The process (long version):
I saw all those boxes in the closet, and thought I should just sell this stuff. Went to a local card shop where about a thousand cards, including some nice 70's and 80's HOFers could not sell for $20. I see that donation is bandied about as perhaps the best option to recover some dollars. My 10,000 cards could be donated for $500 bucks or so, saving me a fraction of that number on my taxes. Not interested.
So I said hey, I'll glue them to the wall and it will look cool. My wife suggested a backer board so if we move, I can take them with me. I looked around for a good stiff board, and settled on MDF. I bought a 4 x 8 sheet, and cut it into 3 sections. I was still undecided on what shape I was looking for. I thought I would do a long horizontal look - 11 ft long to fill the wall, 3 ft. wide. Went through my cards and selected about 500 to go up there, and augmented a couple missing spots in my mind with some eBay purchases and BST - about $50 worth.
As I further considered, I decided to try a vertical look, and by chance the board fit 12 x 12 perfectly. And in proportion to the card size 2.5x3.5 inches, now is 2.5 x 3.5 feet. Cut back to 2 boards from 3 as well. That meant culling about 250 cards from those I wanted up there. Did that in several rounds, always aiming for more variety of players and sets. Some sets I really never liked (88, 89 Topps esp.) so I shied away from those in makes cuts. What was left is mostly HOFers, with quite a few Indians mixed in - especially Albert Belle my favorite player.
I also focused on some of the big names from my collecting years - Wally Joyner, Doc Gooden, Mattingly, Will Clark - big names who fell short of the hall, but hey these were the cards everyone wanted in 1988. I am not a fan of the steroids guys, so only 2 Bonds, 2 Clemens, and zero Bagwell, and zero Arod (couldn't stand him as a player, why put him on my wall?). I then spent some time trying out different arrangements of cards, mixing old and new, while trying to balance the players with multiple cards between the 2 boards.
Putting it together was pretty simple, if time consuming. Spray painted the boards a satin black so any spaces caused by miscuts, rounded corners etc. would not stand out. I screwed the board into the studs, again so they would stay flat.
I attached the cards using a product called glue drops - they are small dots of glue attached to a roll of wax paper. I put 6 to a card, three along each edge, by cutting the wax paper for each individual dot and sticking it to the card. Each card would then have 6 glue dots and wax paper coverings. 288 cards, 6 glue dots to each meant 1728 steps. Took a while.
I then carefully attached each card to the board starting in the upper left corner, the adding them in rows, being extremely careful to maintain a straight line. The glue dots are very strong, and on 2 occasions I slipped slightly and the card attached to the board slightly off. The only way to remove it at that point was to destroy the card. It took several sessions to finish all this, but the result is pretty sweet.
The pictures do not do it justice, in my humble opinion. I truly enjoyed collecting, and the end result. Even my wife, who hates sports in general, and my kids who could give a flip about baseball think it looks pretty cool. These cards may not have much value to others, but they do to me, and now they are out of the closet, and on the wall.
In case you are wondering, why not use some sort of cases so the cards aren't "ruined"? I really dislike the plastic. The colors are so much more vibrant when out of their cases. They are on basement wall in a room with no windows, and a constant temp. I think they will last.
I spent 4 months planning and putting this together. Well worth it.
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