ANYONE COLLECT WRESTLING REVUE & BOXING ILLUSTRATED/WRESTLING NEWS?

[bluerosekiller]

I'm SO happy that I finally have something new to add to this thread.

As I said in my initial post here, I've been collecting boxing stuff ever since I first began following the sport back in '76 when I was 14. And, although I have a pretty nice large collection of boxing memorabilia that I've put decades into building, my boxing magazine collection is the only part of it that I've remained actively adding to for the entirety.

And even then, for the past couple/few years, the only additions I've made to it are new issues of THE RING & the UK's BOXING MONTHLY, which are really the only two magazines left covering the sport. I hadn't made an acquisition of a vintage issue in a very long time.

Which did, in fact, have a lot to do with my returning to the world of comic book collecting after a 30 year hiatus in 2010. It's what's taken up about 110% of my collecting focus these past ( almost ) three years. And, I'm loving it.

But then, I came across this thread back in August & I realized how much I missed my occasional vintage additions to my boxing magazine collection & decided to give that itch a nice little satisfying scratch every now & then when the right things came along.

But, for a couple of months nothing did.

Until last week when my usual perusal of e-bay turned up three offers that I couldn't refuse. So, I didn't.

Now usually, I'm MUCH more of a BUY IT NOW guy. I don't enjoy all the drama that goes with the bidding process. But, with these three things I kept at it & made sure that I won the auctions.

The first was a 8 issue run of BOXING ILLUSTRATED from 1967.

And the 2nd & 3rd were full year runs of THE RING from '70 & '71.

Which are just great finds in my book.

Although I do have some issues of THE RING that are much older, my personal tastes pretty much run from the late '50s to present & since I have everything from 1976 on to the present right off the newsstand in my collection & plenty more from the previous couple of decades already in there as well, I've got a pretty good shot at owning all the back issues of both magazines that I really want. I'd estimate that I'm probably already a good portion of the way there.

So, thanks much Batko for starting this thread. It really did give me that little push I needed to return my attention to something that I'd been ignoring.

 

- Jim

[Batko-migration]

So, thanks much Batko for starting this thread. It really did give me that little push I needed to return my attention to something that I'd been ignoring.

 

- Jim

 

You're welcome Jim!

 

It's difficult, but if you are persistent you can make some good buys on eBay as you did with the boxing mags. I'm with you regarding "Buy-it-Now." There's too much drama with the regular bidding auctions. Also, you are going to ALWAYS pay alot more for a quality item in a bidding auction. The only way to find an occasional bargain is with "Buy-it-Now" auctions.

 

Usually, those bargains occur when someone puts up on "Buy-it-Now" an item that he knows very little about and values it way too low. That's when knowledge is truly power. The only catch is that you have to be lucky enough to be perusing eBay shortly after the item comes up for auction or some other astute collector will beat you to it. That's why it pays to briefly check eBay throughout the day whenever you have a chance.

 

I have a few really old issues of Boxing Illustrated/Wrestling News in super condition. Of course, being a wrestling fan and fanatic Buddy Rogers fan they are issues with Buddy on the cover or with articles about him in the wrestling section.

 

Since my photos of my mags have too many KBs or whatever to post here I took some pics from the net and eBay as examples. My mags are in VF+/NM condition and much better condition than the ones below which are in the following order:

 

March, 1959 - Graham Brothers on cover my favorite tag team back in the day.

June, 1959 - Rogers on cover and article and pics inside.

July, 1961 - Rogers-O'Connor pre-title bout article and pics.

Sept, 1961 - Rogers defeats O'Connor for the NWA World Championship

 

 

Mike

 

[bluerosekiller]

Batko - Those are, indeed, real beauties.

NONE of which I have in my collection BTW, so I'm jealous.

Still, I have no complaints 'cause I've really cleaned up over the past two weeks.

In the end, I wound up with 14 issues total of BOXING ILLUSTRATED/WRESTLING NEWS ( RINGSIDE NEWS in the later issues ) & 26 issues of THE RING. Not a bad haul considering the length of time I'd gone since acquiring any vintage boxing magazines.

Again, I want to say thanks for this thread, it's absolutely what inspired me to begin actively collecting them again. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.

I even went out & bought a bunch of bags, boards & boxes for them so I could finally switch out my collection from what they'd been stored in for decades into more collection friendly homes.

Even though my rekindled love for my boxing magazine collection has cost me some of the funds that I had planned on using for my comic collection & will continue to do so, that's cool. I don't mind it a bit.

 

Peace,

Jim

[Batko-migration]

Again, I want to say thanks for this thread, it's absolutely what inspired me to begin actively collecting them again. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.

I even went out & bought a bunch of bags, boards & boxes for them so I could finally switch out my collection from what they'd been stored in for decades into more collection friendly homes.

 

Peace,

Jim

 

Let me suggest clicking on the following links to go to a couple of posts I made in "Fans of Famous Monsters of Filmland" yahoo group. I would strongly suggest archiving your magazines according to my technique - Micro Chamber Paper, Gerber Full-Back totally acid free boards, Mylar2 sleeve, Ultra-Pro Hard Plastic case.

 

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/Fans_of_Famous_Monsters_of_Filmland/message/86

 

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/Fans_of_Famous_Monsters_of_Filmland/message/186

[bluerosekiller]

Thanks much for the links Mike.

 

[Batko-migration]

Hey, Jim!

 

I just picked up three issues of Boxing Illustrated/Wrestling News, including ISSUE #1!

Issue #1 is interesting, because it is considerably larger than all the rest of the BI/WNs published afterward. I didn't measure it, but offhand I would say it is almost 2 inches longer and an inch wider than the normal BI/WN mag.

 

I grabbed #1 mostly because it is the collector's item issue, but it also had an article on the great Antonino Rocca, one of Buddy Rogers' arch enemies and, next to Rogers, the top drawing wrestler of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

 

The other two were the June 1962 issue and January 1963 issue. The former has a great pictorial article on the Buddy Rogers vs. Dory Dixon title match in Texas, while the latter has a photo report of first match of three that Buddy had with Cowboy Bob Ellis in the old Madison Square Garden on 57th Street. When I was 12 my dad took me to see the second match of the three. Buddy won the first and third. The second was a draw.

 

All three mags are in very nice condition. I would say around 7.5/VF- to 8.0/VF. By the way, they were "on sale" for 10 bucks each with 4 dollars combined shipping. So, for 34 bucks I picked up some really old issues with Buddy Rogers' articles.

 

As usual, my camera takes photos that have too many "KBs" for this site. The pics of #1 and the 1962 and 1963 issues are taken from the internet and do NOT reflect the condition that my mags are in.

 

Mike

[bluerosekiller]

Mike - That was an AWESOME deal you got there!

And, once again, I'm green with envy pal. But also, very happy for you.

Plus, now, after all these years of not only wanting a copy, but also being very curious about what the issue actually looked like. Believe it or not, I never knew until just now.

I mean, I've seen this issue up for bids/sale on ebay occasionally, but it was never advertised or described as issue #1.

Now, that I know what I'm looking for, it'll be much easier for me to eventually obtain it. So, thank you for providing me with this image of it. I've been SO eager to get a hold of #1 for over 30 years because I obtained #2 ( light heavyweight contender Tony Anthony was the cover boy ) with my first ever purchase of back issues of vintage BOXING ILLUSTRATED/WRESTLING NEWS back in the day.

 

Peace.

Jim

[Batko-migration]

Mike - That was an AWESOME deal you got there!

And, once again, I'm green with envy pal. But also, very happy for you.

Plus, now, after all these years of not only wanting a copy, but also being very curious about what the issue actually looked like. Believe it or not, I never knew until just now.

I mean, I've seen this issue up for bids/sale on ebay occasionally, but it was never advertised or described as issue #1.

Now, that I know what I'm looking for, it'll be much easier for me to eventually obtain it. So, thank you for providing me with this image of it. I've been SO eager to get a hold of #1 for over 30 years because I obtained #2 ( light heavyweight contender Tony Anthony was the cover boy ) with my first ever purchase of back issues of vintage BOXING ILLUSTRATED/WRESTLING NEWS back in the day.

 

Peace.

Jim

 

Jim, send me private message and I will give you the coordinates of a dealer who has mid to high grade BI/WN back isssues for very low prices. Also, here is a link that has photos of just about all of the back issues of BI/WN:

 

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Boxing_Illustrated

 

When you get to the home page scroll down and toward the middle of the page there are links to click on each year of BI/WN issues.

 

Mike

P.S. BI/WN ##1 & 2 were the only two issued in 1958. Below is a photo of your #2 with boxer Tony Anthony and wrestling tag team the Fabulous Kangaroos on the cover.

 

[bluerosekiller]

Big time thanks again Mike!

 

[bluerosekiller]

Mike, once again, I want to take a bit of time out here on this public forum to thank you for giving me the inspiration to get actively re-involved in one of my collections that I'd neglected for years. Rediscovering my passion for old boxing magazines has brought me much joy over this past several weeks & now that that passion has been rekindled, it's actually gotten me around to doing some reorganizing & other little projects with my entire boxing memorabilia collection that have needed to be done for at least a decade. A lot of which has resulted in me falling in love with stuff that I'd pretty much forgotten that I even had!

And, believe it or not, all this has even caused me to have a newfound love for the sport that I've been a fanatic of since 1976. Whereas MMA had usurped boxing's place as my favorite sport for several years now, over the past month or so boxing's actually fought it's way back to a more equal spot in my attention. If that makes any sense.

See, even though I always watch all the major fights & keep up with all the latest news, results & such by visiting my favorite sites everyday, I can see now that I'd been doing so for who knows how long in a rather passionless state. But, now, I find myself enjoying myself more as I do so.

Strange what a few old boxing magazines can do, huh?

 

Sure, it's eaten into my budget for other things, like my comic book collection & my monster magazines collection, but I don't mind the readjustment of my spending habits at all.

 

Peace,

Jim

[shadroch]

There was a wrestling mag that had a comic strip in it in the early 1970s.

The hero was called the Patriot and he'd go from promotion to promotion fighting the heels. What I found funny was one issue he fought King Curtis who appeared as a heel even though he was wrestling in WWWF as a god guy.

[Mark Philips]

Mike –

I saw those Rogers/Ellis matches at MSG, but different than you I was rooting for Cowboy Bob. And I was there on 5/17/63 when Bruno won the championship from Rogers being 12 years old at the time. I even wrote and sold my own wrestling magazine simply titled Wrestling Magazine. And much more! So yes, we have a lot in common! I was going to include some photos, but I don't know how to add jpgs to this reply. We might want to communicate further through email instead of replying back & forth on this site.

 

[Batko-migration]

Mike –

I saw those Rogers/Ellis matches at MSG, but different than you I was rooting for Cowboy Bob. And I was there on 5/17/63 when Bruno won the championship from Rogers being 12 years old at the time. I even wrote and sold my own wrestling magazine simply titled Wrestling Magazine. And much more! So yes, we have a lot in common! I was going to include some photos, but I don't know how to add jpgs to this reply. We might want to communicate further through email instead of replying back & forth on this site.

 

Hey, Mark!

 

Email sent.

 

- Mike