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In 1984, John Stockton was drafted to the Utah Jazz where he spent the next 19 years amusing fans. During that time; he set many records, took the Jazz to the playoffs every year, durably played in almost every game, maintained a high level work ethic, lead by example, resisted the fashion trends that the NBA is known for, and was comfortable just being himself. It's rare for that kind of character to emerge as an idol but it happened to many Jazz fans including my son and myself. We are both big fans of John Stockton and accumulated various types of his memorabilia over the years. When we came home from attending his retirement ceremony in 2003, we pulled the collectibles and memorabilia out of the closet to enjoy again.

Sadly, it was another 4 years until we saw it all again. Unfortunately, that's how many collectibles live (or not live)... in closets. It's not that we've lost any excitement or passion, it's just that there wasn't anywhere to put it. Sure, you can put a bobble-head on a desk, a pennant on the wall, and trading cards in a book. But anyone who has a collection knows that's not how it should be. There's too much time and money invested into a collection and it's not right separating it and randomly placing a couple items in the room and the rest in boxes. That's why it felt so right when I saw my first Stockton display from Wall of Famer. Everything was perfect; the colors, ball leather, features, lighting, this is what we needed. As soon as we could get it on our sports den wall (which only took about 3 minutes) we put in the trading cards, hung our autographed jersey, placed our autographed ball, and loaded it with all our other fun things to create the ultimate arrangement. At that moment our memorabilia came back to life and we enjoy it every day. The fun of it never dies because the memorabilia isn't permanently mounted (unlike framed jerseys and plaques) so we're always rearranging and interchanging the memorabilia to give it a fresh new look.

Now that I think about it, two lives were saved that day… the life of our memorabilia and my collector life.

Check out http://www.walloffamer.com to see how your collection can be revived.

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