mrchipz: I got it done at a local MA chain called Big Picture Framing, but I think any place with a quality staff could do it. My local store has two great employees who really love their work and were super excited the first time I came in with some cards to mount, which made me feel good that they'd want it to look good too. I did a small job first to test them, just a straight mounting for my Firefly autograph set, nothing but the cards which they floated on a background and that's what gave me the idea for this one.
The photo and the two Pence pieces are standard dry mounted mattes with the photos behind the matte, which then serves as the surface for the cards to be mounted around them. I believe they used silicone to attach the card cases which gives them that floating appearance which might be tough to see in the scan. Then I believe the term is shadow-boxing - the outer matte frame is above all of the cards, so there is an additional depth to the whole thing. I may have seriously messed up the terminology as I was just worried about it looking cool but I hope that gets the point across.
The price was a bit much - just a hair under $700. But, I got the museum quality glass which added almost $200 to the price. On my Firefly set I went with the middle quality conservation glass, and it really does have a lot of glare even in low room light, so I decided to splurge after all the time and money I spent on collecting the set. And they gave me a 50% off coupon, so my next two sets (Spartacus and LotR) should together cost about the same, which will be nice.
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