The sanctuary

I've been teasing my new card room here and there for the last month or so.

I had promised a post when the room was "ready," but I'm finding that I keep wanting to add things before I officially declare it "done." This isn't stopping me from using it though and I figured if I'm actually using the card room then it's good enough to show off.

So ...

Here it is!

Do you like it?

I don't want to hear it if you don't. I love it. I showed the room in a slightly less ready state on Twitter a few weeks ago, and everyone was way too complementary, but you always get one or two who want to critique something right away. Yes, I know one of the plastic shelving units looks a bit saggy, I'm not worried about it so you shouldn't be either. It's all I can afford and eventually I'll get something sturdier. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO CRITIQUE MY BRAND NEW CARD ROOM! Where are your manners?

Anyway, I love it. I feel it's usefulness right away. I am much more efficient in my collection and with blog posts and trades. This should have been a thing so long ago, things would have been so much easier, but then I wouldn't have it to look forward to!

So, there are two four-shelf units for my binders. These were key because trying to find cards in my binders was the single most frustrating part of my old card room set up -- which was really just a bunch of my collection stuffed in half a room.

The shelves closest to the door contain most of my set binders -- a lot of them complete sets. I have a few cherished complete-set binders stashed away under lock-and-key but for the most part all of them are on this shelf.

Up at the top are various collections -- the A&G frankenset binder, the night card binder, the Hostess binder, a sticker album, an oddball binder, etc. There are few boxes filled with various items -- hockey cards, oddballs and the like.

 

The other shelving unit features my Dodgers binders, plus a couple of other binders of various scattered sets, complete and not complete, stuff like All-Time Fan Favorites and the 2001 Upper Deck '70s set. Up top are my completed A&G sets (2008-14) and there are some binders in the back with nonsports cards, mostly, but also football. There is also a bin for my various Dodgers yearbooks, mostly from the '70s and '80s.

One of those old bookshelves that you saw in children's rooms in the '70s has been repurposed to house a few boxes of cards, mostly Topps and mostly stuff from the early '90s to current cards. Down below are some Score and Pinnacle sets and some random notebooks and such (one from the old days when I used to chart my collection with pen and paper).

On top of the book shelf you see a number of decorative items that are throughout the card room. many of which were sent to me by fellow collectors. I also have some of my precious Kellogg's '70s sets stacked up there, in hopes they won't crack out in the open. At right is the '76 Kellogg's quest.

Above that shelf you see a framed complete sheet of the 2010 PCL set that contains players like Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Logan Morrison and the famed Rojo Johnson (Will Ferrell).

Above the one shelf of binders are a few wall decorations, including one of the displays that shows off the original 1975 cards from my collection that I bought as a 9-year-old.

To the side of one shelf is a corner shelf (I feel like I'm using the word "shelf," too much -- I have no idea what furniture is called, this was something my wife had that I could use) that I use to display the Beckett magazines that feature my stories, one of the original Beckett price guides from 1979, and various stand-up figurines that I would never buy myself but sure come in handy when you decorate a card room!

This is the famous card desk that I was so excited to claim about five years ago. It's still very useful and still features my trade packages "system" of incoming packages on the left and outgoing packages on the right. In the middle -- a new addition for the card room -- are all of the 2019 cards that I've purchased this year. These used to be stacked on an old desk that has remained in the half-room that once housed my collection. Of course there are other stacks and knickknacks on the shelves above. What room isn't complete without a phone charger?

As you've seen before, the desk also features my wonderful Ron Cey-Fleetwood Mac lamp. In the drawers are boxes of cards from Fleer and Donruss and Bowman. And there are other various items in and out of the drawers -- pages, toploaders, etc.

The shelf above contains several items that mean quite a bit to me. Rod of Padrographs is all over this card room with the Ron Cey birthday card he sent me and the Sandy Koufax book and the Cey penguin and owls posters. He really knows how to spruce up a room.

To the left of the desk is the main 1975 Topps display. All of those cards are notables from my first year of collecting, all frayed and scuffed and glorious. I need another one of these that I'll put just below this one. I never thought I'd be making regular trips to Michael's.

Here is the table where I package cards for collectors. This table is magical because once I would have to travel upstairs or to the basement to get cards, then to the basement to get supplies, then upstairs to package everything on the dining room table, then to the second floor to store them for when I could get to the post office.

Now, all of that takes place on this one table.

I still need a set of drawers to go under the table to store my packaging supplies. I am getting those drawers from my parents' house. There are few items from my parents' house in this room, including the table and the first binder shelving unit. That means a lot to me. The old-style Underwood typewriter I bought myself at a thrift shop quite awhile ago. It's been waiting for its moment and here it is.

The chair -- which I love, it has that college kid vibe -- comes from my daughter's old desk set-up. She's off at college so I get her chair.

As you can see, I don't need anything fancy, just stuff that works for me. You get resourceful when you don't have a lot of money but still want to spend it on cards.

Here is a decorative shelf above the door with a few "what do I do with these" items: a ball from Ellis Island, a Duke Snider plate, a Dodgers toy tractor-trailer. I have more items like this than I have wall space. I had ideas of putting many of the Dodgers photos that I received from Alan on the walls, but there's no room for that, and the black-and-white, glossy nature of them don't seem to work on walls. So I'll ponder that for awhile.

The best part of this room is my collection is now self-contained. Even the closet (which still contains clothes) features all of my non-Dodgers dupes -- it's not a disaster, I don't have that much of them. The Dodgers dupes are in the boxes under the table.

So, that's where I plan to spend the rest of my days. It is my sanctuary.

As for where most of my binders and boxes were prior to this?

Naturally, my wife took that over.