What are the coolest/ most special items in your collection?

[Alcazar84]

I apologize if this question has been asked before, but I'm new to the forum and really enjoying reading about what everyone else collects. I've been a fan of boxing for most of my life, but I only started collecting about 2 years ago. It's great being a boxing fan because you can get some amazing pieces of history at really affordable prices compared to what lengths a baseball fan would have to go through to get the same kind of item. Not to mention you can still find some great treasures out there that are of little to no value to the general public, so you can get them for a steal.

Here are some of my favorite items. Not necessarily the rarest or most valuable, but favorites none the less.

1888 Jack Havlin Tobacco card - I sold a gentleman a baseball card over Ebay, and he sent me this card for free! What luck!

"Slender Billy's Studio" - This is an aquatint from ca. 1841 depicting two men sparring in a British Prison. It's a great image and a nice piece of history to pick up that put me back about $8.

1909 RPPC of Johnson vs. Jeffries - I picked up a set of two of these for about $80. I immediately turned around and sold one for $100 and kept the other, so it was like I got it for free. I see a lot of these that depict relatively mediocre images floating around listed at high prices, but mine is of a particularly good close up image of Johnson and Jeffries clenched in battle.

Last but not least, my collection of engraved plates from the Boxiana plate volume ca. 1839. What a great collection of images of the earliest of champions and contenders. I love reading their biographies in the volumes of Boxiana that are free to read online. My favorite of the bunch is the Jack Slack in full fighting pose, a rarity as most of the other images feature the fighters in portrait form.

What about you? What are the most prized pieces in your collection? What great steals have you found?

[Exhibitman]

Pre-1870 John C. Heenan CDV by Fredricks. This is the earliest verifiable boxing card.



1904 Jeffries-Munroe cabinet card by Sporting Life magazine. Printed rather than photographic, and double-sided. Only one specimen is known.



Benny Leonard standup card from the Flying Fists serial.



Adam Hats Jake LaMotta premium. Only one I've ever seen.



An Israeli "Cassius Clay issue from the late 1960s. Blank backed and on thin paper.



1938 NX5 American Sweets Joe Louis



1919 Dempsey-Willard PC



My favorite PC of the Rock, ever.



A very tough die-cut Joe Louis restaurant PC from the 1950s



A mail response card sent by the studio to fans who wrote in about Jack Dempsey's serial "Daredevil Jack."



A ticket from one of the light rail systems in Los Angeles, from December 1936, depicting Joe Louis



A ticket and rain check from a bout night at Jim Jeffries' Barn

[attellfan4life]

First buisness card my great grandfather is on the right. 1910 Red sun card of my Great uncle Abe Attell, and 1910 Pet Cigarette card of Monte Attell

[attellfan4life]

E80 1910 of both monte attell and abe attell. Also Exhibitman your collection always amazes me.

[Writehooks]

I wish I could post of photo, but I'm currently living and working in Beijing and don't have access to my collection back home

That said, my favorite piece is a professionally matted and framed group of items from the first bout between Muhammad Ali and George Chuvalo at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens on March 29, 1966. The display includes the official fight program (the only time in his career that Ali was promoted as 'Cassius Clay Jr.'), the on-site commemorative pennant (one of less than a dozen known), a ringside 'golden seat' ticket stub ($100), and two Canadian Press action wirephotos of the fight, signed by Chuvalo. There are custom-made 'doors' in the back of the matting to allow the program and ticket stub to be removed.

What makes this collage so special (besides rarity) is that I've been friends with Chuvalo for 25 years and had the honor of co-authoring his autobiography, which will be released by HarperCollins in Canada and the U.S. this fall.

[boxingcarddigest]

Looked for one of these for ages, and found this in an antique shop.
Just love the card:



I have just always found this card cool:



Just becuase of the awesome display behind him:


And just because these are the coolest, most wilkd cards ever made:

[wake.up.the.echoes]

David, welcome back (from the dead?)!

Excellent stuff, guys.

My prized boxing collectible (glad I decided to hold onto it):