What's the draw?

[Writehooks]

I'm curious about what draws you to collect boxing, and if that reason is reflected in the focus of your collection. My primary focus is cards, photos and ephemera of the linear HW champions from Sullivan to Foreman (first reign) because they symbolize a time when that title was the most prestigious in all of sport. My secondary focus is on-site posters and programs of '60s HW contenders (particularly George Chuvalo) because they were the guys I grew up watching on TV and religiously read about every month in The Ring and Boxing Illustrated. Thanks in advance for your thoughts ...

Murr

[nameless]

I like tobacco related antiques. I grew up boxing and wrestling and to be honest the history, which most I have learned from the members of this board, is fascinating.
My Two Bitcoins...

[Exhibitman]

I was at a show in the early 1990s and found a pair of 1948 Leaf cards: Benny Leonard and Barney Ross. The Leonard references that he was a Jew and I'd vaguely heard of Ross before. I could not imagine two Jewish champion fighters; we don't do that. Manage fighters, sure. Do their taxes; we are so there. If you want a lawyer for a boxer a member of the tribe is likely. But an actual Jewish boxer? I bought the cards and took them home to show my father. He looked at the Ross card and said "I think my cousin Ray fought him." I was stunned and point out that if he had a cousin Ray who was a pro boxer then I had a cousin Ray who was a pro boxer. Shortly after that I picked up a few boxing exhibits. Then eBay comes along and I find dozens of Jewish boxer cards. I bought the Ring pictorial history of boxing to learn more and was a dead man.

My collecting still is ethnocentric. If I have a choice in a type card from a set I will opt for a Jewish fighter. Like my N310 examples are Choynski. And of the half dozen fighters I collect one is Leonard.

ETA: cousin Ray is my avatar. My father was right; he did indeed fight Barney Ross:

[th38larg]

I grew up watching college football, pro wrestling and, in my high school years, boxing. I remember hearing my dad tell stories about watching Ali fight and memorable Penn State squads over the years. (He swears that while he attended college he was in the same gym class as Franco Harris and apparently beat him in a "foot race".) As a result, what gets me really interested in a sport/team/event is hearing the backstory and folklore that surrounds it. As was mentioned previously in a post, the history of boxing is too rich and colorful to resist

In terms of collecting, I've always done it and as a kid I gathered rocks, stamps, coins, baseball cards, football cards, pennants, bobbleheads, etc. These all faded away as I plowed my way through undergrad and grad. Now I finally have some disposable cash and my collecting bug has reemerged (this time with a little more focus). I have some sets that I focus on, but I'm always excited to get my hands on new, interesting pre-war paper related to boxing or college football. Anyhow, that's my short story.

[steve B]

I don't collect boxing specifically, but I've pursued the T220 and T218 sets and have some 48 Leaf and a few other items.

I like the old sets. They're nice looking sets, and more affordable than any of the baseball.

I got into sports as a Kid at just about the perfect time. Mets 73 series, The Dolphins unbeaten season, Ali-Frasier II, Aarons HR record, Ali-Foreman, The 75 world series the next season, The international six day motorcycle trials in town in 73, first time ever in the US.

There was a lot of great sports between late 73 and summer 77, and as a Jr High kid in a fairly rural area it was all even bigger to me. Sort of the beginning of realizing there was more world out there and that it was pretty exciting.

I also got into listening to shortwave radio, which was also pretty cool. I'd send letters to the stations with details of shows and mentions of how well the signal came in, and they'd send back at least a postcard verifying I'd heard them. Some sent more, Radio Havana sent me stuff for years. Program schedules, decals, new years cards, Pocket calendars showing south American revolutionary heroes.......The people at the post office must have been amused at least.

Steve B

[scooter729]

I enjoy collecting boxing items from the turn of the century, just because it was the era when a heavyweight boxing fight was such a huge glamorous event. I collect other sports from other eras, but really enjoy the boxing items from the 1890s - early 1900s.

Couple of items....

[wondo]

I collected primarily baseball for a few decades and it really came to whether or not I had the funds to buy one of 100s of a sample of a card. With boxing, not only was the stuff cheaper, but it was harder to find. Lots of just neat old cards that there may be less than ten examples known. That is cool (to me). Its also a new history that I can get into - I've learned a lot and have only scratched the surface. Its made collecting fun again.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by wondo

I collected primarily baseball for a few decades and it really came to whether or not I had the funds to buy one of 100s of a sample of a card. With boxing, not only was the stuff cheaper, but it was harder to find. Lots of just neat old cards that there may be less than ten examples known. That is cool (to me). Its also a new history that I can get into - I've learned a lot and have only scratched the surface. Its made collecting fun again.

I don't collect boxing but do as you said in the baseball arena (collect scarce stuff)....and yes, it's a bit expensive but it's only money!!

[sebie43]

I used to watch boxing with my father all the time, (Lennox Lewis heyday) and he got me a subscription to The Ring magazine and I ordered alot of back issues, specifically the special editions such Top 100 punchers of all time, and all time weight class rankings. After my father passed I really lost interest in a lot of that. I always enjoyed collecting cards although it was specifically football at the time. I gave up on that too.
But late last year I bought my first T206 which really got me back into card collecting (I collected bobbleheads and went to alot of games), While going through my searches for T cards on the bay I came across a T218 Joe Gans and it all came back to me. (wow this was the guy I read about when I was 10).
So Im drawn to the boxers life stories in a way, and the history boxing had in America. But I guess for me the draw is really just memories.
Sebastian