To Display Or Not Display.............

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Posted By: Jeff W.

With my recent purchase of an uncut strip of E91 cards from the Mile High auction, I have been going back and forth with the decision to display my cards or not. For the past eight years I have accumulated a nice collection of pre-war cards with the idea of creating a "shrine" of ancient baseball cards and memorabilia at my house. However, every time I think I am going to display my collection I start to have anxiety attacks about sun damage, robbery, and being thought of as a nerd from my friends and co-workers. So I brainstormed various ideas of how to display my cards and memorabilia. I was able to come up with several ideas such as having an actual "card room," utilizing my home office to display my baseball memorabilia, or take a closet back from my fiancee to create a shrine that would be out of sunlight that would damage my cards. Yet, here I am with my beautiful cards sitting in binders stored away in the depths of my personal closet only to see daylight when I get the opportunity to pull them out.

So I ask you, fellow Net 54's, how do you display your cards and memorabilia? Did you take over a room in your house to create the ultimate baseball card museum? Is your wife only allowing you to use a small closet to create the shrine that nobody knows exists? Or, do you keep all of your cards in binders only to bring them out to brag to friends and family?

Let's hear from old and new Net 54 collectors on how you display your cards and memorabilia!

To start us off, here is one of my binders from "light impressions," they make a quality product!

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Posted By: Adam

While I have a lot of binders, I also put some in a display case that is next to stairs I have leading to my lower level . . . they get a lot of attention and I think look nice next to a bookcase that is the same color as the display case. I note as well that I rotate the cards around . . . usually when I first get something in the mail, it goes in the display case . . . then I get bored with that particular card and it goes into a binder!

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Posted By: Jim

If I had cards like that, I'd be showing them off to everyone who would look. Nice cards!

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Posted By: jim sexton

A special inside room with no natural light, pitch black unless you turn on the lights. I'm in that room just about every day.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I say display away

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Posted By: jim sexton

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Posted By: Chris Counts

Jim,

Your displays are amazing ...

As for displaying my cards, I am far too worried about fire and theft to put up with the stress the comes from worrying over it. So instead, I scanned everything, created a online gallery and packed the good stuff away in several safe deposit boxes. Whenever I want to see my cards, I click here ...

http://imageevent.com/ccmcnutt

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Posted By: Ol' Prof

I used my other hobby -- woodworking -- to make a display case for my T206s. Each drawer contains a different team, though there are so many Giants they get two. The drawers are mahogany and lined with felt; blue for American and green for National. Incidental wood is cherry. Baseballs are mainly old Pirate teams.

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Posted By: Dan Paradis

When I finished my basement off a few years ago I decided to display sport memorabilia in "theme" rooms. The basement FR is for baseball, theater room is for football and downstairs bathroom for basketball. At first I collected paintings, autographed memorabilia, etc (because they displayed well). I only decided to get back into card collecting because I also decided to display them in custom cases in the theme rooms (I personally wasn't interested in collecting cards unless they would be displayed). The nice thing about these rooms is that they are in the basement. There is very little sunlight that enters the room. I also installed additional sensors on my burglar alarm system to protect the cases (along with video camera's).

For the more expensive cards I bought cheap SGC/PSA graded cards, neatly opened the case, replaced the card with a copy of the expensive card and displayed a copy (original stored at the bank).

Oh, I also created a Boston Red Sox theme room in my office (not a happy room today).

Here's a few pictures of the rooms:

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Posted By: Phil Garry

What Chris Counts said..........along with a complete Perez Steele HOF Postcard set displayed in 7 wooden picture frames in my living room.

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Posted By: Jeff Prizner

wow -- that's awesome Dan!

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Posted By: sean

This has probably been answered already but where do you get the display cases? I want to display some graded cards that are different sizes.

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Posted By: Dan Paradis

You can get some really nice display cases cheap at Target.
Ebay also has some for sale.

Target (comes in black and white, very inexpensive and display well, but only 9 cards):



Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/36-Graded-Baseball-Card-display-Case-PSA-beckett_W0QQitemZ290268465973QQcmdZViewItem?hash=i tem290268465973&_trkparms=72%3A1234|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A13 18&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/30-Graded-Baseball-Card-Display-Case-PSA-Beckett-Black_W0QQitemZ370096513692QQcmdZViewItem?hash=ite m370096513692&_trkparms=72%3A1234|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A13 18&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/DISPLAY-CASE-HOLDS-50-PSA-GRADED-CARDS-CHERRY_W0QQitemZ230301449721QQcmdZViewItem?hash=it em230301449721&_trkparms=72%3A1234|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A13 18&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

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Posted By: JimB

Dan,
What kind of speakers are you using there in the theater room?
JimB

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Posted By: Dan Paradis

I actually have 3 different types of speakers in the theater room:

Bose (rear and side surround sound)
JBL (in-ceiling 6&7 speakers for Dolby 7.1)
Klipsch floor standing speakers and center channel (someday I want to replace these with in-wall speakers).

I started a small business where we install smarthome automation, home theaters, video surveillance, etc.
So I have all different types of equipment in my house so I can use it as a showroom.

Dan

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Posted By: Joe D.

man... oh-man..... I say - Monday Night Football at Dan's house!

I am heading there now.

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Posted By: Matt

Does anyone have autographed items on display in an area that gets decent light? What do you do to avoid fading?

Great job with your house Dan!

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Posted By: Sean

This is my room in the basement, it's nice and dark so I don't have to worry about light damaging anything. This photo was taken after I picked up my PSA 2 T206 Honus Wagner (over my left shoulder), man was I exited that day!

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Posted By: Greg Theberge

Sean gets my vote for the best reply ever on net 54. That literally made me laugh out loud.
I couldn't imagine storing my collection away in a box somehwere. These are some great rooms guys. Truly fantastic.

Since my baseball collection is fairly limited, and I'm lucky to have a beautiful wife who is as obsessed with the Sox (not necessarily obsessed with memorabilia mind you, but that can be a good thing) as I am, I get to decorate our Bedroom in pre-1920 Bosox.





Of course, once you've been collecting for over thirty years and accumulate a mass of junk for your collection, you end up building a room that your collection can call it's very own.

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Posted By: sean

thanks for the heads up on the displays dan! I weas wondering if odd sized graded cards would fit in those as well. For example being able to have both t206's as well as t201's

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Posted By: Dan Paradis

Unfortunately the cases I've seen for sale are made for the standard size graded cards. You can insert an odd sized card with a little work (using a saw blade), notice the T3 Speaker on the bottom right.

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Posted By: anthony

this is the current display i use...someday i hope to have a room or at least part of a room...

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Posted By: John H.

Jim Sexton, you are da man! The blanket display is spectacular!

[dzolot]

I know this is an old thread, but curious to hear what you decided to do. By the way, outstanding job to all on the magnificent displays and rooms!! Here is how I display cards in my 'man cave'.

House is fully alarmed and have surveillance cameras. Put double blackout shades on the one window in the room. So far so good, and can't tell you the enjoyment I have having the cards out on display - both for me and to share with friends. And yes, most people do think I'm a nerd for collecting cards, but I'm ok with that : )

[Enfuego]

Awesome displays gents! gives me ideas on how to rebuild my display after i close the deal on a new house we just purchased.