My Card Room

A few weeks back, My Cardboard Habit announced a contest for collectors to show off their card room. I was really excited to enter, but not quite ready at the time.

Back in November, we purchased our first house. One of the selling points on the house we bought, for me at least, was a room in the basement that I claimed for my card room. Unfortunately, there were some dumb things going on in that room that needed to be addressed before I could get all moved in and the work took much longer than I anticipated. Luckily, I got all of the hard stuff done and now I just need to finish decorating. So, my room is still a work in progress.

Since this post is about cards, let's start with how I store my cards. Last year, I had some time off after the birth of my son and I used that time to construct this shelf.

More importantly, the time off gave me an opportunity to get all of my older cards sorted by year and brand. So, the whole top shelf, and part of the bottom, is dedicated to cards of retired players. On the bottom shelf is where most of my cards of active players are, sorted by team. Since I am an autograph collector, it is easier for me to get ready to 'graph a Major League game if I can find the majority of the cards I need in one spot. That is why I split up my cards by retired and active players. In the shoe boxes are cards I need to sort still and all of my relic cards. On top of the shelves is ample space for me to get cards sorted.

Opposite my shelves is my computer desk. I have had this cheap thing since my college days, but it still gets the job done for me. The four binders hold the prizes of my collection, all of my autographed cards. I really need to start a fifth binder, but I am not sure it will fit in the space provided.

On top of the desk is some of my books and my scorebooks. Above the desk are my signed pictures that I always get at the College World Series. I only hang the Hall of Famers up there. So far I have Jim Rice, Bruce Sutter, Rollie Fingers, Jim Palmer, Johnny Bench, Rod Carew, Steve Carlton, Barry Larkin, Ozzie Smith, and Dennis Eckersly hung up. I still need to hang John Smoltz, Frank Thomas, Dave Winfield, and, later this summer, Ivan Rodriguez. I just need to buy some more picture frames first.

On the wall between my cards and desk is a map of all of the ballparks I have visited. When I first started this blog, I was using it just to get familiar with Blogger. Ultimately, I wanted to start a blog about my ballpark visits. Eight years later, this blog is still rolling along and the ballpark blog never came to be. Nevertheless, I still love checking out ballparks and this map is a great to show where I have been.

To the right of my desk are my display cases that have all of my signed baseballs and other things. The metal case is an old Oakley display case and it features balls signed by Hall of Famers on the top two shelves. The top shelf has balls signed by Tom Lasorda, Rod Carew, Frank Robinson, Gaylord Perry, and Harmon Killebrew. The second shelf has balls signed by Cal Ripken Jr. (two balls), Frank Thomas, Dennis Eckersly. The Royals helmet is signed by Billy Butler. The third shelf has a hat signed by Eli Manning and a helmet signed by Collin Klein. Those are the only football related things in this room. The bottom shelf has a ball signed by Buck O'Neil and a seat bottom from Rosenblatt Stadium, the longtime home to the College World Series.

Leaning on that case are four bats. I still have not figured out how I want to display these in my room. Hopefully, they will not stay like they are for long. The highlights of those bats is the one signed by Andre Dawson.

Next to the Oakley case is more shelves of balls. There are a random assortment of signed balls, game-used balls, and team-signed balls, as well as some some stuff from my Army days and binders of cards from my youth.

On the wall next to the signed ball is my signed Irving Falu Spring Training jersey. I picked that up at Royals Fanfest one year for ten bucks. I then got it signed, I think, at an Iowa Cubs game when the Omaha Stormchasers were in town. My wife gave the frame to me as a Christmas gift three years ago and it just leaned against a wall at our old rental until we moved here.

On the wall above my card shelves are all of my bobbleheads and other knickknacks I have accumulated over the years. All of the full size bobble heads are stadium giveaways and they are mostly from games I attended.

The last things to show in the room are my pride and joy. These are my stadium seats from Tiger Stadium. I purchased these in 2006 when they started to dismantle Tiger Stadium. They set me back $300, but I was single and in the Army at the time, so I had the money to blow. Today, that price seems like a steal. I think the Yankees and Mets were charging around a grand for their seats when they got new parks. Even the Royals charged $500 when they removed seats from Kauffman during their renovation. I love The K, but there was so much more history associated with Tiger Stadium.

So, that is my card room. Like I said, it is still a work in progress as I have more wall space that I need to fill. But, I am able to go through cards easily and that is the main point of the room. Thanks for taking a look.