Hot boxing cards: Mike Tyson & Muhammad Ali

Big80s

Tyson and Ali cards have been fetching some outstanding prices lately.

1965 Lampo #154 - Cassius Clay (according to VCP)
*PSA just started grading these recently - but there are no reported sales yet.

BVG 4 - $565.55
BVG 4/5 - $625.57
BVG 6 - $835.00
BVG 7 - $1,125.00
**BVG 8.5 - $9,500.00


1986 Panini Supersport - Mike Tyson
*VCP doesn't have much in the way of ended auction prices for these, for some reason.

Link to recent PSA 10 that sold for $1,011
Link to BGS 9 that sold for $241 (good deal IMO)
I know there have been a lot more that have not shown up on VCP, but I haven't been recording any numbers. I think DPeck tracks these pretty closely - so if you have any numbers you can add - I'd love to hear them.

Dpeck100

There have not been any Tyson's that were graded sell other then the two you mentioned in quite some time. The three other examples that sold were two in the $305 range and the first one that was like $391 or something very close to that number. One of those graded 9's that sold was graded by BGS.

There is one PSA 9 on EBAY right now that that ends tonight that is currently at $222.


One card I saw sell for a big price a while back on EBAY and I have no way of knowing if it was completed is an example of this card.

Cassius Clay


If that prior sale was really I would expect some fire works on this auction.

Big80s

I've been watching that same Clay card. Only one other PSA 8 has sold and it went for $5,750.00 (according to VCP). If this goes for around a grand - it'll seem like a steal.

wrestlingcardking

That is crazy for that hand cut card in my opinion for that old sale..... I personally like the Lampo Clay as it is the first traditional trading card. I used to have the Hemmets and now I am wishing I still had it to hand cut it. Wow.

eagles33

I think the 65 lampo with text on the back is the most rare and has the most upside of any of his cards. A raw one sold for over 2k. There is a psa 7 on the pop report that I think would fetch huge money. Psa used to differentiate between the text and non text version. I had the psa 6 in the non text version which was the highest at the time. His 66 panini valida is also pretty rare. Only 5 have ever been graded compared to over 40 of the base 66 panini. . I like these options over the earlier hand cut cards. I think all of them are good investments though considering how scarce the cards are and that ali is in the same category as Ruth and jordan as one of the greatest and most popular athletes of all time

wrestlingcardking

Although the Valida is by far more rare I do not think that pop report is accurate with their data. I do not believe that they differentiated between the old back and the valida until a bit later. It has created some inaccuracy in my opinion but who knows to what degree....

gregmo32

The 1966 Panini is the card with the best all around pedigree of the early Ali cards. And I do agree that the Valida variation is a relatively new development in PSA's eyes.

eagles33

I wouldn't be suprized.... But even if you combine the valida and regular version ther is still less than 50. That is still pretty rare. It's not a card that is on eBay every day. Same with the lampo. Although I've seen them a lot more lately. I think a valida bgs 3.5 sold for over 1000 a few months ago and a raw one sold for about 75 a few weeks ago. The prices are all over the place. The no text lampo has been selling around 5-600 raw lately. I was pretty impressed with the eye appeal of the lampo card once I saw it in person. They have quite a bit of gloss for a random card from the 60s and the size and stock is pretty close to a traditional trading card. The 66 panini is much smaller and on very thin stock. I think since there isn't a single card that is agreed upon as his rookie kinda hurts prices... That and the obvious fact that boxing cards are not as popular as the other major sports even though Ali is just as popular as the biggest stars from the 4 major sports. The only Ali card that I think would be a bad investment is the 71 barret. It's pretty common and too late to be in the rookie card discussion.

Big80s

I completely agree that the '65 Lampo is the Ali card to have.

thenavarro

Hemmets all the way for me One of my personal favorite top 5 cards in my entire collection.



and me and the Champ about 18 years ago:

Big80s

That Hemmet's auto is something I've never seen. Very cool, Mike!

Big80s

Seems to be ending strong: Tyson PSA 9

Dpeck100

Yes that is an amazing collectible Mike!!!!!!


The Clay went for $2,800 which to me seems like a strong price.


The Tyson PSA 9 has a few minutes to go and is at $300. Just a few minutes to see what that bad boy goes for.

Big80s

The Tyson ended at $366, which is a sold price for that card in a PSA 9. That said - it's not the nicest PSA 9 I've seen, so I'm not surprised it didn't go higher.

DPeck - I think you should consider getting a few of yours reviewed. After seeing the PSA 10 that sold last week - I think you might have a strong case for a few of your nicer ones.

Dpeck100

I have two 9's raw and the fingerprint 9 that hopefully gets a PSA 7 or 8.


PSA is my grading company but I disagree on this grade.








This is the nicest Tyson yet to surface. I was one of the people affected by the Photobucket outage and got the upgraded version. The number of picture views on this amazing example says it all.


I do plan to get this reviewed because it is not debatable this is much nicer then the PSA 10 that sold. I have four 9's and 2 for sure raw and and this is the premier example of this card bar none.

Big80s

If the back is as clean as the front (that's what she said), it should bump.

Dpeck100

This is a 10. It is perfect. I pulled this straight from one of the packs when I opened the box and said this is it. I have a dealer I send my raw scans too that has a great eye and we both agreed flawless.


Centering on this issue is tough and this is 50/50 and the only one I have ever handled with this amazing centering.

Big80s

Pull the trigger!

hookem

Link to BGS 9 that sold for $241 (good deal IMO)

I was the underbidder on this. Funny thing is I thought I had won it at about $220ish then someones snipe beat my 1 click bids. In retrospect I wish I had gone a bit higher...

Big80s

Sorry to hear you lost out on that one. It was a really nice 9.

miconelegacy

I got outbid on the 9 tonight. I think at this point the Tyson PSA 9 is a solid $350 card. I just got beat out of this one.

Big80s

Sorry to hear that, Mike. There will be more, my friend.

eagles33

I think that boxing cards from 1960-1988 are very interesting because most sets have relatively low print runs and some variationms within the sets are very scarce. There also isn't a reliable resource to explain each variation and the print runs ect... I was about to bid on the cassius clay Perfetti hand cut card because I thought it was an early card and thought the picture uncropped was pretty cool. It turns out the card was actually produced after the lampo and panini. It still seems to sell for quite a bit though and I've never seen one that would even grade a psa 2. There was a complete panel that looked nm that sold for a few grand though. That seemed to be a card that big money was being thrown at that I had no idea what it was... The different variations that I've already mentioned are pretty interesting toom. Even modern issues like 1988 holyfield has a few different variations. I think the most common is the one with the soccer player named diaz on the back. There is another variation with a soccer player named skoro on the back and a 3rd variation with a regular back. The sknoro back is more rare than the diaz back but the text back is most rare I think. I've only seen the text back once on ebay. I have no idea what the source is for each variation. I'm guessing that one is italian, one english and one spanish.. Or something like that. If anyone has any idea please chime in. Besides panini which has quite a few great boxing rookies in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s.. There are the browns boxing sets in the mid to late 80s and 90s. I don't really know much about these cards either other than the fact they come in all different sizes and had pretty terrible quality controls on the early sets. I've never seen a factory set or any original packaging. I think the 86 holyfield and 97 mayweather are the 2 best Browns rookie cards that were kinda tough to track down

Big80s

Thank you for adding all of the great information. I agree with you, especially concerning the early Ali cards. These seem to have potential to be huge cards, especially with the heat they've had lately. I haven't dabbled in the Brown's yet, but I've come across quite a few of them on eBay. Those sets do contain some key rookies, as you've mentioned.

Big80s

<< <i>I think the 65 lampo with text on the back is the most rare and has the most upside of any of his cards. A raw one sold for over 2k. >>



This is crazy! I didn't see that auction end. Was this recent? I'd be curious to know just how nice the card was. I've picked up a couple of raw copies, but it's a really hard card to find in high grade (the centering is a bear). I'm following a couple of raw listings on ebay right now, and the sellers are asking over a grand for cards that are OC and possibly MC.

gregmo32

One of the main reasons I prefer the Panini cards and stickers to the other oddball type singles is due to the consistency of the brand over time. The name has been around now for 50 years in one incarnation or another, and their long run of producing cards for all sports, including the individual sports, is almost second to none.

Big80s

<< <i>One of the main reasons I prefer the Panini cards and stickers to the other oddball type singles is due to the consistency of the brand over time. The name has been around now for 50 years in one incarnation or another, and their long run of producing cards for all sports, including the individual sports, is almost second to none. >>



That's a really great point. The '66 Ali is definitely his first release by an established company. I'm a big fan of both the '65 Lampo and the '66 Panini. Not to mention - they're both incredibly hard to find in near mint condition.

eagles33

<< <i>

<< <i>I think the 65 lampo with text on the back is the most rare and has the most upside of any of his cards. A raw one sold for over 2k. >>



This is crazy! I didn't see that auction end. Was this recent? I'd be curious to know just how nice the card was. I've picked up a couple of raw copies, but it's a really hard card to find in high grade (the centering is a bear). I'm following a couple of raw listings on ebay right now, and the sellers are asking over a grand for cards that are OC and possibly MC. >>



The card has the standard terrible fuzzy right boarder and print dots. Looks like a psa 6ish IMO. It's such a gamble buying these cards because they usually come from sellers overseas who don't have a clue about condition. The one I bought that ended up grading a 6 was shipped from Italy in plain envelope with no penny sleeve or top loader or anything... It was just sandwiched between a folded index card. I was lucky it wasn't ruined. I would be shocked to a 9 or better ever surface... According to Vcp I think there is a bgs 8.5 which I would be very interested in seeing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180768836777?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_1094wt_922

eagles33

Jeez. There was a 1967 perfetti ali with pen marks all over the back. Someone was doing math problems on it and it still sold for over 200 bucks. I've seen this card for sle a lot lately and its always in terrible condition but consistently sells for over 100 bucks. I'm not sure why its so popular. It must be since its the uncropped pic that is on the lampo and 66 panini. I think people might think its an earlier card but from what I've read its from 67. I could be completely wrong... I'm just making that assumption based off other peoples descriptions.

Big80s

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180768836777?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_1094wt_922

Hey Eagles - what's the story behind this Lampo? I'm not familiar with that back. The seller lists it as a Valida, but I thought the Valida backs were something only Panini did.

eagles33

I have no idea how they were distributed or how much more rare the text version is. When I listed the lampo psa 6 I had on eBay I checked the pop report to put the info in the description. At the time psa had both versions in the pop report. They listed the text version as Edizioni Lampo I Grandi Campioni which at the time had a 5, 6,and 7 on the pop report. The more common version was listed as Collezioni Lampo I Grandi which had One 4, three 5s and one 6 at the time. This was around Christmas. It looks like one more has been added to pop report since then but for some reason psa merged the 2... So I have no idea what variety was graded. I do know that the 6 is highest for blank back and the 7 is highest for the text version. I don't own the 6 anymore.. So I'm not trying to pump it up.. Just throwing that info out there. There are quite a few graded by bgs though but I have no idea how to find it on their pop report. I was able to find a pic of the bgs 8.5. I don't have a worth point account but here is the auction.

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/muhammad-ali-cassius-clay-1965-lampo-68714651

Big80s

So the "blank back" version does not have an entirely blank back? I guess that's where I was confused. I'd never seen that back version on the raw card that sold for 2k.

eagles33

Right.. Sorry about that. It's not completely blank on the back.. The number is in the middle and it says I Grandi Campioni on the top and Collezioni on the bottom. The other version has a bunch of text and sol for 2 k. That was pretty high IMO. I've seen that version in auctions before and it's usually around 700-1000. That was a bile ago though and interest in this card has seemed to increase. Anyone able to find it on the bgs pop report? I'd like to know how many they have graded.

Big80s

Do you have a copy of the text back version? I have two raw number backs, but now I want a text back too!

eagles33

Unfortunately I don't.. I just have a psa 5 regular back and a psa 5 66 panini. I've been thinking about picking up a 1964 MacRobertson quiz card but haven't really been following the mkt on it. I think it usually sell between 100 and 300. It the first card that isn't hand cut but its not really a traditional card. It's like the question of sport cards... It's part of some Australian game.

Big80s

This why I love these boards, I learn something new about the items I collect everyday. Thanks again for sharing all of the info Eagles - and feel free to post scan of the cards you've mentioned if you have any handy.

MeteoriteGuy

<< <i>I have two 9's raw and the fingerprint 9 that hopefully gets a PSA 7 or 8.


PSA is my grading company but I disagree on this grade.








This is the nicest Tyson yet to surface. I was one of the people affected by the Photobucket outage and got the upgraded version. The number of picture views on this amazing example says it all.


I do plan to get this reviewed because it is not debatable this is much nicer then the PSA 10 that sold. I have four 9's and 2 for sure raw and and this is the premier example of this card bar none. >>




It looks too o/c top to bottom to get a 10 to me.

Dpeck100

Maybe that is the problem.

The corners are razor sharp as I pulled this one straight from a pack when I busted the box.

Big80s

I don't know - I like D's a lot better than the 10 that recently sold...



I think you're safer being off a little T/B, opposed to L/R centering. With that said - they're both extremely nice examples.

wrestlingcardking

I like DPecks better but not sure if either is a 10 with centering.....there could be a more perfect card out there but not many.....,

Dpeck100

1986 Panini Box $650

Did any board members buy this box? When I cracked one open I got two Tyson's out of the 100 packs.

I think this seller is very close to running out of high end packs and singles. He was pumping them out constantly for a while and has not listed a Tyson since his last one sold on January 9th. I am hoping we are reaching the end of what seemed like a never ending supply relatively speaking of course.

Big80s

I'm surprised that seller hasn't run out, as well. I have a feeling they're buying up everything in their neck of the woods and then listing it on eBay USA.

Dpeck100

I think this seller had a hoard of all kinds of Panini stickers and when the financial crisis hit and the economy in Greece and surounding islands blew up he had no choice but to sell. Things are really bad over there. I was just happy to keep soaking up a lot of the Tyson's and keeping them in my personal collection.

Big80s

Be honest - you have an entire display case full of PSA 9 quality Tyson's courtesy of our Greek friend, don't you? It might be hidden behind one of the Wrestling All Star cases, but I know it's there somewhere!

Dpeck100

The wall consists of my best three Wrestling All Stars sets with 82A, 82B, and then 83.

And then on the wall next to them is the case with the Hogan Wrestling All Stars auto's, quite a few Tyson cards, and some of my better duplicates of the Wrestling All Stars such as a Ric Flair PSA 10 and a Kerry Von Erich PSA 9.

Once I send of this fresh batch hopefully the PSA 8 Tyson comes out and the PSA 9 Kayo Promo and is replaced with two pack fresh beauties in a higher grade PSA holder. I praying the fingerprint one does not get hit to hard either.

Big80s

I'll be expecting an updated photo of that display then, my friend!

BTW - I picked up one of those beautiful display cases for my own place. I love it! I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out which 30 cards make the cut, though.

eagles33

I think the panini packs are really cool. I never even knew they were available until a few months ago when dpeck posted about his rip. I've opened a few packs of 86 but didn't get any rookies or stars. I also got a few packs of 1972 olympics panini cards..i didn't get anything in those either. The only good card in that set is dan gable rookie I think. There might be an ali card too. I would be very interested to see a 66 or 67 panini pack ever surface. I have no idea how the lampo cards were distributed but that would be a great pack too. it looked like you could see the top and bottom card on the packs. An 86 pack with tyson showing would be very cool. If I was lucky enough to ever get one of those I would def spend some time trying to convince psa to slab it.

Dpeck100

I don't think you will find a pack with him showing. Those packs were definately sequenced and the Tyson came in the middle with the Marvin Hagler foil card in both of my packs.

Perhaps Mike can chime in as he busted a box and got two Tyson's as well.


The worst part about opening those is you get a ton of stickers that are not athletes and simply show a picture of baseball, or snow skiing, etc. There are also a lot of the foil cards of individual soccer or football players as they are known there.

If you can get some of the star cards in high grade like I did other then Tyson such as Larry Bird or Steffi Graf you can make your money back on a box at $650.

wrestlingcardking

The 1972 Munich Panini cards have a weightlifting card of pro wrestler Ken Patera which is pretty cool if you ask me. I also have interest in picking up the wrestling card of Alexander Medved. Met that guy and got some autographs at the freestyle world championships and I am simply amazed by that guy. I would love to have his Panini card signed in the future and only have one in the collection right now. The Munich set doesn't have much for stars. I do like the Dan Gable rookie. I subbed about ten of those and got some pretty nice grades with numerous 8s and one 9.

Big80s

Completely OT, but how'd you do on the tennis and basketball stars you sold, D?

miconelegacy

No you can't find any packs with anyone showing as you can't see through. I did rip a box and pulled two Tyson's the night before I left for the National last year. Got them both Auto'd at the National. Sold the PSA 6 to Navarro I think. I don't know last year was a mess.

Here's the one I have Auto'd...



Here's the PSA 9 I won last year I think from Jeff Big80's...



I also bought this one from Jeff which I love...



Anyway I have a second box here unopened and after several negotiations I did buy that one which is my third. When I saw your post D I was pist at first as I thought he sold it to someone else for $650. He was at $780, down from the $900. But I explained that this is my third box, and it's been sitting for awhile. So I was glad to see your post, I checked and he sold it to me for $650. I am going to keep the two of them unopened for now...

I also picked up this one the other day. I know some of you don't like it, but I had to have it.