Not Quite A Man Cave

More like a sports collectible themed office.  A few weeks back, I made the decision to bite the bullet and clean it up.

First up... the shelves.

My favorite is the Oakland Athletics shelf, because it has a good mixture of cards, SLU's, and bobbleheads.  Plus they're the team I've rooted for the longest.

I debated on breaking down my Los Angeles Lakers shelf, since I no longer watch basketball.  However, I left it up since I was a fan for the majority of my life.  To the upper right is my tiny San Diego Padres shelf.  I have a few other items, but lack of shelf space has limited me to what you see displayed.

The same can be said for my Green Bay Packers shelf.  I have four more McFarlanes that I couldn't fit on it, so I took them to work and have them displayed in my classroom.

Eventually, I'd like to expand my Seahawks shelf..  Now that they've finally won a Super Bowl, I'm hoping more companies will produce Seattle memorabilia.

After the shelves were cleaned and redecorated, I moved on to my binders which house a large part of my lowend PC's, as well as a bunch of trade bait.  It's sort of a living project as I'm constantly switching out binders as certain ones grow faster than others.

Last, but not least... I organized the bulk of my collection.  What you're looking at is a section of my office dedicated to 5,000ct. boxes filled with random box breaks and a few flea market purchases over the years.  You'll also notice a few monster shoe boxes that house some of the lowerend stuff from my PC's, as well as tradebait and supplies.

Unfortunately, that's only a fraction of my collection.  Lack of space doesn't allow me to store everything here.

Unopened Kenner SLU's, McFarlane's, action figures, bobble heads, the majority of my magazines and comic books, card sets, graded cards, and most of my personal collection that require top loaders or magnetics are stored at either my parent's house, a friend's garage, a tiny storage unit I recently rented, or my classroom... which sort of sucks, because I don't always have access to all of my stuff.

Which might have you wondering...

What's the point of owning a collection if you can't walk over to it and look at it?

I completely understand and agree with you, but it is what it is.

Until I'm able to afford a new place with plenty of room for storage and my very own man cave, I'll have to rely on my website and my blog.  Both of these allow me to have highlights of my collection right at my fingertips.

And if I want to actually touch and smell my 1956 Topps Jackie Robinson or my Gwynn Stroke of Genius autograph... well that just gives me another reason to go down and visit Mama and Papa Fuji.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

My Wall of Fame

Last weekend, I finally finished my sports memorabilia wall in my office. I've had my place for almost ten years now and up until a few weeks ago, one of the walls was left empty. The main reason I didn't do anything with it was because I was lazy and never dedicated any time to the project. Well after I framed my 16 x 20 autographed photos of Rudy Ruettiger and Jake LaMotta, I decided to finally do something about the blank slate.

I started off by hanging my Ruettiger autograph next to the entrance to my office. Two of my favorite sports movies are Rudy and Raging Bull, so when Steiner had their two 16 x 20 autographed photos for $99.99 a few weeks ago, I had to add these to my collection. After I hung the Rudy photo up, I then added the shelf above it. It contains all of my baseball SLU's that aren't A's. It's hard to see, but I have the following going from left to right: Dwight Gooden, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Rod Carew, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux (Braves), Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson, KirbyPuckett, Will Clark, Greg Maddux (Cubs), and Mark McGwire (Cardinals).

Then I hung up the LaMotta photograph on the far right and added my Oakland Athletics shelf directly below it. For now, there are a couple of extra memorabilia cards that I have, an autographed Vida Blue postcard, a Tim Hudson bobblehead, and the following A's SLU's (L to R): Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, Rickey Henderson, Geronimo Berroa, Jim Hunter, Jose Canseco, Walt Weiss, Ben Grieve, Jose Canseco (posing), and another Mark McGwire. So congratulations Sal, you called it. I own ten Oakland A's SLU's.

After I was finished with the A's shelf, I added the three shelves located between the two photos. I added the one on top first. It's one of the small shelves, so I put my Seahawks collection on since I don't have a lot of it on display. I have a couple of Fathead Tradeables, a mini pennant, a few memorabilia cards and these 5 SLU's (L to R): Cortez Kennedy, Curt Warner (the 1st SLU I ever purchased back in 1989), Chris Warren, another Cortez Kennedy, and Joey Galloway. Night Owl guessed it correctly and earned himself 2 extra points.

Then I added another small shelf at the bottom for my Packers collection. It holds my Favre Headliner and mini jersey, a Packers Fathead Tradeable, a Packers mini helmet, two McFarlanes (Bart Starr & Brett Favre), and these 6 Packers SLU's (L to R): Reggie White, Dorsey Levens, Mark Chmura, Robert Brooks (behind Chmura), Brett Favre, and Antonio Freeman. Nobody guessed 6 Packers, but Gmoses was closest with 7. 82RedBirds also guessed 7, but Gmoses beat him to it.

The final shelf was centered between the Packers and the Seahawks and is dedicated to my Lakers collection. It features a Byron Scott autographed card, a Lakers logo card, and these ten Lakers SLU's (L to R): Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Eddie Jones, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Kobe Bryant, another Magic Johnson, Nick Van Exel, and Shaquille O'Neal. Night Owl called it correctly again and earned another 2 bonus points. Those 5 points took him from 9th place up to 5th place. Nice job Night Owl.

On Monday, I added the finishing touches to the wall. I hung up my autographed photo of the Rock and a picture of one of my buddy's wedding party.

Unfortunately, I don't have any room on the wall for my Sharks collection. However, I do have some of it displayed on my TV in the office. It's hard to tell, but there are three San Jose Sharks SLU's in my collection. I don't have the Sandis Ozolinsh figure, but I have two of the One on One series that includes Sharks. First is the Modano vs. Mike Vernon (on top). Then below it in it's original package, I have an Owen Nolan vs. Osgood piece. So just like Night Owl, Gmoses wins big with 5 points. He started off the day in third place, but has now jumped into a tie for first place.

By the way, if you look at the Sharks photo you'll see my autographed ball of Owen Nolan. This is a monumental piece in my Sharks collection, because it marks the day that he ceased being my favorite Shark. In a nutshell, he spent several minutes talking to these two women in front of me (and my niece and nephew). However, when he got to us... he blew us off. He actually complained about signing the ball (which I had signed to go along with his 94/95 BAP autograph (which has a photo of him holding a baseball) and ignored my request to have him sign the sweet spot. Anyways... I apologize for the rant, but I felt I needed to get that off of my chest.

Which leads us to today's question of the day. Have you ever stopped liking a favorite player? If so, who was it and why did you stop liking him/her? If not, what would make you stop liking a favorite player?

So here's the updated point total:

Spastikmooss - 23 points

G Moses - 23 points
Hoopography - 22 points
Tony Mc - 21 points
82Redbirds - 19 points

Sal - 19 points
BA Benny - 14 points

night owl - 14 points
TJ - 12 points
Play at the Plate - 10 points

Steve D - 9 points
Cam - 9 points
dkwilson - 9 points
Martyn - 9 points
John - 6 points
Jeremy - 4 points
Redsox101 - 4 points
(...Joe) - 3 points
Captain Canuck - 2 points
longlivethewho - 1 point
The Ranter - 1 point

lonestar - 1 point

timmy v - 1 point

dodgerbobble - 1 point

Sports Card Report - 1 point

After tonight, there's only going to be one more chance to win points. It's going to get interesting, because it's going to involve a challenge similar to Final Jeopardy where you will have to bet some points. So stay tuned... and have a good evening!