1951 Topps Ringside Boxing Near Set With Extras, Plus Five Meccas (130)

Presented is a very attractive near set (89/96) of the colorful 1951 Topps Ringside Boxing issue, easily the most coveted and important postwar boxing set that is headlined by the only career-contemporary card of legendary undefeated heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano. The elegant 2 1/16-by-2 15/16-inch cards feature attractive, vivid paintings of boxers from several eras, providing an unmatched collectible for boxing fans. Some of the cards were issued in pairs with a perforation. The two keys – No. 32 Marciano and No. 88 Joe Louis, are represented in SGC 4.5 and SGC 4 holders, respectively, and provide a nice glimpse into the wider condition range. The near set is missing only seven cards, which are listed at the end of this document. In addition, there are five turn-of-the-century Mecca Boxing cards included in the lot as well, also detailed at the bottom. There are 32 doubles included in the mix, including a couple of boxers with three examples. The broader condition range is a bit better (and wider) than these classics are typically encountered in mature collections, essentially equal parts of around 20 percent for Ex-Mt, Excellent, Very Good (29 percent) and Good, with about a half-dozen cards above to Near-Mint and a handful below to Fair. Here’s the breakdown of keys: Nos. 2 Armstrong – Very Good, 5 Cerdan – VG, 6 Walcott – Excellent-Plus, 12 Conn – VG-Ex, 24 Braddock – Ex-Mt, 30 Zale – Near-Mint, 32 Marciano – SGC 4.5, 44 Zale/Cerdan – Good, 51 Willard – VG-Ex, 54 Jeffries – Nr-Mt, 55 Fitzsimmons – Good, 59 Corbett – Ex-Mt, 63 Canzoneri – Good, 66 Firpo – Nr-Mt, 73 Gavilan – Ex, 88 Louis – SGC 4, 95 Tunney – Ex-Mt and 96 Charles – Fair; and 1910 Mecca Cigarettes T218 (5) – mostly Good to Very Good, including Jeffries, Coulon, Cross, Loughrey, Nitchie and Hart (T220). The missing numbers from the 1951 Ringside Near Set (7): Nos. 3, 11, 13, 31, 34, 43 and 49.