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Ideas for Man Cave AKA whole Apartment

I've been commissioned by a friend to help build a baseball memorabilia man cave. It's a pretty broad assignment and kinda tough to know where to start.

He is not really looking for signed pictures. He has a lot of signed baseballs.

I suggested a baseball card display case to start.

Teams to focus on: Yankees and Phillies.

I was told to get things that are "cool" and baseball related. Vintage might be preferable.

This guy has money so price is not too much of an issue (no Babe Ruth auto baseballs, that has already been vetoed).

I'm building a 1968 and a 1970 Topps set. I have lots of 1970s and 1960s to offer in trade.

Comments

  • TonyCTonyC Posts: 1,399 ✭✭✭
    Going "oddball/unusual" is always cool. Maybe look for some vintage advertising pieces, lithographs, vintage posters (one of two of the 1968 SI posters of his favorite players)?
    Collecting Tony Conigliaro
  • cwazzycwazzy Posts: 3,257
    Vintage pennants would be an awesome addition. Maybe commission Graig Kreindler to do an original painting or two. How about a Monty Sheldon art ball?
    Chris
    My small collection
    Want List:
    '61 Topps Roy Campanella in PSA 5-7
    Cardinal T206 cards
    Adam Wainwright GU Jersey
  • jmmiller777jmmiller777 Posts: 1,324 ✭✭✭
    I agree with Tony, small posters, advertising pieces, autographed and framed posters. I think the scorecards from the 60'6-70's look awesome. I make collages where I will take a center piece sucha as a signed Mantle Comic book and then take a few more items to lay out in a attractive collage. I single and double mat for a nice effect. Most pieces will fall uner 3' X 4', the majority arond 16" X 20". Get some of those and you have to include some PSA display shelves to display favorite players or team sets. Sounds like a fun project. I would have a Yankees room and a Phillies room. The halls would have framed and matted HOF Plaques and those advertising pieces, old unusual things.
    CURRENT PROJECTS IN WORK:
    To be honest, no direction, but...
    1966-69 Topps EX+
    1975 minis NrMt Kelloggs PSA 9
    All Topps Heritage-Master Sets
    image
  • JaktJakt Posts: 573
    All great ideas.

    Keep em coming.
    I'm building a 1968 and a 1970 Topps set. I have lots of 1970s and 1960s to offer in trade.
  • Go into the search feature and type "man cave"

    Get ready to get some ideas and see lots of great stuff
  • 72skywalker72skywalker Posts: 1,539 ✭✭✭
    Vintage magazine with players on the cover, Sports illustrated, Time, Life...
    Collecting Yankees and vintage Star Wars
  • llafoellafoe Posts: 7,220 ✭✭
    WANTED: Cincinnati Reds TEAM Cards
  • PowderedH2OPowderedH2O Posts: 2,443 ✭✭
    How about a room that actually feels like the ballpark? Walls painted like the fences at Yankee Stadium (or old Yankee Stadium) with billboards and advertisements, etc. would be a nice touch. Maybe a scoreboard? And place the television where the replay screen is in the actual stadium.
    Successful dealings with shootybabitt, LarryP, Doctor K, thedutymon, billsgridirongreats, fattymacs, shagrotn77, pclpads, JMDVM, gumbyfan, itzagoner, rexvos, al032184, gregm13, californiacards3, mccardguy1, BigDaddyBowman, bigreddog, bobbyw8469, burke23, detroitfan2, drewsef, jeff8877, markmac, Goldlabels, swartz1, blee1, EarlsWorld, gseaman25, kcballboy, jimrad, leadoff4, weinhold, Mphilking, milbroco, msassin, meteoriteguy, rbeaton and gameusedhoop.
  • EchoCanyonEchoCanyon Posts: 2,274 ✭✭✭
    i would think beyond material items, and think interior design.

    think wainscoting -- half a wall of wood, paint it green and it could be ANY field
  • yankeesmanyankeesman Posts: 937 ✭✭✭✭
    There is a guy online who sells crown moulding that is cut like the facade at Yankee stadium. Would be really cool to go around the top of the room.
    Don Mattingly, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson, Brian McCann and Topps Rookie Cup autograph collector
    www.questfortherookiecup.com
  • Throw in a few original stadium seats somewhere, framed uncut sheet of the year he was born, got to have a bar if he drinks. On the bar top you can add opened wrappers of different years and throw a glass top on them. The most expensive items will be the furniture and the tv so start there and add to it. Good luck!
  • jimradjimrad Posts: 2,777 ✭✭✭
    You should grab these

    Card cases
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    MULLINS5,1966CUDA,nam812,nightcrawler,OAKESY25,PowderedH2O,relaxed,RonBurgundy,samsgirl214,shagrotn77,swartz1,slantycouch,Statman,Wabittwax
  • larryallen73larryallen73 Posts: 6,054 ✭✭✭
    Honestly I would get very little of the crap listed above. Women do NOT dig a baseball themed apartment. Decorate one room MAX with that crap. Tastefully decorate the rest of the apartment. In fact, have your friend get one of his women friends to help decorate. He will thank me!
  • esquiresportsesquiresports Posts: 1,360 ✭✭✭
    I agree with Larry that you probably want to keep it to a room. It's also a fine line between looking like a fan and looking a little crazy. I decided to steer clear of a theme room because I think it's difficult to do and not look cheesy (just my opinion). All this said, several friends still like to joke around and tell me how "most people stop collecting cards at around 15." There are countless ways to approach this, so I'd suggest sharing various photos with your friend and seeing what styles he leans toward.

    Below are a few photos of my room, which my GF doesn't mind. It's a mix of cards and memorabilia, which seems to be relatively unusual. Most people lean strongly one way or the other. The memorabilia is limited to my favorite people. I made the baseball displays from frames at Aaron Brothers. I made the Tony Gwynn "locker" and made the Michael Schumacher case. I also made the shelves for the individual Topps sets. Send me a PM if you'd like any information on how I made those. I made place cards for several displays to give it a bit of a "museum feel" and so friends can understand what they are looking at if they are interested (and I don't have to bore them by talking about if they aren't).

    imageimage
    image <a href="http://s1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff461/esquiresports/?action=view&current=Wall11.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff461/esquiresports/Wall11.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
    image
    Always buying 1971 OPC Baseball packs.
  • esquiresportsesquiresports Posts: 1,360 ✭✭✭
    Oops. One more wall:
    image
    Always buying 1971 OPC Baseball packs.
  • cwazzycwazzy Posts: 3,257


    << <i>Wow, great looking room there esquiresports!

    What binders do you have for your Topps sets? >>



    +1!!!!! Very nice!
    Chris
    My small collection
    Want List:
    '61 Topps Roy Campanella in PSA 5-7
    Cardinal T206 cards
    Adam Wainwright GU Jersey
  • tunahead08tunahead08 Posts: 1,056 ✭✭✭
    Wow, great looking room there esquiresports!

    What binders do you have for your Topps sets?
  • esquiresportsesquiresports Posts: 1,360 ✭✭✭
    Thanks guys. Those are MJ Roop binders. They went out of business around 2006. They were pretty expensive - like $50-60 per binder (or more than a majority of the sets are worth!). You can find essentially the same binders without the inscriptions on a few archival storage websites. An artist out there could probably stencil them up relatively easily. Each has its own dust jacket.

    Scott
    Always buying 1971 OPC Baseball packs.
  • Beck6Beck6 Posts: 1,038 ✭✭✭
    Baseball card mural

    This would look awesome on a wall. I believe you can buy a computer program that you can scan all the cards in and they will put them in order to make the picture.
    Registry Sets:
    T222's PSA 1 or better
  • jmmiller777jmmiller777 Posts: 1,324 ✭✭✭
    Wow, that is frickin' awesome!

    Edited to say "both the room picts and the collage"!
    CURRENT PROJECTS IN WORK:
    To be honest, no direction, but...
    1966-69 Topps EX+
    1975 minis NrMt Kelloggs PSA 9
    All Topps Heritage-Master Sets
    image
  • original baseball artwork is always a good idea:
    5.4.1871. baseball in black and white
    www.541871.com
  • mcadamsmcadams Posts: 2,611 ✭✭✭
    We have an artist in the family who has been doing oil portraits and murals for 25+ yrs. Over the past decade, he's done quite a few great oil paintings of sports stars that were commissioned specifically for man caves. A great piece of art of your favorite team or player can really be the centerpiece of the room, rather than going 100% memorabilia. These below some recent portraits.


    image
    image
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    Always buying Bobby Cox inserts. PM me.
  • a bar made out of louiville slugger bats, with inlayed favorite baseball players on cards embedded in the top,,
    imageimageimageimageimage
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