Binders make me happy

 

Here it is. A plain, black, nondescript binder. Another key addition to my collection.

 

I'm not as creative as some collectors with their binder presentation, with year-accurate labels and every binder the same color, but I do proudly display a collection in binders. They are out in the open where everyone can see them -- not that I'm taking tickets to my card room. The cards that are in boxes are tucked away on shelves or in drawers.

 

I'm never comfortable stashing cards in boxes. I know that's what I did as a kid, before I discovered binders. But when binders showed up, it opened a whole new world. Cards are a visual medium and binders offer the best way to present a visual theme.

 

I feel the same way about any collectible publications that I own, yearbooks and programs and the like. But because that's a side part of my collection, I've stored them in bins without much of a thought -- until a revelation a couple weeks ago.

 

 

I mentioned last month the purchase of a bunch of one-pocket pages. They would help me store my publications, some of which are tattered due to handling them as a youngster.

 

But that was only part of the equation. The second part arrived with the binder I just showed. It appeared about a week after I got the pages. It was part of a delayed birthday gift from my daughter (the first one she bought was "lost" in the mail). The binder is very large, one of those massive 3-inch things that could fill a lot of cards.

 

But I didn't really need such a large binder for cards, and I couldn't think of any rearranging I could do to get cards in there ... but then it clicked -- I could put my Yearbooks And Such in it!

 

I was thrilled.

 

All of the Dodgers yearbooks I own now reside in their own binder. The 1961 yearbook kicks it off.

Just a sampling of some of the other yearbooks in their new abode:

I was able to get all of my Dodgers yearbooks in there. I have all of them from 1974-85, plus a scattering of ones from the 1960s and early 1970s. The yearbooks started getting thicker in the mid-1980s, but they still fit into the pages -- I don't know about the sizes of later yearbooks (except the 1990 anniversary yearbook, that definitely doesn't fit).

There was enough space left over for a couple of the World Series programs I own.

I ran out of room for the other World Series programs, as well as the other ones I have, from the NLCS and All-Star Game, etc.

But that's for another time and another binder!

Ideally I'll fill this binder (and maybe a second) with Dodger yearbooks I don't have yet and then a separate binder for the postseason/All-Star stuff.

 

I have smaller publications that would probably fit in some other kind of page. Stuff like this:

 

 

I received this from Angus along with the other card stuff I showed the other day. I love this. Everything about it is SO mid-1970s, I mean everything. Smiles everywhere.

So I'll figure out the oddball publications at some point but for now, here's the side view of the binder:

I mean see how good that looks! I need a coffee table for my card room so I can open it up and display it!

Binders make me so happy. They're just perfect. And I've finally got an answer for "I can't start collecting yearbooks, where would I put all those?"

Of course, there's the matter of storing these binders, too.