When I starting blogging again I didn't mean for the start and stop to happen. I wasn't planning on a semi comeback I was shooting for at least twice a week posts. Then things changed, but I guess that's life. Back in February 2011 I wrote about a big change in my life, moving from MO to AZ. Except for children being born I expected that to be the biggest change I was going to ever have to make. Then this year hit. In July I moved my daughter to TN so she could start college, then I came home and made a move myself. I never thought I would have to start over a 50 but we don't always see what life is going to give us. So new house (new address if your sending cards), new work, just about everything new. There is a reason I collect old ballcards, I don't like new.
There are some good things that come with new though. I have kind of alluded to it before but I haven't had all the cards in my collection in one place in 10 years. Probably 99% of the cards I acquire come from some kind of online transaction. Since I spent all day at work on a computer I didn't spend any time on the computer at home. So when I would purchase Virdon stuff I was doing it at work which caused a problem. The Virdon stuff I don't have is mostly variations of things I already do have so I have to make comparisons before I do a purchase. As an example I would find a Virdon postcard while I as at work but then I would have to wait until I got home to compare it to the postcard I already had. That was bothersome so I moved all my Virdon stuff to my office. That wasn't such a big deal Virdons at work Red Sox at home. Only I used my work address for everything. If you mailed me a card in the last 10 years, you mailed it to my office. It started with a drawer in my desk. I would get cards in the mail that needed added to my collection and I would throw them in that drawer to be brought home later. No big deal it is just a few cards now and then but they started to pile up. 99% of them were in the vintage variety. All my Vintage Red Sox fit in one 6" binder so I brought that to work too. No big deal Virdon and Vintage at the office and the rest of my Red Sox at home. Then I started buying the current sets each year. I would order a binder and pages off Amazon which delivered to my office and then all the team sets would come to my office; once I filled that binder I just put it on my office bookshelf next to the Virdons and Vintage. Then again a year later, and a year later, and it didn't seem like very long but all of the sudden I had 2017 to 2025 in my office. Well no more office for me so now my cards are all under one roof again.
Meet the new card shelf. Those boxes on the top left are what used to be my vintage binder. It is all top loaded up to 1980. The four boxes below those are partial team sets and inserts from 1980 to current. None of them are labeled yet because I'm not totally happy with it. Three row boxes fit on these shelves better than two row boxes so I am going to be swapping those out in the near future. Below that is supplies and some autographed stuff I don't know how to display yet. (That is an autographed crown, next to a boxing glove, ontop of a baseball glove, ontop of boxing shorts.)
The two boxes on the top right: one is autographs and relics, the other is a bunch of oddball stuff that doesn't fit in regular pages or binders. (the divider is taken out of one of those boxes.) Below that is Red Sox doubles and all the cards from other teams.
It isn't just a shelf, it is a whole closet. Up top are all my binders. The first one is boxing then it goes 1980 Red Sox to current. That empty spot in the middle isn't there anymore, I filled up with my Virdon stuff. I took the picture before I added the virdon binders in and reinstalled the the closet doors which I had to take off to get that shelf in there. I like it better without the doors but I don't know what I would do with two giant mirrored doors so I put them back on.
There are my Vidons in place half blocked by the door. The first binder is Virdon cards. There is going to be a change to this binder I just haven't decided what yet, future post I guess. The second binder is my Virdon postcard to 8x11s. I have posted about that binder before. The third binder is magazine and program covers. I don't know if I ever even mentioned that one on here before. Magazines take up a lot more space than cards so I had to find somewhere to go with them. The fourth binder is my unlabeled 2024 binder. I is also stuck 2025 series one in there since I do not have a 2025 binder yet. I still have lots of organizing to do still. That black thing on the bottom left is my Virdon spring training fungo bat that needs hung. That brown box on the right hold my Virdon 1982 Home Jersey.
At least my cards are pretty organized even if everything else isn't!
