new (1949) boxing card found- Page Milk Company

[Leon]

Anyone ever see any of these before? I got it from a board member at the National. They are uncataloged as of now....there are some baseball players too.....

[Writehooks]

Leon –

I believe the Louis is a 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread card, from a cataloged set that includes 44 baseball players and 4 fighters (Louis, Primo Carnera, Jake LaMotta and Marcel Cerdan). They are blank-backed and printed on thin stock with rounded corners. I have seen other versions of Louis and Carnera with different "sponsor" stamps on the back, which would suggest they were used as giveaways or premiums for grocery stores, etc. Some of the cards were reprinted with square corners and sold in boxed sets in the mid-1950s. While the genuine round-cornered '47 boxers are not uncommon, in good shape they usually in the $25-$45 range. The reprints from the '50s flooded the market a few years ago thanks to a massive warehouse find and are worth considerably less. Hope this helps.

[Leon]

Thanks WriteHooks.

As I was speaking with the SGC guys about what to put on the slabs we spoke about the fact that the mfg's didn't actually "make" the cards. In other words we know Bond Bread didn't mfg the piece of cardboard that they distributed. For that fact we don't believe these should be catalogued as D305. I am well aware of the Bond Bread issue, rounded vs. square corners. SGC won't encapsulate the square ones because of exactly what you said, all of the fakes/reprints. With this header card as provenance we believe these correctly should be labeled "Page Milk Company" cards. I am always open to friendly debate about these issues and this is exactly what still keeps the hobby fun for me. I also have some baseball players and they too have the stamps on back and have been encapsulated. best regards

[clamendo]

I've seen them before in an old-timer notebook. He had about handful,they were blank-backed. I remember the rounded corners. I guess I was mesmorized by the pages of high grade Pet Cigarette boxing cards and T226 Red Suns and didn't pay too much attention to those. I like to offer card - its really neat. Good find !!

[Exhibitman]

Here are the fronts of all four cards. Note that Carnera wasn't really a boxer by this time but was a wrestler.