Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

Sports Illustrated has a best kept secret and it’s hiding right in plain sight.  They are the issues we have been passing over for years in favor of Mickey and Willie and printed ball cards.  Who cares about sailing, hunting dogs, steeple chasing, road trips, ocean fishing, and rodeos? Of course, the secret I’m referring to are the 20 issues comprising the subset of 1954 issues.

These 20 issues seem to take in the very heart of 1954 America starting right off with night baseball – the beginning of a new era in America’s pastime.  Little did fans at that time envision how the sport and night baseball would evolve.  In addition, there are 27 printed baseball cards included which have become highly collectable in their own right.

Issue # 2 and its 27 Yankee baseball cards, including the exclusive Mantle card missing from the TOPPS set of that year takes over where issue #1 leaves off.  It’s coverage of the 1954 Masters was at least a decade ahead of its time.

Issue #3 – the first swimsuit from Jones Beach, New York – a far cry from the Seychelles or Maui. 

Then it’s on to explore the real America which is where most of us HOF seekers dropped off.  Rodeos, dogs, and football crowds aren’t what Mickey and Willie collectors are looking for and as a result, I think we really missed something important.  This is the American of that era.  This is who we were and it’s no surprise to me that within this insightful, encompassing subset are currently some of the most popular issues in the hobby today.

It’s a relatively easy subset to complete.  Unless you’re looking to own the highest ranked registry in the census, the issues aren’t rare.  And they tell a story.  A story of the beginning of the most revered sports publication, before, during or, sadly, after its publication.

Recent public auction returned $11,200 for a Graded 9.8 #1 issue and the #2 9.4 gaveled at $6,900.  The owner of the winner of the #2 is accepting bids of $12,075 on his new purchase.  All the more common issues have seen public auction recently, returning between $500 and $1000 each, for mid-level grades.  Pretty good for commons.  Someone out there is going to want to own the #1 registry of this “best kept secret” subset, now growing in popularity and value.  Is it you?

Below I have illustrated a picture of all 20 graded 1954 issues.  This is 1954 America – the way we were.  Many are the highest known on the census. 

Message to my readers – don’t sleep on the 1954 subset.  It’s just starting on its upward trajectory.  You heard it here first.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

Sports Illustrated Blog #76 – Second Qtr. Update – Prices and Lead-times.

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

Prices continue to rise, lead-times continue to grow.  I use Heritage Auctions as a barometer for current buy price valuation.  Consistent with the collector hobby, some auction items remain steady or see marginal increases but if you are selling the popular covers such as Jordan, Mantle, swimsuits, any 1954’s – commons or stars, or high grade first covers including newer covers (DeChambeau, Lawrence, Herbert, Prescott, Mahomes), you’ve seen exponential increases in value over the past month or two.  Also keeping pace with hobby growing interests are the major non-Sports Illustrated pubs – SPORT, BASEBALL, HOCKEY Illustrated, Sports Digest, RING Magazine and others.  Obviously, the major interest in RING is the ALI-Frazier-Foreman era and HOCKEY is Gretzky. 

Many of these pubs feature the most iconic athletes, years ahead of Sports Illustrated.  For example, Clemente, Aaron, Maris, Chamberlain, Gretzky, Clay, Mantle, Mays, Berra, Chamberlain, Unitas, Robinson, DiMaggio, Williams, Munson, all appear on other pubs first.  Pretty impressive list especially if you like original first covers.  And these non-SI covers generally feature bright prime colors which tend to accentuate the already eye-appealing esthetics.  As I’ve been blogging for some time, many of these first cover pubs will favorably compete with or exceed the value of later SI first covers.  Some of them are out there right now.

If being ahead of the curve is where you are looking to be, these major pubs will put you there and when the market figures it out, you’ll already be there with the best stuff.  If you believe, it’s a simple formula.

I finally figured out how CGC calculates their delivery lead-times.  If you are like me, when someone tells you the “turnaround time” for your purchase is 4 weeks, you expect delivery in about a month.  That’s not the way CGC figures or quotes their “turnaround time”.  Turnaround time is the amount of weeks today’s shipped orders have been in house.  If an order was received on February 1^st and it was shipped on May 1^st that equates to a 13 week turnaround and that is what will appear on their website for turnaround time.  Every week, based on this calculation, turnaround lead-times are updated.

What is missing is the calculation of time FORECASTED (looking forward, not backward) between submission receipt and the time of shipment.  If you submit an item today, that item may have a year’s worth of orders ahead of it, but the turnaround time is quoted as the weeks in house of today’s shipments.  CGC can’t or won’t even commit to a ship date.  If CGC would just be a little more forthcoming, it would be less frustrating for their customers.  I’ve found in my career, that when things get tough, the best policy is to be honest with your customer.

And here’s a head’s up.  For the first time ever, the first 25 SI swimsuits (1964 – 1989), all inclusive, most with the highest grades ever posted, are headed for Heritage auction beginning right now.  Don’t miss this one because most of these are one of a kind and cannot be purchased anywhere else.  If you want something your friends don’t have, this is it.  Best of luck on this one.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit  www.sportsillustrated98.com

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

How do we want to look at this – a pain in the butt or growing pains?  This blog will focus on the big changes trending at CGC, the grading service for our hobby, and how they will affect buying, selling, grading, not grading – going forward.

First of all – the CGC changes;

1. Longer lead times – much longer.  Lead times on the most economical grading tiers have increased from 6-8 weeks to 20 weeks.  That doesn’t include the 4-8 weeks it takes for them to just receive your submission. 

Interesting phenomenon I noticed last week – in 7 days the lead-time for a Modern submission moved from 89 days to 96 days.  That tells you that your submission lost ground after it was submitted.  How does that happen?

CGC has promised solutions.  Unfortunately, we’re going to have to live with these longer lead times for a while.  It’s certainly better than the card market.

2. Price Increases – significant price increases.  CGC prices have increased 50%-80% across the board.  For $120 you still can grade walk thru which really means about 3 weeks when you include shipping both ways and receiving.

So now we have extended lead times and higher prices and no creditable grading alternative leaving us with these questions;

1. Should I pay the extra money and wait the extra time to grade?
2. Should I spend $120 each for faster service?
3. Should I stop grading and sell only raw mags?
4. Should I stop buying raw mags considering these new road blocks?
5. How is the value of previously graded mags affected?

The first four questions require your own personal decision but #5 could actually be the benefit in all this negativity.  Let’s assume demand stays strong for graded product.  Barring a trickle of newly graded stuff, the only product available for sale in any quantity will be the previously graded items. 

And I predict there will be a reluctance to buy new raw mags when the grading process is so restrictive, further reducing the eventual inventory for sale.  The very tip of the pyramid probably won’t be affected as they will be walk thru graded and the extra cost will be absorbed in the selling price.

Interesting changes for sure.  I frequently talk of the next big thing.  I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the next year or so, another grading player emerged as competition for CGC.  That is the real solution.  CGC has way too much control over this hobby.  When there is competition in the grading of mags, watch this hobby take the next big step forward.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit 

www.sportsillustrated98.com

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

It just keeps getting better.  Although I’m not an expert on the new marketing program TOPPS has introduced involving trading cards picturing vintage SI covers, I wanted to bring this to the hobby because I believe it’s totally relevant to our hobby interests. 

TOPPS has begun their introduction of a 70 trading card set, each card illustrating a vintage SI cover!  Are you serious?  Yes I’m serious.  The cards are not initially for institutional sales meaning they are presold and only printed and distributed in those qualities.  The set is being released in two card increments – those purchasing each card on a pre-sale format receive their order in about a month subsequent to the close of sale date. If you don’t order initially, the only way to get them is thru the secondary market. 

There are also parallels (similar to regular trading sets) inserted randomly (how they are doing this I’m not sure) in various advertised quantities. 

The importance of this development for SI mag hobbyists is that it’s just another acknowledgement from the manufacturer (TOPPS) and the market that vintage SI magazines have a following significant enough to devote an entire product line based solely on SI cover market awareness.  In other words, more exposure for our hobby. 

It’s stuff like this from the industry giants that supports everything we’ve been saying and doing.  Three years ago Heritage Auction House was leery about even listing SI’s for fear of lack of interest.  Not anymore – graded SI’s are a staple of their weekly auctions.  Ebay sales are up.  Private sales are up.  The word is getting out there.  Maybe not overnight but I can see the movement from month to month.

It’s an exciting time to be on the front edge of something this popular.  It’s once in a lifetime.

Click the link below for an illustration of a couple of subject cards.

Duke Snider

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/EhUAAOSwsgZgcCzx/s-l500.png

Mike Trout

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JBYAAOSwppZgUQrp/s-l500.jpg

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit 

www.sportsillustrated98.com

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

Today’s blog is all about beauty and raising the bar on the entire graded magazine hobby.

Below I have pictured CGC 9.4’s of three of most relevant sports heroes on their first major publication (not Berra’s first) in the highest grade – none higher, POP 1.  I bring these to you to show you how beautiful some of these major pub covers can be while maintaining their high quality as well.

There is significance here in that the 1960 Maris cover is a full year ahead of his first SI and the 1962 Aaron cover, while also cosmetically superior, is seven years ahead of his SI appearance.  I predict these covers will challenge their SI counterparts in hobby relevance and open the door for other major publication first cover entries to blow the “cover” off our hobby.

Just like in cards, there’s no substitute for quality as Upper Deck illustrated back in 1989.  Don’t sleep on SPORT’s challenge into this market.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

With magazine values on the serious rise, I am receiving more and more inquiries regarding the pros and cons of grading your own magazines.  The thought behind the question is ‘if my magazines are worth more graded than ungraded, doesn’t it seem to make sense to grade them?

I personally went thru the raw vs graded process right from the on-set of the hobby having graded 1000’s of mags and left many more 1000’s ungraded.   I believe I have graded more SI’s, by a wide margin, than any other collector in the hobby.  I have learned the hard way, by trial and error, that excelling at the grading equation takes a knowledge of the hobby as well as personal above average grading skills.        

The first decision in this process is to define your expectations.  What do you want to achieve?

Let’s assume anyone that grades their magazines is trying to increase the value of their collection so you’ll need to be able to weigh the cost of grading against the increased value of the grade.  If you are going this route, you will need to hone your own grading skills so that you can make the cost vs value decision BEFORE deciding to submit.  You can’t be expecting a CGC 9.0 only to receive a CGC 4.0.  You’ll go broke on grading costs alone. 

Once you’ve decided to grade, you’ll need to learn the proper packaging for mailing your prized mags.  I promise you, you’ll bend a few corners before you get this right.  Do not save money on packaging.  Figure $50 per mag for regular grading time frame (3-5 months) and $100 for walk-thru (one week).  CGC is notorious for extending their lead times, so be patient.

If you are going to grade, please consider the following:

1. Grading is a double edged sword.  High grades are good of course but, low grades can actually be worth LESS than the raw mag.
2. Grading adds a cost to your collection.
3. Grading defines the value.  There’s little debate regarding condition or value about a graded mag.  The grade is your guarantee against surprises.
4. An added benefit of grading is that the process actually protects the condition of your mag.
5. Unless you are a professional grader, you’ll tend to grade your stuff higher than the true grade.
6. High grades (CGC 9.0 or higher) are much more difficult to obtain than you may estimate, especially on pre-1980 mags.  Frequently, collectors get discouraged with the grading process because it is so tough.  Selling raw magazines will be less work and less surprises.  It’s not for the faint of heart. 
7. If you are a seller, you must learn the difference between a raw 8.0 and a raw 9.0.  Until you acquire this skill, you’ll grading magazines that shouldn’t be graded and, in turn, wasting your cash on unnecessary grading.

If you decide to leave the cost and risk of grading to others, take the extra step of properly protecting your raw mags from further degradation.  One day you may want to sell raw or even have them graded and you’ll want the condition unaltered.

The decision to grade or not depends on so many variables my opinion is that if you decide to grade you should be the guy that likes surprises. If you’re risk averse stay away. 

Lastly, I love to buy graded magazines.  No risk.  No surprises and no wasted grading fees.  They cost more but have all the variables removed before your investment.

I hope some of this has hit home but feel free to send questions to [email protected].

Best of Luck.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit 

www.sportsillustrated98.com

Sports Illustrated Blog #70 – Current Hobby Trends – What’s Going On?

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

Anytime even a minuscule piece of hobby movement is detected, the hobby tries to gage the what, the why, and the short and long term effects/meaning of the change.  Not much different than the stock market.

 But there’s always an information communication lag in the hobby market so there is always time for the very astute to make a buy or sell ahead market change.  And they do – this is where fortunes are made or lost.

But my readers fear not – following the lemmings is one path – we choose another.  The information you read in these blogs is ahead of the market and is based on actual firsthand participation and the most up to date ACTUAL trends as investors dictate.  Short of a crystal ball, this is as good as it gets. 

The first thing we take note of – CGC magazine delivery times.  They’ve moved out from 2 months to 5 -6 months.  Since I began grading SI’s 5-6 years ago, CGC’s lead times have remained relatively stable.  This latest change is not incremental – it’s significant.  Significant changes mean something.  In this case, I believe it means our mag hobby is growing and the only grader out there is having trouble keeping up.  Our popularity is growing and when demand exceeds availability, good things happen to those in possession.

For months I have been predicting a market jump.  I believe everything we are doing in the graded magazine hobby is primed for significant movement.  Jordan memorabilia – on the leading edge of the collectible hobby, in my opinion, is a most obvious indicator.  Six months ago, you would have been delighted to sell your 86 Fleer PSA 10 for $25000.  Two weeks ago, same would have been true at $100,000.  The latest Jordan public auction has now hit $785,000.  There is significant meaning here.  Other peripheral memorabilia will follow.  Because I write about SI’s, that is where my interest lies and I am predicting the graded magazine market will follow this trend, if not EXCEED it.

One more thing to note.  High grade, vintage, newsstand SI’s are not an unlimited commodity.  They are not like Jordan 86 Fleer 10’s where the population is in the 100’s.  In many cases, the most in demand covers are a population of one.   That is the type of opportunity that builds fortunes.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit 

www.sportsillustrated98.com

Sports Illustrated Blog #69 – Finally SI Swimsuits ranked – Popularity and Hardest to Find.

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

Swimsuits – Oh Yeah!!!  Finally – let’s address one of SI’s greatest successes but also one of their biggest mysteries.  Here’s an opportunity. 

Early swimsuits in newsstand collector grade are extreme hard to find.  Don’t believe me??? – check out ebay and auction completed sales.  There aren’t any – or very few and only one here and one there.  That’s not because there is no interest – it’s because there is minimal supply.

I’m going to set the record straight.  Swimsuits generate as much interest within the hobby as any other subset throughout the entire spectrum.  For the purist that is looking for a 1956 Mantle CGC 9.6, the swimsuit collection doesn’t cut it, but if you are a member of the SI masses, swimsuits are very much in demand.  Who doesn’t want to be the guy that has one of the highest graded swimsuit collection in the world?   The covers are iconic – they chronical the changing swimsuit art through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s like nothing else out there.  It’s not about the sexuality as much as the time and place.  They are hard to find in pristine shape as you might expect – they were read from cover to cover.  So when the masses finally get it – value on these issues will pull a Jordan.  Watch and see.

I thought it might be of interest/value to rank the swimsuits in order of popularity and scarcity to help your buying decisions.  I make these rankings based on my personal sales, my customer activity, and demand within the hobby.  The secrets exposed here are found nowhere else on the internet, esp. with this credibility.

Top ten toughest to find swimsuits in collectable grade

1.  1966
2. 1968
3. 1970
4. 1965
5. 1971
6. 1972
7. 1964
8. 1969
9. 1967
10. 1973

Top Ten Most Popular

1. 1964
2. 1975
3. 1966
4. 1965
5. 1970
6. 1983
7. 1978
8. 1979
9. 1980
10. 1981

You may have noticed that I haven’t included the 1954, 1955, and 1957 swimsuits in my listings.  That is because I don’t consider them to be part of the yearly sequence that began the historic run in 1964.  Although popular within the hobby, they are another subset onto themselves – and in demand.

Below are a few of the swimsuit issues that have become so familiar within the hobby – most are the highest grade on record.  If you are interested in owning any of these or all of these for a complete collection, feel free to contact me [email protected]  and we can discuss.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit 

www.sportsillustrated98.com

Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.

It is extremely rare in our hobby that the highest graded, most popular cover/athletes come to market.

The reason for this is that these issues are owned by investors and they aren’t selling.  And when investors aren’t selling – it means something.  It means they believe values will be greater in the future.

In that this is an opinion blog, I’m going to weigh in – no question – values are on the increase.  Issue by issue, multiple percentage increases or 4 figure increases have become hobby acceptable.

All you have to do for confirmation is follow the auctions highlighted in my previous blogs.

I am 10% collector and 90% seller.  Keeping true to my DNA, I have decided to publically auction a number of my most collectible pieces, beginning with the CGC 9.4 56 Mantle and the CGC 9.2 68 Rose.

The CGC 9.4 Mantle is One Higher POP 6.  This is the first time a magazine like this has come to market in over 3 years.  That should tell you something about how investors feel about its value potential.  The fact that there is only one graded higher over all these years and entries, and that grade came many years prior to the new era in grading, should tell you that this grade may never be beat.

The CGC 9.2 Pete Rose is Two Higher, POP 1.  In many ways, I view this cover to be more difficult and perhaps as valuable long term as the CGC 9.4 Mantle for the following reasons.  First of all, this Rose is a Dark Era Print (view previous blogs for the significance of this designation) making it significantly more difficult to find in collectable grade.  Printing issues from this era also significantly reduced the high grade populations of the most popular, highly coveted covers, ie, – Aaron, Clemente, Orr, etc.  As a result, these condition issues have lessened the opportunity of finding a 68 Rose in CGC 9.4 or higher and, in my opinion, rendering that possibility highly unlikely.

I also want to say that I believe there are currently a number of first tier Sports Illustrated covers that are highly undervalued at this time.  In the next few years as hobbyists settle in to a more stable pricing structure across the hobby, it will become increasingly obvious that the most highly coveted, high grade issues are considerably undervalued, and at this point, the market will correct.  Investors know this.  The top end items will be take a massive step forward in their auction values.  I maintain that we are, right now, at a $50,000 price tag for the top issues even though privately closed sales from 2-3 years ago ranged from $10,000 to $15,000.  That number will easily break six figures after the first major collection hits the market.

This is not some invention of mine just to inflate sell prices.  It is the pattern of every organized collectible known to man and is the evolution concept that investors use to perpetuate the highest profits.  They buy at current perceived market value (which is certainly fair), having previously experienced the top end pricing phenomenon many times over.  That’s why they own the top stuff.  They take the risk (if you can call this a risk???) and reap the highest rewards.  Over time, this phenomenon will happen many times over within the same collectible.  Do you think the 52 Topps Mantle got to $3,000,000 with one price jump? 

As I have thousands of readers following my blog, I want to be clear about the opinions on this site.  The opinions here are mine.  They are just that – opinions.  But I have been openly offering my opinions on this site for 4 years and I have had hundreds of readers write to encourage my incites and not even one reader take exception with my format – so I continue.  If there is a reader out there that feels mislead, please write me and we can discuss.

In the end, population and grade position on that population, reigns king on the value scale.  Again, my opinion – covers of this magnitude will not auction publically again for years.

I have included pictures below as an invitation for any of my readers to contact me if you are interested in owning these covers before I submit them for auction.

I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting.

Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!

For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit 

www.sportsillustrated98.com

https://sportsillustrated98.com/Sports Illustrated Blog #66 – Vintage 40’s 50’s and 60’s SPORT and BASEBALL Publications – The “Next Big Thing”  Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now.  The Next Big Thing – It’s what we’ve been chasing since Mom threw away our baseball cards.  Our hobby is in a constant state of change – growing, expanding and creating opportunities.  Paperboard/Magazine collecting seems to follow the yin and the yang or the zero sum game.  For every winner, there’s a loser, and for every loser there’s a winner. The allure is to be the guy that hangs out in the winner’s circle more than the average.  My goal is to help you be one of those guys.  Collectors can be laser focused on “their” interests and miss the evolution of the hobby and opportunities.  Case in point, if you were a card collector in the 80’s, you know baseball cards were king.  Every now and then you might find a hard core guy that liked hockey, basketball or even football.  Over time, collectors moved into other major sports vastly increasing the demand and quickly driving values upward.  Opportunities followed for those that were paying attention early. New card manufacturers emerged to follow the same path.  Topps was king and their values were too – two/three times the competition – but the hobby still wasn’t satisfied.  The “next big thing” became – quality, population, and competition.  With the 80’s came Donruss, Fleer and Upper Deck and card values were determined more by population and quality than by manufacturer.  Hobbyists that recognized these evolutionary changes and were open enough to the “next big thing” market around them, were able to capitalize on this movement by being early to adopt. The point I’m making is opportunities arise more from change than from conviction.  For example, I am a diehard SI fan and collector.  In the past four years I have written 65 informational blogs in an effort to promote what I believe to be the best sports publication ever produced.   But just like Burger King and Wendy’s, there is a market for #2. Sports Illustrated was late featuring covers of Mantle, Williams, DiMaggio, Robinson, Musial, Mays, Chamberlain, Koufax, Unitas, and many more.  Who’s going to fill that void?  SPORT, BASEBALL,  Baseball Digest, TIME, etc. etc.  Other pubs were a bit ahead of the game as you will see below.  Future collectors will create a demand for the first Mantle, Aaron, Chamberlain, Unitas and so on and on and on….  Watch and see. Below you will find Mantle’s first ever cover from 1951 and many other one of a kind, none higher, POP 1 CGC grades. These issues offer a chronology of sport like nothing else.  Take a look at what kind of pub I’m talking about.

These are the covers other Pubs are chasing.                                1956 Triple Crown                      1962 First Major Pub for Clemente None Higher  First ever pub for Mantle – None Higher POP 1              1953 – None Higher POP 1 1953 – 3 years ahead of SI                                       1959 Unitas – previous to SI 1951 – 4 years ahead of SI None Higher POP 1           1947 – 8 years ahead of SI None Higher POP 1 1955 – Only major pub of Skowron                               1964 Clay – None Higher POP 1 1963 – None Higher POP 1                            1951 – Cy Young – None Higher POP 1 1957 Mantle Berra – None Higher POP 1                1965 Koufax None Higher POP 1 1957 Mantle – None Higher POP 1                       1957 Mantle – None Higher POP 1 1953 Spahn – None Higher POP 1                     1957 awesome esthetics – None Higher POP 1 1966 Koufax – None Higher POP 1                            1953 – Roy Campenella None Higher POP 1 1958 – Nellie Fox – None Higher POP 1    1964 – Mays DiMaggio None Higher POP 1 1957 First ever pub for Chamberlain – None Higher POP 1   1959 Unitas – None higher POP 1 This is just a sampling of the early entries now available.  It is my prediction that these covers and others like them will “Be The Next Big Thing.”  Feel free to contact me if you have an interest in procuring or have questions on any of the above.  Thank you. I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of TIME and SI magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting. Great collecting to you and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/TIME!   For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit  www.sportsillustrated98.com