On Display, or Not?

Let's keep the question train going, shall we?

Today, I answer Corky's question of whether or not I display my cards.

Spoiler: the answer now is no. (TL:DR at the bottom.)

Short story long: (if we say long story short, why not short story long to mean an overly descriptive story?)

As a kid, I didn't really display my cards. My first cards were rubber-cemented to some thin poster board and then stored under my bed. Those "posters" could have been displayed for a while, but it couldn't have been for too long. As I got into collecting and had more than a couple packs worth of cards, I had a few souvenirs on a shelf, but my cards stayed in a box or binder when I wasn't sorting, studying, or just flipping through them. Yup, all those originally-mint-condition '89 Donruss cards got their corners softened as I got to know the players on each team. I eventually turned the tiny closet in my tiny bedroom into a baseball shrine... a boy's man cave of sorts. But I don't think I ever displayed cards there; the wall space was reserved for posters and newspaper clippings.

When we moved across the country, I got myself a normal-sized bedroom and an unfinished half-basement to call my own full-size man cave. I ended up getting two showcases which I used to display a few cards and small souvenirs, and little shelves for my bigger souvenirs. I must have had one or two of those cheap wall-hanging 30-card displays at some point. But for the most part, my cards stayed in binders or boxes. I lost my bedroom when the basement was finished; the basement was both my bedroom and man-cave. So I had less space to do something like display cards.

This picture is in part of my basement bedroom after it was finished, but before they actually put shutters on the windows (it was a half-basement). So it's probably 1993. You can see the display case, which holds some Topps Coins, a few game tickets, and a couple oversized cards as well. I have a baseball poster on the right, and a small shelf with a few souvenirs above the computer. The binder held my star cards, whatever that meant back then. It might have held Nolan Ryan, Ken Griffey Jr., Jose Canseco, and some Braves cards.

Eventually I stopped collecting in college, and when I came back into the hobby I didn't display any of my collection for quite a while. Even when I moved into my own two bedroom apartment I kept the cards stored away. Some of my souvenirs found their way onto shelves, but I don't recall displaying cards.

I then moved into a loft which had lots of open space. This was perfect for setting up shelving to display my collections. And again the cards stayed in storage - binders or boxes that could be looked through but no cards on display to look at. However, once I got my Nolan Ryan and Ken Griffey Jr. autographs, I had a desire to have them on display. So I put them on shelves with figures of those players. I did the same with a Tony Gwynn autograph I had.

I think I had six cheap Ikea "bookcase" shelving units - they cost about $20 and weren't strong enough to hold binders or boxes of cards beyond the bottom shelf, but they were perfect for displaying all of my random memorabilia. And boy did I have a lot. The binders you can see actually have ticket stubs from my travels and events I've attended. The right-most shelving unit has all of the packaging and oddball cards I've gotten from packs and boxes, while the other two have team souvenirs.

I still have that Wheaties box, and it still has its cereal. And those bats are all game-used cracked bats I picked up at minor league games. If you look closely at the shelves, you'll see there's only one team on each shelf. I was very happy to have the space to do that, though the Indians shelf is quite sparse, with only a cross-stitch logo my mom made for me.

I have some uncut sheets, which I put on display too. About 15 years ago, when all kinds of crazy relics were coming out, I used some snap cases and magnet tape to display some cards on the breaker door on my wall. It was pretty poorly located - right in the eyeline of someone first looking in the apartment - so covering it with cards was an attempt to make it look better. I suppose I could have put one of those uncut sheets over it, or some poster. Regardless, there weren't many cards on display even though I had tons of cheap souvenirs on cheap Ikea shelving.

But when I moved back to California, everything went into storage, and while living in SF I didn't display any cards. I brought one cheap card from every Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Score, and Upper Deck set with me when I moved to Japan, and I used removable double-sided tape to display them along the top of my wall, like a border.

Unfortunately, when I moved out of that apartment, anything I had on display was packed away, and while I now have a couple figures on a small shelf, my apartment is essentially devoid of any decorating or personalization. I still have all of those cards, and some day I may take the time and effort to line them up along the wall of my current apartment.

How about the future? One thing I would really like to do is to frame the roller coaster cabinet cards from 2012 Allen & Ginter and display those on a wall. It combines two of my favorite interests into one little attractive package. I would like to display uncut sheets along a wall. And I would love to have a little display for each of my player collections - perhaps a representative card alongside the player's bobblehead or other figure.

So long story short: no, I don't display my cards now. I used to have a few on display, and I'd love to do it again!