Boxing Posters For Sale

ESPN.com’s Boxing site posted a terrific article today about the history, collectibility standards, and emotional pull of promotional Fight Posters entitled Fight Posters Still Getting it Done. Jabandgrapple.com immediately wondered a few things:

1) Where can I buy these historic timepieces?
2) Could they be had for a reasonable price?
3) Do any hold any artistic or design value?

Question #1: Where can I buy these historic timepieces? www.ebay.com was my first thought. And yes, they have hundreds of fight posters on auction. There may even be one on there that I have my eye on. Usual ebay problems apply: their stock is always changing, authenticity and quality is not necessarily guaranteed, but you might get a good deal.

In the past year this Max Baer – Rocky Marciano poster sold for $133 on www.americanmemoribilia.com while this Ken Norton – George Foreman poster went for just $55. Are they rare or valuable? I have no idea. But they are nice looking.

The best place to start you search and get an idea of the market is Bob Pace Boxing Memoribilia. He’s got 18 pages worth of boxing posters all authenticated and heavily scrutinized for quality. I’ve spent far too much time paging through his listings. Pace’s site calls itself “one of the largest suppliers of Boxing Memoribilia in the World.” It would be hard to argue against this claim.

Question #2: Could they be had for a reasonable price? It seems. The most expensive posters on Pace’s site run at $2,500 but most hover around the $50 to $200 range with the more recent fight posters selling at around $25. The poster’s value is directly related to both its rarity and the significance of the fight. Ebay prices are unpredictable but if you know what you’re looking for you might get lucky.

Question #3: Do any hold any artistic or design value? I was really disappointed on this end. The older posters tend to be either bland listings of the fighters involved or uninspired prints of boxers’ faces or full bodies. There’s rarely any cleverness or fun. One exception is this Max Baer – Primo Carnera poster.

The 70′s and 80′s posters are dominated by the works of the handlebar-mustachioed Leroy Nieman and his splotchy colorful semi-abstract works. If you don’t like Nieman’s gaudy oils (and I don’t) then you’re out of luck during this time period. He seemingly did the poster for every major fight.

The 90′s and the 00′s have proved even more design deficient. The even gaudier than Nieman Pen & Pixel gangsta rap CD-cover styled design has taken over. Sadly, clever and subtle graphic design only rarely made its way to boxing posters. The emphasis has always leaned towards substance over style and information over abstraction.

In our next entry we will be posting pictures and links to our favorite Mike Tyson posters that Pace sells. A few cool Iron Mike designs do sneak through the cracks.