Clemente Corner - In my basement

 So this is my Clemente museum. I found this display case on Craigslist for free. I just had to haul it away. It was at a newly established marijuana shop, but apparently was used for a jewelry store in it's past life and the current owner had no use for it. It was perfect for my collection. It sat in my garage for a couple of years while I let the ideas percolate on how I should proceed. I like that explanation better than sheer procrastination. Anyway, I finally turned the unused case into a gem. I painted over the pink plastic laminate with a metallic paint and cleaned the glass and set the glass shelves and filled it up. I can now look at most of my Clemente memorabilia in an organized fashion. It's not all in there, but most of it is. I still plan on installing an LED light rope around the perimeter to brighten things up a bit.

 So I have a diverse collection. I like anything that has Roberto's image on it. It is a slight compulsion of mine, but it beats what any number of other people may be hooked on these days. Some of the items bring back feelings of nostalgia, such as the 7-11 Big Gulp cup. I didn't have a Clemente back in the day, but I do remember going to a 7-11 and their marketing of baseball players, and a friend also had a collection of them.

 The top is filled with relic cards and coins. Some rare, some not so much. All seemingly make me feel closer to bringing him back to life for me. I usually have a bunch of other cards and magazines that need to be stored on a nice flat surface sitting on top of this display case. It is also the safe zone from pets, and significant others from reorganizing and misplacing things.

 Cereal boxes and figurines.

 Baseballs, beer cans, bats. I do not yet have a true autograph of him yet, but it is high on my list of priorities.

 Closeups of the relic cards. I have over 100 of them, all unique. Some are better designs than others. I originally didn't want to start collecting them, and wanted to stick to vintage cards only. I was swayed eventually. I started with the fairly cheap ones. I stick to a rule of never going much higher than the low book value. There are exceptions of course. I don't go crazy for versions that may be just a different numbered lot, maybe change the color up a bit, but the design is still the same. I mean, come on, how crazy would I have to be to pay twice as much just because there are a few less of the cards in existence, yet they are basically the same? Same bat pieces, same image, same cardboard. I get the multi-colored relics, of which I also do not have, yet salivate over. Plain relics though, with just a different stamped number? Don't go there. Of course, if I happened to get lucky and the card I win has a lower lot number and I still get it on the cheap, I can do a happy dance.

  More relics. I really like the bigger swatches. It makes you feel like you have a huge chunk of the bat or jersey. I'd like to think that I have a good portion of both if you added them all up.

Coins. They are very desirable to me. They last. I have a few Salada variety, Topps variety, and real silver variety. All are awesome. Smallish, but still a feeling of permanence.