REA PSA 3 T227 HLC Johnson

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

True. I just looked at a 9 year history of the 1937 Ardath Louis on PSA's site and prices have basically stagnated throughout. Some stuff has gone very high:

--Johnson
--Tyson
--Modern RCs: Pacquiao, Holyfield
--early Clay/Ali
--PSA 10 1990s cards

Some stuff has been moving up but not spectacularly, mostly the heavyweight champs and legendary lighter fighters like Duran, Hagler, etc.

Makes me wonder what would happen if genuinely rare stuff was offered for sale.

Your list is basically what I've noticed, it's this small subset of items going sky high. I've hardly seen any actually tough cards come up for sale since the pandemic response began, "don't see every day" cards that take some time and patience haven't moved on the whole, but I would suspect potential sellers are holding for now and that's why the listings have been dry. I just got a T225 G white border for $10, same price as my first one 15 years ago, but not a lot of stuff much tougher than this tier has been popping up at all.


Perhaps Johnson's prices will be sustained by the narrative around him, not sure anyone is really going to start caring about boxing history that much as the sport continues to generally be outside the mainstream. Glad I bought some Johnsons for my master sets when I did. Johnson T218 being 100X Jeffries T218 is insane to me, but what the heck do I know! The others seeing large price increases can be explained by the influx of free time + cash into the US, with a strong nostalgia element. Nobody who cared about Johnson is alive now, and unlike baseball history that remains a popular interest with people, almost none of the much fewer boxing fans care much about a century ago. I thought after his prices failed to change much in 2018, probably the last time he will be prominently pushed into the public eye much, that they weren't going to go up that much. I was sure wrong!


Still need both his Honest Long Cut T219's, and his common T218 Mecca S2-649 card. Those are sure going to hurt now.

[scooter729]

Originally Posted by G1911

Still need both his Honest Long Cut T219's, and his common T218 Mecca S2-649 card. Those are sure going to hurt now.

What do you mean by BOTH his HLC T219's? He has just the blue version in T219, right? Or are you referring to a factory variation?

[G1911]

Originally Posted by scooter729

What do you mean by BOTH his HLC T219's? He has just the blue version in T219, right? Or are you referring to a factory variation?

T219 has four backs possible

Honest Long Cut Black
Honest Long Cut Green
Miners Extra
Red Cross

Honest Long Cut black is 2-3x as common as the Green text HLC back, which is something like 2-3x as common as Miners Extra (in my humble, completely uneducated opinion). I’m trying to do a 150 card set since the Red Crosses are just not a realistic goal unless I stumble across a find of them. I’m about 99% certain all cards exist in all backs, though I have not yet confirmed all Honest Greens exist

Johnson (Green) pose definitely doesn’t exist in T219.

[scooter729]

Thanks for the info - I assumed that was what you were referring to, and not that there was a green version. But just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something!

The black vs green back info is helpful - I’m not an expert on T219s so I wasn’t aware of this...

[Exhibitman]

T219 Red Cross are ridiculously HTF. I think the most I had was around 15 and that was because I found seven of them at a card show. Now I am down to one or two (not sure; been a year since I went to the bank to visit the rare stuff, but I plan to get over there once my 2nd dose of vaccine kicks in).

I wonder what would happen at auction if some of the nasty stuff was put up. I may test the waters with a few items and see.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

T219 Red Cross are ridiculously HTF. I think the most I had was around 15 and that was because I found seven of them at a card show. Now I am down to one or two (not sure; been a year since I went to the bank to visit the rare stuff, but I plan to get over there once my 2nd dose of vaccine kicks in).

I wonder what would happen at auction if some of the nasty stuff was put up. I may test the waters with a few items and see.

There was that one complete set a few years ago, and then a few months ago someone bought a lot of 22 ripped up beaters for $25 on an eBay BIN (still disappointed I missed that one). Those are the only times I recall seeing Red Crosses in any kind of quantity, been tracking T219 since 2004. Still need one as a type card, been the underbidder on a few. I doubt there are more than a couple dozen of any 1 front out there.

Will be interested to see what yours sell for if you test the open market right now.

[Exhibitman]

Well, I am keeping the Ketchel but I supposedly have a Patsey Kline too. Damned if I can find it, though.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by scooter729

Thanks for the info - I assumed that was what you were referring to, and not that there was a green version. But just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something!

The black vs green back info is helpful - I’m not an expert on T219s so I wasn’t aware of this...

I have yet to run into another collector that really cares about the Honest Long Cut color difference; people seem to care about the 3 brands only for this one. I guess it is not a particularly exciting variation, but the T219 Johnson doesn't appear often with any back, or so it seems to me!