Most Undervalued Boxing Card/Set

[oldmanvintagecards]

Doesn't anyone have any other cards that they think are great buys, or have any great success or extreme failure stories with collecting and hoping for a rise in value. I always try to do about a 50/50 split of collecting cards that I like and trying to buy cards because they are too good of a value to pass up. When I purchase for value I try to flip the cards quickly, so that I can use the profits to buy cards that I like and not care about value.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by oldmanvintagecards

Doesn't anyone have any other cards that they think are great buys, or have any great success or extreme failure stories with collecting and hoping for a rise in value.

I don't think you are going to get much of an answer to this question because you are in essence asking that anyone who cares about investing in cards divulge to you his investment strategy, which is not exactly the smartest thing to do with a potential competitor.

[eagles33]

My choice would be 1965 Lampo cassius Clay with the text back.

[nameless]

2010 Ringside Round 1 Onyx Turkey Red. These things are going for a lot. So are the Gold variations which are 10/10. Been offered a lot for mine so I threw a couple on ebay wth some crazy prices to be a clown Not far from what I have been offered though...

[Box-Cards]

In my opinion, prejudiced as it admittedly is, almost all of Muhammad Ali's early cards (read: pre-1990s) continue to be undervalued, especially those from the 1960s-70s. Further, although the many of the more recent Sport Kings/Ringside and resurrected Leaf Company's issues which had certified Ali autographs incorporated into them may have realized some decent prices off and on, I think that in the not so far distant future those prices will be looked back upon as having been undervalued in worth over all...especially if, when and after the inevitable comes to Ali as it comes to all of us eventually. Compare what even Ali's earliest cards currently go for with certain star athletes in the other main sports and especially Michael Jordon's rookie cards. Among my favorite Clay/Ali cards are:

1. 1965 "Orange Background" Clay--tooted as being produced in Sweden, very few are ever seen and even less have survived in any real kind of great overall condition. While these may have been imported into Sweden and also distributed there, this card was actually produced in Holland originally, mislabeled here as being of Swedish origins in slabs by grading companies.

2. 1967 "Serie M.L.H." 3 known Clay cards; #s 48, 49 & 50. These were also produced in Holland and say so; backs with a "Cowboy Gum" graphics. These were originally produced by the Dandy Gum Company.

3. 1967-69 "Monty" Clay- here in the US suddenly referred to as "Perfetti" of Italian candy origins, but if any were distributed with Perfetti Italian candies, they were imported into Italy and used yet were actually produced in Denmark by Monty Gum. Both Holland's Dandy and Denmark's Monty companies produced HORDES of 'candy/gum' cards from among which many were imported by other countries' companies for their own marketing uses. That makes these other countries "distributors" of them, not originators. They exported their productions to Sweden before the Swedes began producing their very own "candy card" series; known to have done so into Canada, France, and Italy as well...who sometimes added their own stamped graphics or whatnot to their blank backs.

4. 1967 Spanish "Campeones Y Estrellas" album card is another favorite; still don't know who produced it originally though.

5. For U.S. favorites, I've always liked the 1975 large size two cards issued by "St. John's Ice Cream." This pair one seldom sees offered either.

[Box-Cards]

There are quite a few other South American, Mexican, Spanish heritage and other country's Clay/Ali issues from the late 1960s and 1970s that have been surfaced across the last 10 years or so, too. What I'm trying to do right now is decifer the extent of the 1975 Malaysian/Singapore origin Ali/Bugner commemorative Playing Card series myself, but I think that topic is worthy of starting its own whole new topic post if anyone is interested and might care to help me out.

Here is the Campeones Y Estrellas I forgot to include last time...

[eagles33]

Great info. Thanks! We're all of the perfetti cards issued as part if panels of we're some factory cut.
This sold for quite a but in eBay a while back. It was the only time I've seen it

[Exhibitman]

One of the 1975 St. James Ali's sold for $202.50 in February 2012. Only time I've seen it offered on Ebay:



Yes I am obsessive enough to save screen shots of listings...

[pkaufman]

Over 100 year old set with major stars and very tough even in mid grade.

[Box-Cards]

I've only seen this Monty Gum-Clay (aka: "Perfetti" Italy distributed) as a single before that recent 4-in-1 panel post. I'm speculating, but believe they were issued as factory-cut singles; the 4-in-1 panel likely being a sample sheet, or part of some larger uncut multi-card sheet. Anybody know differently, it'd be much appreciated if you would share so with us.

May I ask what fully was offered as an eBay description for that 4-in-1 panel?

There was a seller on eBay some time back liquidating a HUGE, extremely diverse issue years and topics' selection, Monty Gum card collection for an overseas friend of his, aged late 80s, who'd been collecting Monty issues for as long as that friend could remember. Among them were also uncut sheets, so we do know Monty either let such go or persons had access to them. I have to wonder if Monty would let such uncuts or partial panels also go to Italy except as possible sales samples.

The first time I ever saw one of these Monty-Clays was in 1996; my friend Bill Deaett (now deceased) had one he gotten off some (undisclosed) contact in Italy, saying he'd been sitting on it for a couple of years before then trying to find out more info about it first. He and I both attended the IBHOF Inductions in NY that year, with exhibitor tables at its Collector Show.

He showed me the card just before we two separately made the trip (and only because he intended to bring the card there to the show anyway, not for sale--but just to see if anyone knew anything about it.) Nobody did, but one big and highly advanced Ali card collector who saw it displayed made an offer for it that Bill said later he simply "couldn't refuse": $1,500.00

Since then, I've seen and tracked at least around (9) different other examples of it myself by chance. Only (3), and not counting Bill's which was NrMt, I would say were in the highest grade conditions. The real and full story completely behind this "Monty Produced" Clay still remains clouded.

[Box-Cards]

Thought I'd share it with you...because I created it.

Deceased (Dec. 2007) Boxing Historian, Hank Kaplan, was a very good friend of mine from the time we first met in Graziano's Lounge in Canastota, NY, at the 1991 IBHOF Induction Events weekend and right up to his passing. He was my primary mentor and key motivator encouraging me to keep working on the Ali Global Card Review project from the first time I mentioned working on it.

He was also the Chairman of the Selection Committee for IBHOF annual inductions and, as such, was not eligible to be nominated for induction himself by anybody else on that committee ... until the end of 2005 when he was talked into stepping down from his Chairmanship position so he could in fact be inducted into the IBHOF the next year, in 2006.

I had made the annual trips to the HOF's inductions for 9 years straight, 1991 to 2000, missed 2001, was there for 2002, then missed the next
three. When I heard Hank himself was being inducted in 2006, there was no way I was going to miss that one. I contacted him early and asked his permission to create a 2006 IBHOF Induction Commemorative card of him, 100 total hand-made, offering to meet him up there early to give him 75 of the 100 I would produced for his own use, my keeping 25 to help cover its production costs. He not only gave me permission, but then sent me the two photographs he would like me to use for it when I mentioned I wanted it to be simple without any text back, just mainly images with minimum face text. Hank's on its front; he is pictured with a young Clay along the ring ropes at the 5th St. Gym, Miami, in Chris Dundee's Gym on the card back.

Hank had an intimate relationship with both Dundee brothers before, during, and after Clay/Ali first came to Miami and turned Pro. He was officially the 5th St. Gym's PR Man and posed Ali for his very first "Cassius Clay" Promotional Cards--one pose of which became the basis for Ali's 1960's Exhibit card.

Of the (25) 2006 Induction Promos I kept of Hank's that year, I made sure to freely distribute about (10) of them to select dealers and exhibitors who also attended that year's IBHOF Collector Show--so that the card would legitimately acquire the providence of being considered in the future to be one of the only true IBHOF Induction Commemorative Promo-Cards that were ever released and distributed during one of the Hall's annual events. I don't really know what Hank did with any of the (75) other examples I gave him the Thursday before his Induction, but knowing him I'm sure he was generous in distributing some during and afterward. He got a real kick and was delighted when he was given them.

I saw one pop up on Ebay.UK a good while back. It auctioned off for a little over $4.50; as I figure it they cost me not just many, many hours to create but ran over twice that (min. $9 apiece) in material-supplies, etc., to do so.

Regardless I was personally involved or not, I think it is fair to nominate this 2006 Hank Kaplan/Ali-Back IBHOF 2006 Induction Promo as possibly being among THE most "undervalued" Ali cards out there today...such is life.