Card Room Migration: Phase 3 - Paint

So the walls were all taped and primed, and now to add the color.  What scheme did you guess?  There were a couple comments that got it right.

Yep, went with the burgundy and gold.  Though it's the scheme of the present season Commanders, and not exactly the old DC Native American shade.  But it looks good.

I punched up the official colors online, and Sherwin Williams had the official paints, so I went with it.  The gold went on nice and evenly.

The first coat of burgundy, however, was another matter.

I was afraid it was going to be a disaster.  But my girlfriend is a very experienced painter and told me to trust the process.  It was just going to take a second coat (or more). 

So the second session a week later yielded much better results.  Unfortunately, it was moving day a little before that, so the furniture was in the room.

But we worked around it and it came out fine.  A few days later, we pulled off the tape. 

The tape came off easier and cleaner than we expected.  There were a few small touch up spots, but at this point, they'll disappear behind the furniture and all the cardboard.

Here's the finished product with the furniture in place, at least at that end of the room.  Baseball goes in the cabinet and shelf to the left, and football, hockey etc. goes in the set on the right.  The wire shelf with the bigger sets and Washington football lockers is still at the old house, as well as part of the binders and sets that were in the cabinets.  It will all come together soon.

Next time - Populating the shelves.

Card Room Migration: Phase 2 - Prep Work

Settlement on the house was Oct 29.  Like I said, we started moving boxes (mostly cards) immediately.  And of course, not only was there my collection, but the two dozen-ish monster boxes of my extras, plus what was left of the set collection I was selling, as well as that bulk hoard that I had upstairs.  Needless to say, everyone says I'm never moving again.  Initially, I thought about staging the bulk of my cards in the garage and then moving them upstairs when the room was done.  But I figured it would be better to keep them at room temperature and humidity and only have to move them from the other upstairs room a few steps away.  

This is only a small part of what we moved over the next couple weeks.  Not shown is the closet in this room that has a couple more stacks.  A lot of what you see here is the two other non-collection batches.  The white boxes on the right are my extras.

The old space was two rooms about the same size - roughly square and measuring around 12' x 15' or so, I can't remember for sure.  The new space is 19' x 14', though the one end is a bit shorter, but includes a closet that I no longer have to use for storing other old junk, it's just for cards and accessories.

Here's the short end of the new space.  You can see I stuffed the closet, and then brought in the paint materials.  The old house had all white walls.  This room is probably the only one I will paint a different color, even though every room in the new house has one and often two colors on the walls.  Most of the colors are nice natural shades (seafoam green, tan, grey, etc.).  The card room was the former residents' daughter's domain.  I don't imagine she was a Florida Marlins fan, and neither am I.  (I'm guessing the turquoise and black may be the local high school colors?).  Either way, I've got to change this scheme before I can set up the room.  Can you guess the colors I'm converting to?  Leave your guesses in the comments below.

Step 1 - Taping.  Had to tape both top and bottom of the two mouldings that separate the colors.  The lighting wasn't great, so it was challenging to get it all lined up right at the edge.  That took an entire evening. 

Step 2 - Priming.  Since the top section was black, and the bottom section was such a dark color, it was pretty much a necessity to prime the areas first, so the colors stayed true (hint: they're the official franchise colors - you guess the team).  The priming was pretty easy.  Again it was another whole evening.  

Here's a sneak peek at Hivemind Headquarters from the outside.

And, of course, the packing continued at the old house.

Next time - Color!

Card Room Migration: Phase 1 - Breakdown

Operations in Maryland have been closed since late October.  I started moving boxes of cards the day of settlement 😄. Except for most of my bulk Redskins and some larger sets, the majority of my collection has been moved out.

If you follow the link to my Featured post that's tagged on the Home page (just there to the right -->) of the Hivemind Headquarters as it was, you can see it looked something like this:

 

 

Well, before the furniture move, it looked like this:

 

 

This one is an "in progress" shot of the binder shelves on the right.  Those shelves were cleared and the boxes taken to the new house.  The rack is still there for the moment.  Everything is off the walls and tops of the cabinets and shelves too. 

Even the desk and shelves in the computer room have been cleared. (I'll get the posters soon.)

Stay tuned for the prep work on the new (larger) space!
 

Operations Suspended: Headquarters Moving

Collecting and Trading operations are temporarily suspended due to Headquarters relocation.  HiveMind Headquarters is moving from Thurmont, MD to Fairfield, PA.

I know, it's supposed to be a Borg ship, but this was cooler...

New location will consolidate Collecting Operations into one space of about 19' x 14', which is close to the total of the two previous spaces.  Stay tuned for images of the new setup in a couple weeks.  Automotive operations will also be located completely onsite as well.

Inventory transfer is currently in progress.  Infrastructure and communication setup will commence around Nov. 14.  Further transmissions will be very limited until then.

 
And please fill out the survey if you haven't already ~ thanks to the 36 respondents so far.

Auspicious Beginnings And A Melancholy End

It usually doesn't take a whole lot for me to collect a certain player.  But in the case of Brian Matusz, it was a lot more than usual.  I never met him in person, but the connection was closer than most other players I follow.  He wasn't a superstar, but I rooted for the guy more than anyone else I ever watched.

Brian was found deceased in his home this past Monday, January 8.  Phoenix authorities are still investigating and have not released the cause of death.  

As described in the linked article above and many others, Matusz was an Orioles starter for a few years and did OK, but then extended his career in 2012 by moving to relief.  He continued in this role for a few more years.  He was well known for being able to strike out David "Big Papi" Ortiz 13 times out of their 29 matchups with only four hits and no homers.  He was traded to the Braves after his numbers declined in 2016, but didn't last long.  He caught on with the Cubs just enough to earn a World Series ring.  He spent a couple more years in the minors and Mexican League before retiring in 2019.

I first saw him when he was with my hometown minor league Frederick Keys.  I was at his debut game there, and then also happened to be at his major league debut in Detroit while visiting Stuart.  Ironically, that was also the same date (Aug 4) as the debut of another of my Oriole PC's Mike Mussina.  During his time here, Matusz lived in the neighborhood in Frederick that was managed by another good friend of mine.

So all that inspired one of my first "supercollections".  Here is my attempt to show it all to you.  Please forgive the reflections.  I can't ever take photos without reflections fogging up the images no matter what angle or lighting I use.  I'll highlight some of the more interesting cards.

I've got most everything in top loaders in chronological order.  These are minor league and Team USA issues from Razor, Upper Deck, and Obak among others. 

I've got the whole name in these signed Lettermans.  Though it is a hybrid of both sets.

These were some of the first autographs I found of his.  This particular one came a bit later than the rest, since it's only numbered out of 25.

I've been lucky to find almost all these UD USA baseball jerseys, patches and autos.  Even the low numbered ones.

I found these Obak printing plates at their table at the National one year.  They had almost every card in this series along with all the plates for each.  Not sure if they do that regularly, or they were shutting things down.  I'm glad to have them either way.

A lot of these parallels take me a minute to figure out the differences.  This one (and the green one like it) are die cut versions.  (Again, the reflections on the penny sleeves).

His 2010s start with a bunch of Bowmans.  

...and continue with Topps issues including Chrome and eTopps.

I got one without and one with the sealed case. 

Sorry for the blurry shot of the Bowie Baysox team set.  He's on top, so there's no reason to open it.

Transitioning from 2010 to 2011 starting with Upper Deck, then back to Bowman and Topps again.  

That Triple Threads jersey auto really caught the light.  The Futures Game swatch is how all GU's should be.

Haven't seen many other gold Upper Decks after this one.

He got on the checklist for these online 2011 Diamond Die Cuts.  

Lots of colorful shiny-ness in the 2011's too.

Some really fancy stuff in the 2011-2012 range.  A little bit of everything.

Don't remember where I bought this A&G printing plate for that year's mini.  These are really nice looking, though.

These are all logo- and photo-less issues by Upper Deck.  Not sure what ostriches have to do with Baltimore baseball, but this is what you get with exclusive contracts.

My 2013's include more printing plates, colorful parallels, and minis.

Here are the standard size plates...

...and the mini one.  (Could have put a reference card in the photo I guess.)

Angled this shot to keep the reflections at bay.  Rainbows are pretty cool.

Probably should have tried that with these too.  Ah well, you get the gist.

Ooh, shiny...

And a closer look at the stamps on the lower ones. 

To cap it all off - his bobblehead in the box.

I'm number one on the Database among Matusz collectors, of which I don't imagine there are many who seek him out specifically.  His passing just fuels my ambition to find everything they made of him.

Rest In Peace Brian.  You've been immortalized in cardboard at the very least.