Sports Memorabilia

Sports memorabilia is generally more expensive to collect then others, as there are a lot less “superstars” in sports than say music or movies.  While signatures of athletes can be obtained fairly inexpensively, usually under $150 for most modern athletes, items that were used during a game such as athletic wear and equipment will set you back a chunk of change.  The rule of thumb is that the more people that were watching a particular sporting event, the more you’ll pay for related sports memorabilia.

That means if you want to buy Detroit Lions memorabilia, it should be really cheap.

There are different types of memorabilia you can collect for a particular sport, team, or player.  These can include:

• Autographed Items: Baseballs, Basketballs, Footballs, etc.
• Equipment Used in a Game:  Hockey Sticks, Tennis Balls, Bats, etc.
• Antique Equipment:  Hockey Masks, Baseball Gloves
• Sports Cards
• Novelty Items:  Ticket Stubs, Bobble Heads
• Sports Artwork: Promotional Posters, Prints
• Awards:  Trophies, Rings, Medals

Pub Tables

Pub tables are great options for an eating surface in a rec room or man cave when you want something small and “manly.”  However, pub table furniture also goes great near a pool table or as a standalone piece for that matter anywhere else throughout your house.

Characteristics of Pub Tables

The major characteristic that you have to consider when buying a pub table is the height you need.  They are generally taller than dining tables, designed to accommodate bar and counter stools.  Most pub tables will range anywhere from 35 to 42 inches in height.

Legs – another major characteristic, you have to design how many legs you want to have.  Stability wise, the common four-peg pub table is better, but the increasingly popular single pedestal peg isn’t terrible.  If you have kids, you might want to stick with the four-pegs.

Shape – Typical pub table shapes include round or oval.  While less often, square and rectangular ones are also available to you — however, the edges make them less than ideal if you drink around it often.

Once you decide on the different characteristics you want to have in your new pub table, you know must decide what kind you want.  The types of pub tables can include:

Wooden – Wooden pub table sets are by far the most classic option available to you.  They provide a traditional style and look to the room they’re in, often apart of a classy-designed room.  When you think wooden pub tables, you think small, classic Inns and pubs.

Iron/Metal – Iron and metal pub tables can come in both comtemporary, as well as traditional designs.  The iron pub tables, for example, can come with curved legs, providing a somewhat “gothic” feeling.

Glass – Glass pub tables can be very high maintenance as they require an appointment with a bottle of Windex after almost every use.  Additionally, they’re not very kid (or drunk) friendly like their counterparts.

Colors/Logos – Regardless of the texture of your table, you can also get pub table furniture branded with a sport team’s logo and in almost any color.  You can buy black pub tables, white pub tables, pub tables with NCAA logos, etc. The choices are limitless.

When purchasing pub table sets that combine both pub tables with chairs, do the smart thing:  buy at the same time and from the same manufacturer.  You don’t want to “mix and match.”  Even though you may want to buy them separately as the pub tables and pub table chairs may look similar, once you get them home small differences in details and designs may start to appear.

Gene Wilder memorabilia

Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory… just to name a few.  I’ve always been a huge fan of Gene Wilder and am beginning to collect some of his autographs.

Make sure to pick them up while you can, there won’t be anymore made.

Old fashioned popcorn machines

Old-fashioned popcorn machines are good for rec rooms that not only focus around a movie entertainment system, but for those that have a lot of guests constantly.  Popcorn is a cheap and a large quantity of it can be made with minutes with an old-fashion popcorn machine.

They also look great in any styled recreational room.

Counter Height Pub Tables

We love counter-height pub tables for what should be obvious reasons — they hold everything that is pure and precious to us like beer and peanuts.

Take a look at some of the best and cheap counter height pub tables we’ve found:

Gelato Pub Table

Kidkraft Pub Table

What’s in a name?

This is the last time we will mention the terms “man cave” and “manctuary” on our site — they’re now both banned from both our site, as well as our forums. Here’s why:

While we do offer product reviews, guides, and other information for “man caves” and “manctuaries,” we disagree with the usage of terms and any variations of them and refuse to use them on our site. They’re coined terms, commercialized terms, produced and distributed for yuppies.

The definition for a “man cave” is simply a synonym of a variety of other terms already in place, one where a man, or many men, can gather without fear of repercussion to do manly things like play pool, watch sports, talk about many things, etc. Man caves can include and is often a synonym for the following places:

Dorm Rooms
Bachelor Pads
Fraternity Houses
Basements
Game Rooms
Family Room
And our favorite, recreational (rec) rooms.

No harm in that definition, right? Wrong. The difference between man caves and the other places above is one striking disparity — the associated connotations. If you can picture a guy in the suburbs of Phoenix with a wife and a kid, working as an insurance broker using a storage closet in his house to listen to a few old ACDC albums in — I can show you a man cave.

On the other hand, show me a basement with a pool table and a mahogany bar, I’ll show you somebody that has never called their room a “man cave.”

Now, don’t get us wrong — we love Phoenix. Go Suns or whatever. And we’re all married and most have kids. But this doesn’t mean you’re a second class citizen. You don’t need a “cave.” You need a room. A big, nice room that you and your entire family can show off to friends. It doesn’t have to have the flashiest or most expensive things, it just needs to be your designated place to kick back and relax in without guilt.

You shouldn’t be ashamed by it. Unless, of course, you call it a cave.

Product Buying Guides

We have over a dozen buying guides for rec room products around the Rec Room Guide site. I want to keep a master list of them for quick reference for new site visitors, as well as regulars.

Air hockey tables buying guide
Bar stools buying guide
Ceiling fans buying guide
Dart boards buying guide
Foosball tables buying guide
Home bars buying guide
Home theater seating buying guide
Leather home theater seating buying guide
Neon signs buying guide
Poker chips buying guide
Poker tables buying guide
Pool tables buying guide
Popcorn machines buying guide

We’ll update this list as we add more guides to the site.

Pool Table Lighting Height

Pool table lighting has significant effect on your and your opponent’s game—particularly if you are a precision pool shooter. When you’re determining how to come at that stripe or solid ball, you’re relying on the angles of the light on the balls. Poor lighting height will mess with the appearance of these angles, which means you might be considerably off when you hit your shot. Read the story »

Foosball Table Buying Guide

Mama Boucher always said, “Foosball? Buncha overgrown monsters man-handlin’ each other… ‘Member when dat man wanted you to play foosball, Bobby?” (The Waterboy). I don’t know how that movie quote is relevant to this buying guide in the slightest, but it does mention foosball. But, I digress. Read the story »

Air Hockey Table Buying Guide

For some reason, air hockey tables and their popularity have waned over the years. Ping pong tables and foosball tables have become the more common in fixture in game rooms, leaving air hockey tables to die and only be found in old, worn down arcades near the beach. Read the story »

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