So, I got into looking for some Mike Tyson boxing cards recently. It wasn’t like I woke up one day and decided to be a huge collector or anything. It really started when I was cleaning out some old boxes in the garage. Found a bunch of stuff from back in the day, and it got me thinking about things I was into when I was younger, you know? And Tyson, well, everyone knew Tyson back then.
I remembered watching his fights, the excitement, the knockouts. Pure electricity. So, just out of curiosity, I went online. Didn’t even know if they made boxing cards for him like they did for baseball or basketball. Turns out, they sure did.
Getting Started
First, I just browsed around. Places like eBay, collectors’ forums, that sort of thing. Saw a whole bunch listed. Some were graded, looked super professional, and cost a small fortune. Others were just loose cards, sometimes sold in lots. I wasn’t looking to invest or anything, just wanted something tangible, something to remind me of that era.
I decided to start small. Found a listing for a handful of cards, maybe 10 or 15 of them, from different years. They weren’t mint condition, the seller was upfront about that, which I appreciated. Said they were ‘well-loved’, haha. Put in a bid, didn’t really expect to win, but I did. Cost me less than a pizza.
The Process
Waiting for them to arrive felt kinda like being a kid again, waiting for something you ordered from the back of a comic book. When the little padded envelope finally showed up, I opened it right away. There they were. Different photos of Tyson, some in fighting pose, some just portraits. The back had stats and little bits of info.
- I laid them all out on the table.
- Picked each one up, looked at the front, flipped it over.
- Some corners were soft, a few had creases. Like the seller said, well-loved.
- Didn’t matter much to me. It was cool just holding them.
Spent maybe an hour just looking through them, sorting them by year as best I could. It was interesting seeing the progression, the different stages of his career shown on these little pieces of cardboard.
What Happened Next
Did I get hooked? A little bit, yeah. I went back online and looked for specific cards. Maybe a rookie card, or one from a particularly famous fight. But then I saw the prices for the really sought-after ones. Wow. People take this collecting stuff seriously. Decided that wasn’t for me. Too much hassle, too much money.
So, I didn’t really expand much beyond that first small batch and maybe one or two others I picked up cheap. I bought some simple plastic sleeves to keep them from getting any more beat up. They’re not displayed anywhere fancy. Right now, they’re just in a small box on my bookshelf, tucked away with some other random memorabilia I’ve gathered over the years.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a fun little diversion. Didn’t break the bank. I got to revisit some memories, hold something connected to that time. It’s not a big collection, probably worthless to a serious collector. But going through the process, finding them, getting them in the mail, looking them over… that was the enjoyable part for me. Just a simple, satisfying little project. And now I have my little stack of Mike Tyson cards.
