. Here is a side by side with a normal tone:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...comparison.jpg

I used to own that uncut two-card strip.

The vast difference and clear change to the artwork makes them, I think, true variations and thus necessary for a master set. Part of the fun of boxing is that I’ve almost never had an actual complete checklist available when starting a set.

As I recall, this panel is the smallest of 3 that at one point were all connected together. I think these 3 related strips are the only N310 Mayo uncut material, but what do I know. I’m happy to have it to add to my little stack of 19th century

It is one of a former three-piece strip. There is a strip known with Sullivan and Corbett on it.

https://auction.lelands.com/bids/bidplace?itemid=15476

You are never going to complete a master set with the missing artwork cards. I've seen two of them, this Hall and a Dixon. That's it.

I don't expect to complete N310, but I include all variations in a master set. I'd like to get to at least 70 eventually, but it's not a priority until I finish T220 (188/190), T218 (622/632) and T219 (145/200). "Until" meaning "Big IF"....


Got 9 more Silver's in this week, 8 from a friend and the McAuliffe off eBay. The McCoy is a cool one that has the layer of silver spread lightly over his name, making it quite faint. The Burke has a wet sheet transfer on the back I didn't notice for a few days, showing his name. Wet Sheet transfers are very common in the Type 2 white borders, rarely seen in the Silvers. Both the Driscoll's are the "stained corner" variation.

And here's some more from the week.

The Donovan is a very tough variation with the red ink from the background wall inked over the floor as well. I did not have this confirmed with the 649 back on this card until now. A member was kind enough to dig through his collection with me and then sell it to me. The Wagner red overprint variation was just the last one I needed. This makes my T220-2 Mecca set complete. I'm at 164/165 on the White Borders, just need Dempsey with a Tolstoi back, which isn't too too rare, just popular.

Batch of T225's, up to 96/250 on these type 1's. The 250 checklist is a presumption, I have not confirmed the existence of all theoretical cards yet. The cards were apparently done by Brett Litho. and Fulgraff, but the cigarette company was outside the ATC, I believe. The lack of a Jack Johnson makes this set fun to build 10 times over as it's light on my wallet and the cards look great.

I'm not picky on condition ever, but especially for tougher types. T224/T229 I've got ten cards now after deciding to go for the 80 card run a few months ago. That's a better pace than I'd expected to begin, it will quickly tail off. Not very popular but pretty tough.

I don't really fit into the modern hobby much, but I really enjoy the base cards of some of the old timers and historical figures. They aren't worth much, which is very nice. One of the things I'm doing is picking up John L. Sullivan cards. I just got the yellow plate in the mail, had the black one already. 2 of the 4 down. I have 3 of his 4 Goodwin plates. It's really, really, really hard to do a plate run, because the odds are 1 or more of them are in a box somewhere unopened, or the person who pulled them just puts them in their collection and never puts up for sale or mentions it. Lot of fun when they do appear, and rarely cost very much.

I grabbed this because it was only $4.75 and looked like it had silver boarders. It's just really dirty. The second picture is more accurate.

Just as a heads up, Wagner is impossible with a Silver border. There are 25 known silvers, 99.99% certain that's the true set size; a 26th card has not been shown and would be very difficult and odd to have done based on what we've learned from the sheet material. Images of Wagner's type, the solid backdrop with floor art style, are not available with T220-1 Silver. Silver's are all the outdoor non-FB poses, Choynski, Goldman (different from the styling of the 'in ring with background color' cards in type 2) and FB Randall/Belasco. If there was a 26th card, it would be Heenan, Mace, or one of the Fight Between cards, I think.

I know it just looked weird in the ebay listing and with the low price it was worth taking a look.

Overpaid way too much tonight, and not a boxing card, but it completes a set mostly collected by boxing collectors. #254 out of 254 possible Hassan cards. At 327/328 on Mecca backs, 42/50 on Tolstoi to finish. I've never heard of a complete Hassan set out there, and some of the cards have only been very recently confirmed.

Greg,


If you don’t mind me asking, was this a BIN off of Ebay?

I snagged it at auction off eBay, $51.11 after shipping and taxes. Which is too much for a track card in a very weak 5 (one of the corners appears to have an indent/crease). H2-30 is a tougher back but usually doesn’t carry a premium, there are some oddly rare Hassan combinations but Sedley is a normal one. Was hoping it would go cheaper but I’m a happy camper, can’t wait to crack it out and unify the complete set. 9 total T218’s to go, I’ll be very happy to get one card a year at this point.

Finally!!!!.....
 

w/ hands raised towards the gods. Took a long time to get this which is supposedly not so scarce.

Glad you snagged one. Have to show them all together when it arrives. Are you going to do his T219 cards with the same artwork?

Thanks. I'll scan them when it arrives. I believe I have the t219 but will have to check the binder later. This run was harder than all if the T206 "elite 11" runs I've built. Jeanette deserves some cred because it was an 18 month hunt. Not that the Tolstoi was easy but this one eluded me more.

The Tolstoi is much rarer, but H30's are notably tougher than the M30/M649/H649 backs. I love the Jeanette/Jeannette artwork with the bold yellow background.

There are 101 cards with the Hassan 30 back without the series 2 notation, 51 with the notation, representing 3 different major print runs.

Group 1) 50 of the H30 cards printed without without the series 2 notation, consisting of the Series 1 subjects minus Handy and Johnson (Green), printed after the Mecca cards. Johnson (Green) was added to production late, and printed with this back in series 1. Johnson (Green) series 1 cards are oriented so that with the back facing the correct way to read it, Johnson's gloves are pointing up.

Group 2) The series 2 subjects produced with the H30 back, without the 2nd series notation. Johnson (Blue) is a no-print, probably because of something to do with the late addition and continuation of his super-printed Green card, or because this time H30 led off Series 2 production and the Blue card had not been designed yet. The Green Johnson appears in this 2nd run again, oriented opposite of his original card, so that if the back is facing the correct way to read it, Johnson's gloves are now pointing down.

The Jeanette error is in this print run. Every one of his H30 no series notation cards has the error; none of the cards with the other backs do. There do not appear to be any short prints in this series. H30 cards are a lot tougher than Mecca backs or H649's, but there are many of them for every Tolstoi.

Group 3) The series 2 subjects, printed again with the series 2 notation added. Johnson (Blue) was printed this time, 51 subjects. Johnson (Blue) probably replaced Johnson (Green) on the production sheets that were often centered around multiples of 25. The Johnson (Green) does exist, though it is incredibly rare. I have only seen 2 copies of it and long offered a bounty simply for proof of its existence. It presumably is not worth much/any more than any other Johnson (Green) because almost nobody cares about H30's. The Hassan 30 cards with the series 2 notation are a bit tougher than the ones without it, slightly less common than Hassan 30 print group 2.

I'd rank the cards with this picture as, easiest to toughest:
Jeannette, Mecca seres 2 649
Jeannette, Hassan series 2 649
Jeannette, Mecca series 2 30
Jeannette, Honest Long Cut Black
Jeanette error, Hassan 30
Jeannette, Hassan series 2 30
Jeannette, Honest Long Cut Green
Jeannette, Miners Extra
Jeannette, Tolstoi
Jeannette, Red Cross

A nice Packey for my collection.

It is odd how many non-Olympians are included in the swimming and track in this set. Sedley is one of them. I do not collect cards, but I have been very tempted to pick up some of these as they are nice looking. I have original photos of almost all of the Olympians in the set. At least from what I can tell - Hartranft, Eller, Flanagan, McGrath, J. Sullivan M. Sheppard, M Sheridan, Hillman, C M Daniels, Ewry, Ruddy, Platt Adams, SP Gillis (last name misspelled on card), Riley, Pilgrim, Porter, Bacon, H Wilson, Crowley, Lawson Robertson, Budd and Kiviat. I have also had the signatures of many of them and currently have Hillman, Robertson and Kiviat. Kiviat was the last living person in that set from what I know. He died in 1991. Kiviat and Platt Adams played in the demonstration baseball games during the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Adams pitched for a mixed team which included members of the Vösteras Bäsboll Klubb. He did not fare so well, giving up four runs in the first inning. Kiviat played shortstop for the U.S. team going 2 for 4, including a triple, and stole a base.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to see some of your photos of these guys. The track cards are the 'leftovers' in T218, but I love them. Gorgeous cards and super cheap usually.

I don't know much about track history beyond what I've researched on T218 subjects, but it seems there are many fairly obscure track athletes featured, and many Olympians who were not. I think this probably has to do with Frank G. Fullgraff's (the American Lithographic salesman/project manager with tobacco connects who apparently devised, designed and out together many of the T card sets) social network and the release contracts for their images. Fullgraff was a long time sportsman and member of the New York Athletic Club, so the man who made up the sets and was probably in charge of the releases (judging from T225/T220), knew Sedley and many of the others personally. I have found little information out there on Sedley, he seems one of the most obscure of the subjects.

I like that they originally spelled Gillis correctly on the back but wrong on the front, and then created a variation by making the back wrong too instead of fixing the front.

Kiviat passed away at 99, 4 months after I was born. I've been looking for a signed Kiviat T218 card for a long time, there have been some blatantly fake signed T218's on eBay a couple of times, but some of the sets roster lived long enough for an autograph card to be a significant possibility. Kiviat seems the most likely to be out there somewhere.

I've seen almost no legitimate signed T boxing cards.

The most likely prewar boxing cards to find signed (besides self-issued promos and souvenir restaurant postcards) seem to be Exhibit cards. I've seen several Dempsey, quite a few Schmeling (modern signed since he lived to 100), several Sharkey (career-contemporary and much later), a few Tunney, and a smattering of non-title and lower weight classes.

Signed prewar strip and insert cards are rare. I have two and each appears to be signed decades after issue

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...y%20signed.png
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...signed%202.jpg

I just don't think these guys got hit up for autographs like baseball players, unless they were in the hospitality business.

I don't think I've seen even 1 possibly legitimate signed T card of a boxer.

But then again, I'm a sceptic and think most of the signed baseball T cards are frauds as well. The authenticators sure can't seem to tell what's real and what isn't as they keep getting caught certifying cards proven to be fakes as real. That there are almost 0 known signed T cards of a non-baseball subject (There might be a T118 Henson that is real I have seen, that's the only one I can think of) should be a red flag that the large influx of signed T206's and such are awfully convenient. Baseball was very popular, but so was boxing. Some of the post-Glory of Their Times cards are real, but I've lost any faith anyone is actually able to tell which ones are real and which are one of the many, many fakes of those guys.

There were the horribly faked T218's we had a thread on a year or two ago. I've seen a couple other obviously not real ones. This Goldman card was on eBay a couple weeks ago, stated to have a COA that was not shown or even said who from. Someone bet $40 it was real.

If there's a real singed T card of a boxer out there, I'd put my money on it being a Johnny Coulon or a Jim Jeffries.

As Abel Kiviat passed away in 1991, and was apparently in good health for most of his later life, I'd not be surprised if there's a couple modern signed cards of him out there.

That was the thread I thought of right away to. I had to track it down. For anybody that wants to revisit, it's here:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ht=signed+t218

Guys like Jeffries and Coulon and Abe Attell and Charley Goldman attended tons of old-timers events later in life, and likely handed out lots of autographs at these events. Probably not common in the least, but I'd be surprised if nobody ever brought a T card up for them to sign.

Here are some photos from my archives. I picked these as they were already scanned and sized to put on a website:

Probably a very rare Spalding premium of the gold medal winners from the 1906 Intercalated Games. The IOC does not like to include them in the Olympics, but most Olympic historians do. This is mounted on 3/16 inch cardstock with a slight curve to it. I believe there are at least 4 athletes in this photo who are in the T218 set. At one time I had the signatures of every person in this photo, including James Sullivan and Matt Halpin. I purchased a large group of items from the estate of the son of Isidor 'Jack' Niflot. He won a gold medal in wrestling in 1904 and competed in 1906. He collected autographs of all of his teammates on the back of his business card. I purchased them along with photos and other items.
Attachment 498458

Two photos of Platt Adams. His brother Ben was also an Olympian
Attachment 498459
Attachment 498460

Two photos of Charles Bacon. The studio photos are my favorites.
Attachment 498461
Attachment 498462

Ralph Craig - 1912 gold medalist in the 100m. I am not sure if he is in the set or not.
Attachment 498463

Charles Daniels
Attachment 498464

Joe Ruddy - won gold medals in swimming and water polo in 1904. Next to him is his son Ray who competed in swimming in 1928 and 1936. Ray died in 1938 at age 27.
Attachment 498466

Mel Sheppard - I believe this is a magic lantern slide.
Attachment 498467

Ira Davenport - I do not believe he is in the T218 set. I saw a listing for a lot of Pan Handle scrap cards and I believe one of them was him.
Attachment 498465

Speaking of Mel Sheppard, here's a 1912 Capital Candy & Cracker card of him:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...0composite.jpg

If you ever see a card from this set, buy it. They are extraordinary rarities and just beautiful lithos.

The Bacon is close to, but not quite, the one used to model his T218 card. The Daniels photo looks like it might be the one they modeled the art for his E229 card artwork on. Very cool stuff to see!

C.A. Briggs
 

I figured after all of the years that I've been lurking on this site, that I might as well start posting some of my new acquisitions. The C.A. Briggs although not exactly eye candy, it is pretty rare.

Battling Nelson vs Joe Gans
 

This is a recent Ebay purchase. I'm hoping someone may recognize it and have a little info, on what it is.. The card is 3 x 3 1/4 and talks about the Gans Nelson championship fight. The stock is pretty thick , like that of a cereal box or something.

You outbid me on that Briggs, Chad. A rare one for sure.

That other card is from the UK. I got one from the issue from a UK collection.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...nk%20issue.jpg

2 more for my Red Sun "set". Cards 8 and 9 since I decided to try to do this one like 8 months ago. Progress will slow considerably from a one a month pace, I'm sure. I frankly doubt I am willing to pay what a Johnson would go for at public sale, so I am unlikely to ever complete it, but I hope to get all the commons and guys-who-were-stars-then-and-nobody-cares-about-much-now.

These were, I think, blatantly overgraded in their holders. I think the Kaufman is probably a 2, not even a 3. Can't capture in scans, but in addition to the heavy edge and corner wear there is an indentation along the left side where it looks like both cards were once squished by an object, recessing the card stock on that side. I started cracking because I don't care about grading company opinions and the slabs take a lot more space to store, but I've come to learn cracking a card is important if I care what shape it's actually in: those slabs hide a LOT of damage. The Kaufman also is considerably short, though I don't think trimmed, it probably should have been a MINSZ reject if not a 2.

Even if one blows their nose with million dollar bills, I don't see how one can build this set and be too condition sensitive. I'm very happy to have 2 more. Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever took a different photograph of Al Kaufman...

A few other shots of Kaufman. :)

Kaufman
 

I wasn't sure I even had any Kaufman cards, due to I'm not much of a set collector. I think these Tolstoi's are all I've got though.

Snagged a few T backs :-)
 

Mail Day Friday :-)

Backs took a beating ... but a Boxer in the hand....

getting close on the T back set... I have a few for trade if anyone want to explore a trade...

Cliff

Attachment 500266

Attachment 500267

Adam,


Has the card arrived yet?

Thanks Chad

Yup. Took a month, give or take.

Dempsey
 

I received a package from Germany on Friday, after a little over three weeks en route. That’s much better than the 6 to 8 weeks from Canada, at the moment.

Hopefully it was worth the weight. It’s a really cool card, and one I’ve not seen before. I have to say though, I wish more of the European cards were a bit larger.

What did you get?

I like the smaller cards. I fit 'em 9 to a page in my album.

ILSA Sweets
 

This Carnera completes all of the boxers in the ILSA Sweets set. It's not much to look at compared to the Dempsey and Schmeling, but I still like it. The ILSA Sweets cards are hard to find without paper loss or stains from glue, due to they were supposed to be stuck in an album. I also find it interesting that I purchased the card from Germany, already in a PSA slab.

Slapsy Maxie's
 

I recently acquired this Slapsy Maxie's post card. It's also not much to look at, but it's a cool piece of boxing history.

Nice one. I have a few Slapsy Maxie's items including a snapshot with that photo on it.

After seeing some of Chad's Tolstoi's and Cliff's great find, it's almost shameful to share this one. But, it's been a few days since I've yammered about Tolstoi's. Lunghi here puts me at 43 out of the 50 possible cards. I will consider it a great win if I can add even one more T218 I need this year.

Tolstoi’s
 

Greg,


That’s a really clean Tolstoi!

These will look familiar ;).

Pretty nice stack in my eyes, the fronts are bolder in color than C52's are normally found. C52's tend to be less good on the registration front than the T218 print runs, faces for example are usually a little out of registration and these are no different. Almost all the cards have back toning and spots of toning on the front that I suspect are from decades long storage in the album they were in. This seems common in C52, the heavily browned backs that turn the ink a bluish/green are not a stock variant, just toning. I suspect it is common because Imperial Tobacco tended to issue albums for their cards that people stored them in and this setup has led to toning. The album this came with is certainly not the Imperial Tobacco album that could have been issued for the set. I do suspect one may have been issued though and could turn up.

None of these would grade higher than a 3 I think, but they look good and I never care much about condition anyways. This lot brings me up to 86 out of the 109 cards in the set, and gives me some dupes now that are available for swapping (hit me up if anyone is interested). I have to bump C52 up my priority list now, 23 to go isn't too bad.

I got the T53's, T73's and single C71 with the find. Plugged some holes in my T73 set and a lot of the T53's were small upgrades to my completed master set. C71 I have to research, looks pretty cool and I like the non-sport animal series', but that's for the other board.

C52
 

Very nice! I’m glad they went to a good home.