What to do with late 80's cards? I had an idea

[Centauri]

I have thousands upon thousands of cards collected as a kid sitting a the bottom of the closet. A quick review online shows little current value of anything, and given the hyper printing of the time, little chance of ever becoming the gold mine I envisioned. But I still like the cards and I personally think they're cool. So what to do? I decided to make some lemonade.

It's a mix of different sets, time periods, players. I am an Indians fan at heart, so their are some Indians mixed in with mostly HOF'ers. About 20 or so are from Topps Archive sets, but mostly these are regular cards. They are clued on an MDF backer, so everyone else's cards just got rarer by 1!

135 different players, 87 different sets. 288 total cards.

[bnorth]

That is very cool.

[PM770]

Quite possibly the best use for cards from the junk era I've ever seen!

Nicely done!

[DaClyde]

Those would make a great idea for sports bar decor instead of the fake antique metal signs they get from Hobby Lobby.

[ALR-bishop]

Great idea

[7nohitter]

Those look cool...explain the process.

[Centauri]

The process (long version):

I saw all those boxes in the closet, and thought I should just sell this stuff. Went to a local card shop where about a thousand cards, including some nice 70's and 80's HOFers could not sell for $20. I see that donation is bandied about as perhaps the best option to recover some dollars. My 10,000 cards could be donated for $500 bucks or so, saving me a fraction of that number on my taxes. Not interested.

So I said hey, I'll glue them to the wall and it will look cool. My wife suggested a backer board so if we move, I can take them with me. I looked around for a good stiff board, and settled on MDF. I bought a 4 x 8 sheet, and cut it into 3 sections. I was still undecided on what shape I was looking for. I thought I would do a long horizontal look - 11 ft long to fill the wall, 3 ft. wide. Went through my cards and selected about 500 to go up there, and augmented a couple missing spots in my mind with some eBay purchases and BST - about $50 worth.

As I further considered, I decided to try a vertical look, and by chance the board fit 12 x 12 perfectly. And in proportion to the card size 2.5x3.5 inches, now is 2.5 x 3.5 feet. Cut back to 2 boards from 3 as well. That meant culling about 250 cards from those I wanted up there. Did that in several rounds, always aiming for more variety of players and sets. Some sets I really never liked (88, 89 Topps esp.) so I shied away from those in makes cuts. What was left is mostly HOFers, with quite a few Indians mixed in - especially Albert Belle my favorite player.

I also focused on some of the big names from my collecting years - Wally Joyner, Doc Gooden, Mattingly, Will Clark - big names who fell short of the hall, but hey these were the cards everyone wanted in 1988. I am not a fan of the steroids guys, so only 2 Bonds, 2 Clemens, and zero Bagwell, and zero Arod (couldn't stand him as a player, why put him on my wall?). I then spent some time trying out different arrangements of cards, mixing old and new, while trying to balance the players with multiple cards between the 2 boards.

Putting it together was pretty simple, if time consuming. Spray painted the boards a satin black so any spaces caused by miscuts, rounded corners etc. would not stand out. I screwed the board into the studs, again so they would stay flat.

I attached the cards using a product called glue drops - they are small dots of glue attached to a roll of wax paper. I put 6 to a card, three along each edge, by cutting the wax paper for each individual dot and sticking it to the card. Each card would then have 6 glue dots and wax paper coverings. 288 cards, 6 glue dots to each meant 1728 steps. Took a while.

I then carefully attached each card to the board starting in the upper left corner, the adding them in rows, being extremely careful to maintain a straight line. The glue dots are very strong, and on 2 occasions I slipped slightly and the card attached to the board slightly off. The only way to remove it at that point was to destroy the card. It took several sessions to finish all this, but the result is pretty sweet.

The pictures do not do it justice, in my humble opinion. I truly enjoyed collecting, and the end result. Even my wife, who hates sports in general, and my kids who could give a flip about baseball think it looks pretty cool. These cards may not have much value to others, but they do to me, and now they are out of the closet, and on the wall.

In case you are wondering, why not use some sort of cases so the cards aren't "ruined"? I really dislike the plastic. The colors are so much more vibrant when out of their cases. They are on basement wall in a room with no windows, and a constant temp. I think they will last.

I spent 4 months planning and putting this together. Well worth it.

[brob28]

Ben, that really is a great looking way to display those cards. Well done.

[tonyo]

Great job!
I really love the look of these and have returned to this thread several times just to peruse the cards again. I think one of the things that sets it off is that you only have hofers and stars.

You did a great job of mixing 60's 70's 80's 90's.

It's also interesting that you have several cards on there that I consider "good cards" - 73 Ryan and 72 Frank R come to mind - that I personally would probably never consider gluing onto a board . It's the psychological part of card collecting that I think about fairly often. I think it's great that you have done this and are truly having fun with collecting cards.

Makes me want to pull out my two boxes of 80's and 90's that have survived my purges over the years.

I love the lemonade!

[7nohitter]

The process (long version):

I saw all those boxes in the closet, and thought I should just sell this stuff. Went to a local card shop where about a thousand cards, including some nice 70's and 80's HOFers could not sell for $20. I see that donation is bandied about as perhaps the best option to recover some dollars. My 10,000 cards could be donated for $500 bucks or so, saving me a fraction of that number on my taxes. Not interested.

So I said hey, I'll glue them to the wall and it will look cool. My wife suggested a backer board so if we move, I can take them with me. I looked around for a good stiff board, and settled on MDF. I bought a 4 x 8 sheet, and cut it into 3 sections. I was still undecided on what shape I was looking for. I thought I would do a long horizontal look - 11 ft long to fill the wall, 3 ft. wide. Went through my cards and selected about 500 to go up there, and augmented a couple missing spots in my mind with some eBay purchases and BST - about $50 worth.

As I further considered, I decided to try a vertical look, and by chance the board fit 12 x 12 perfectly. And in proportion to the card size 2.5x3.5 inches, now is 2.5 x 3.5 feet. Cut back to 2 boards from 3 as well. That meant culling about 250 cards from those I wanted up there. Did that in several rounds, always aiming for more variety of players and sets. Some sets I really never liked (88, 89 Topps esp.) so I shied away from those in makes cuts. What was left is mostly HOFers, with quite a few Indians mixed in - especially Albert Belle my favorite player.

I also focused on some of the big names from my collecting years - Wally Joyner, Doc Gooden, Mattingly, Will Clark - big names who fell short of the hall, but hey these were the cards everyone wanted in 1988. I am not a fan of the steroids guys, so only 2 Bonds, 2 Clemens, and zero Bagwell, and zero Arod (couldn't stand him as a player, why put him on my wall?). I then spent some time trying out different arrangements of cards, mixing old and new, while trying to balance the players with multiple cards between the 2 boards.

Putting it together was pretty simple, if time consuming. Spray painted the boards a satin black so any spaces caused by miscuts, rounded corners etc. would not stand out. I screwed the board into the studs, again so they would stay flat.

I attached the cards using a product called glue drops - they are small dots of glue attached to a roll of wax paper. I put 6 to a card, three along each edge, by cutting the wax paper for each individual dot and sticking it to the card. Each card would then have 6 glue dots and wax paper coverings. 288 cards, 6 glue dots to each meant 1728 steps. Took a while.

I then carefully attached each card to the board starting in the upper left corner, the adding them in rows, being extremely careful to maintain a straight line. The glue dots are very strong, and on 2 occasions I slipped slightly and the card attached to the board slightly off. The only way to remove it at that point was to destroy the card. It took several sessions to finish all this, but the result is pretty sweet.

The pictures do not do it justice, in my humble opinion. I truly enjoyed collecting, and the end result. Even my wife, who hates sports in general, and my kids who could give a flip about baseball think it looks pretty cool. These cards may not have much value to others, but they do to me, and now they are out of the closet, and on the wall.

In case you are wondering, why not use some sort of cases so the cards aren't "ruined"? I really dislike the plastic. The colors are so much more vibrant when out of their cases. They are on basement wall in a room with no windows, and a constant temp. I think they will last.

I spent 4 months planning and putting this together. Well worth it.

Ben,
Thanks for the long version! That is a great idea...I'm currently redoing a room and I think I will do something very similar. I appreciate the info-thank you!
Andrew

[Shoebox]

Looks great! Thanks for sharing!

[mybestbretts]

What a cool idea!

[Centauri]

For those worried, no mint cards were harmed in this production.;)

None of the older cards would grade above a 4 or 5, most barely a 1. And yes, it did hurt to kill all those cards. I spent 20 years being ultra careful, then boom.

Thank you all for your kind comments.

[jason.1969]

Really like this. Regardless of book value, memories of the players and of collecting are pretty priceless. I know I feel happy every time I walk by one of my displays.

[David W]

That looks real nice.

Thanks for sharing it.

[Jobu]

Nice execution of an idea I have been considering myself. To anyone else doing this: use water-based glue so that the soakers from the year 2100 have some doable projects!

[deadballfreaK]

I like this idea. Last summer I closed in a 24x26 carport. I was planning on making it into a combination workshop/St. Louis Cardinal man cave with a lot of memorabilia. Wonder how many cards would fit in a 24x8 wall? :eek:

[timzcardz]

What a great idea!

I could picture an entire wall covered like that, as a backdrop for autographed pictures and other memorabilia hung over it. Hmmm?

[Cozumeleno]

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. So cool, in fact, that I'm going to tackle one.

I'd like to put one together using inexpensive, but significant cards from my collecting. For example, the very first card I ever got was a John McNamara 1986 Topps card. Woof.

For me, Dwight Gooden was my favorite player growing up and my first 'expensive' card was a Gooden 1987 Topps that I paid like $2.00 for as a 9-year old kid. A Gregg Jefferies 1989 Topps rookie card was one of my first big 'pulls'. A 1981 Fleer card since I found a pile of them in my grandfather's attic and no one knew how the heck they got in there. Crap like that.

I've got dozens of these types of memories of cards from the 1980s and 1990s and nearly all of them are commons or throwaways.

I know about Burbank Sportscards and their whole $1.00 for commons deal. Can anyone recommend dealers with large common inventories that don't charge an arm and a leg for them? I want to do this project, but don't want to pay $150.00 for it, no matter how cool it might look.

[Cozumeleno]

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. So cool, in fact, that I'm going to tackle one.

I'd like to put one together using inexpensive, but significant cards from my collecting. For example, the very first card I ever got was a John McNamara 1986 Topps card. Woof.

For me, Dwight Gooden was my favorite player growing up and my first 'expensive' card was a Gooden 1987 Topps that I paid like $2.00 for as a 9-year old kid. A Gregg Jefferies 1989 Topps rookie card was one of my first big 'pulls'. A 1981 Fleer card since I found a pile of them in my grandfather's attic and no one knew how the heck they got in there. Crap like that.

I've got dozens of these types of memories of cards from the 1980s and 1990s and nearly all of them are commons or throwaways.

I know about Burbank Sportscards and their whole $1.00 for commons deal. Can anyone recommend dealers with large common inventories that don't charge an arm and a leg for them? I want to do this project, but don't want to pay $150.00 for it, no matter how cool it might look.

[JBird]

pretty awesome. i was thinking of doing something similar with the "cards your mother threw out" set topps had as an insert a couple years back. i was going to hang them kind of like you did or make a bar top if i ever get that basement bar i've wanted to build. nice work!

[tonyo]

I know about Burbank Sportscards and their whole $1.00 for commons deal. Can anyone recommend dealers with large common inventories that don't charge an arm and a leg for them? I want to do this project, but don't want to pay $150.00 for it, no matter how cool it might look.

try sportlots.com you'll find 1000's of late 80's commons (and plenty of hofers) at 18cents each plus shipping. Some dealers offer free shipping on large lots (150ish)

[Cozumeleno]

try sportlots.com you'll find 1000's of late 80's commons (and plenty of hofers) at 18cents each plus shipping. Some dealers offer free shipping on large lots (150ish)

Thanks - appreciate it. Will check them out.

[bnorth]

Thanks - appreciate it. Will check them out.

How many junk era commons are you looking for? I have several 1000 that I would send you for the price of shipping.

[Cozumeleno]

How many junk era commons are you looking for? I have several 1000 that I would send you for the price of shipping.

Thanks, really appreciate the offer.

Only enough to do one of these projects - I'll likely use 100. I have already started going through my newer cards (I only collect pre-war stuff but still have tens of thousands of newer cards from that era) and found a bunch I wanted to use. I'm picking out cards that meant something to me over the course of my childhood for one reason or another and have a list already in mind.

I've found about 50 already and will probably just look for others that I'm after once I find out which ones I still need.

Thanks, though - cool of you to ask.