Appealing To The Masses

Just a quick post with some snapshots from around Collective headquarters.  I'm so entrenched in entering my extras on the Database, and keeping up with all the trade offers, that I'm not doing much of anything else hobby-wise.  This includes putting away all the stuff I'm getting in trade or have essentially swapped from my COMC stock.

This is the desk in the card room where I put everything that I've processed (crossed off my lists).  The front row is all new incoming cards from trades or purchases - generally in the last few months.  The piles further back are sets I've started but not necessarily listed yet, or misc. singles that I've pulled from the "hoard" that I thought might interest a particular collector. 

For example, these are all the baseball set hits I've accumulated since late April or so - maybe sooner.  And they showed up primarily in PWEs that averaged a dozen cards at a time.

One of the collections that's grown the most is my player PC of Edwin Jackson.  This is why I'm the leading EJ collector on TCDB.  (Thanks to all the traders on there for making it possible.)  I don't have him on my website, he's managed only on the Database.  I laid all his singles that have come in on top of a 5000 count box.  They almost didn't fit.  Haven't put them in any order yet.

Another very diverse batch has recently accumulated of Bo Jackson.  I will confess, a couple of these are from my COMC swap.  But some traders have had some really interesting ones available.

Some other colorful additions include Chad Kuhl.  You can tell by the paper inserts that all but one of these was from COMC.  And that one was a dupe that showed up in a trade right after I placed my order.  Kuhl is the only foray into present-year cards that I have going right now.

And finally, these are some recent dupes (that actually go back to before I've been trading so intensely, but no matter).  The majority are player collection hits that I already had.  All these are available by request if you see something you need.  Bonus for reading through this far....

Meanwhile, At Hivemind Headquarters...

Had to get away from another frustrating day of football watching, so here's what it looks like at Hivemind Headquarters when I'm pulling cards for trades from my baseball hoard of extra stuff from the 2000's.  I've shown most of this before, but stick around to the end for a special look.

On any given day, the card room is neater than this, but since I've got all the monster boxes laid out so I can jump around in them, it's solid cards all the way around right now.  

Here is the football half of the hoard as well...

And there's about that many (counting both batches) in the other room too, but I won't show those.  I like to take people in there first and they usually say, "Wow, you've got a lot!"  To which I reply, "That's just extra stuff, the actual collection is over here..."

Here are a few more that my friend Stuart brought in June...

Anyone trading older hockey?

Now I'll take you around the room and show the actual collection...

Starting from the doorway...

 You're greeted by Priest on the wall, and then the baseball binder shelf.

  

Which is next to the baseball (china) cabinet...

This one holds some of my storage supplies in the drawer. 

And the matching football & miscellaneous shelf on the other side into the corner...

Then turning around to the desk.  All kinds of stacks here - some are to be put away, some are future starter sets, some are just "I think xxx might need these", etc.

My Giants picture hangs in that corner.  Sometimes I think I should switch it with Priest so that baseball is with baseball and football is with football.  I'll get it right in my next house.

Then beyond the desk is the matching football and hockey cabinet...

Featuring the Theismann jersey,...

And Priest memorabilia...

Both cabinets have drawers for silverware that fit top loaders very nicely, though I keep filling them up and having to move things into boxes.

And finally, the rack at the other end of the couch gets you back to the door.

The top is all Washington football cards in the old vinyl lockers.  The rest are bulky sets.  The second shelf is sets in progress, and the rest are complete.

There are also complete sets in the bottom of each cabinet for their respective sports.  Here's the top and bottom of the baseball unit.

You've made it this far, so here's a full tour...

So if you need me, this is where I'll be.  Thanks for stopping by!

Card Room Renovations Part 3: Finish

When we last saw the card room, I had loaded the shelves to a degree, after sliding them across the downstairs floor, and up the staircase, flipped them on their tops, and scooted them into the room where I flipped them again into place.  The only time I supported their full weight was when I shoulder blocked them up the steps.  Again, I advise against solo furniture moving.

But anyway, back to the room.  Here's the shelves once again.  One roll of plastic lining protects the wood from scratches by the binder ring tabs, etc.  I figure I'll put mostly boxes or supplies on the bottom shelves so it's not a big deal that the liner wasn't enough for the bottom shelves.

I've got plenty of empty binder space, so the plan is to start sheeting up sets in boxes to then free up rack and cabinet space.  I also moved some of my dupe boxes into the other room, so there is already space on the wire shelf rack.

Some of these will eventually be leaving

Another detail you might have missed there is that I removed the two red Topps lockers I had among the blue ones and replaced them with two new blue ones my buddy Stuart found for me.  Now I'm good until about 2023 with Redskins card storage unless they allow more than the present number of companies to produce.  I will be sheeting up the two football sets in the Topps lockers and then deciding what to do with them.

The small shelf next to the rack is half empty as well.  That one might go into the next room too.

Meanwhile, the desk is back in place with extra binders underneath and (at least started out) clean and ready to accommodate sorting piles.

And the football cabinet is fully loaded again.  I'll tweak the loading of the small sets later.  Some of that stuff is kinda crammed in there.  But again, I'll be thinning that herd to go into binders too.  I ordered (and received) three more boxes of standard pages from Amazon to prep for all the sheeting coming up.

The couch and the floor are clear at last!  Operations are ready to resume.  Let's trade!

My card room...or room and a half, actually

Well, it's a little late to the party, but...story of my life.

I saw the post on My Cardboard Habit  (via BB Card Breakdown) about the contest that had just closed where collectors showed pictures of their card rooms, and everyone voted on who had the coolest one.   I had taken a few shots of mine to show some friends I was visiting a while ago, but wasn't in time to put them into the contest.  I figure I'll go ahead and show them here, plus some more I just took for complete coverage.

My card room isn't just one side of a room, but actually inhabits one whole room in my townhouse, and spills over into the adjacent room as well.  Being primarily a three sport set collector, who also has a football team collection, plus over fifty player collections, my total volume is a bit higher than average.

I'll start in the "computer room", which houses my main staging area for pulling cards and packing them for mailing.  There are several boxes of cards here that don't actually count towards my collection because they are all tradeables or duplicates.

And no, I don't actually use that monitor.....

The monster box is all my dupes/tradeables from 1980 thru 1993.  The smaller ones are more current set dupes.  The little piles are mostly either inserts, game-used, oddballs, or cards I've pulled for certain people.  My 1993 thru 2003 dupes are in a monster box on the desk with my computer on the right side of the room (not shown). There is another box under the desk of mostly 2005 singles, and another against the wall of 2004 thru 2010.

Now let's go over to the "Card Room" itself....

As you enter, you notice the Priest Holmes Fathead on the wall next to twin china cabinets....

The desk in the middle is where I sort sets and file away my newest acquisitions after I take them off my wantlist website in the other room.  On the wall is my prized team photo of the 1909 New York Giants baseball team, and my signed Joe Theismann jersey.  You can see the Giants pic on my want list site, which at the time of this writing is jacked up for some reason.  There's a whole story about how I got the picture and what came with it, but that's another post.

Anyway, continuing into the room, here are the two china cabinets.  They make great storage for cards with the windowed cabinets up top, the bottom cabinets for set boxes, and the drawers for convenient storage of supplies.

The small drawers are even better because they are originally made for silverware, but top loaders fit right between the rails, which makes storing game-used and autos really nice.

Here are the cabinets fully open.  The left cabinet is all baseball.  The right one is football and hockey, hence it's not quite as full.  Binder space in the room is at 100%, so they are a mix of everything.

On the right, you can see my (baseball) player collection binders, and Priest's.  The first four are my vintage players, and the other three are the newer players that spanned into the 1990's which means they have tons more cards than the other guys.  So only a couple guys fill the entire binder.

On the other side of the  sorting desk is the main binder shelf.  I really need another one of these because I have some more vintage sets etc. that are ready to get sheeted up.  But there isn't anywhere to put them yet.   My baseball set binders are sort of color coded by decade.  Grey for 60's, Blue for 70's, and Black for 80's, though most of my 80's sets are still in boxes.  I pick out the most colorful and interesting cards to make the printed labels from (I don't use real cards).  And I have a rule that I try not to use the same team on two labels.  The first reddish brown binder was the first one I ever owned.

Around the room you see the couch that is more often holding some boxes and books than people.  Next to that is the wire rack that holds the larger boxes that don't fit into the cabinets or that hold sets I'm still actively working on.

On top of the rack is my Redskins bulk collection.  The '40's thru the early 80's are in a couple binders, or in the drawer.  The rest are here in the old vinyl carry cases that I used to use before white boxes were really the norm.  They are great for team collections because they have 30 separate slots that you can segregate each year's cards by company.  I put Action Packed and Bowman in the first slot, and then alphabetically (Donruss, Fleer & Skybox, Pacific, Playoff, Press Pass, Score, Topps, Upper Deck) etc.  Nowadays it's more like Bowman, Donruss/Panini, Score, Topps, and I can get four years in one case instead of just two.   Luckily, I've been able to find these cases here and there through the years, so I can keep my collection consistent.

So besides the one little overflow shelf, you're back to the doorway of the room.  Hadn't planned on keeping that little shelf in front of the closet, but I'm at full capacity until I figure out another arrangement that allows more binder space.

The other things I'll give you a better look at are the non-card items that I've gathered while amassing this much cardboard.  I try not to get into too much peripheral stuff since space is at such a premium.  But as a player collector, you do run into some unique things that you just have to have.

My Priest Holmes non-card collection is on top of the baseball cabinet.  I've got all but the scarcest figures and McFarlanes of the running back who won me two fantasy seasons.  I just need a signed Texas helmet and this collection will be just about complete.

The other side is all oddball items, mostly of my baseball player collections.  I guess to be consistent, I should swap them with the Priest items.  There are also autographed baseballs from Jim Palmer and Brooks Robinson, plus bobbleheads from players on my local favorite teams.

So there you are.  That's my card environment.  Don't know if I'd win for coolness, but I think I got the sheer volume prize locked up.  Except if you see what my friend Stuart has.  He doesn't have one or two rooms...he's got cards in EVERY room, and in multiple other houses.