General Forum

I have bought a few bigger collections completely unsorted and I feel like I will never get done as well. I have had my best luck breaking it down slowly. It was multi sport so my first step was to sort by sport. FRom there I think it depends on how you want to store them. If by year you could go by year. If by brand you could go by brand. I feel for you at this point because this is where I struggle too. There are so many brands each year that you start getting cards all over the place.

The easiest way is to sort it into sports, then to years, then to sets

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

I have never acquired collections like that but my plan would be a large area that won't be disturbed by others, as stated earlier, start with one box and sort by sport with a separate pile for keeper/high value singles but definitely no set fillers. Pile all the Griffey and Ryan RCs in that spot, if they were somewhat organized in that you see some sort of grouping by set, keep them together in bulk without a second glance. You will be going through it more thoroughly soon enough. 
 

At then end of the day take a moment to look over those keepers and tell yourself about what a good score they were, log them into TCDB or put them in top loaders or binders, or however you catalog your best PC Cards. That would give me a nice lift at the end of a hard sorting session.

I get that too. Some days I would sort for hours and feel like i'm not making any progress at all. For me it was not knowing where to start, and not knowing how I was going to sort all of them. First I sorted into sports and then took those sports and organized those into team. I am still in school so it was key for me to balance school and cards. I would do my homework and then sort some cards on my breaks. Let me know if you need to talk if you're overwhelmed.

This might seem like blasphemy to some on here but for me, I am better off spending my time sorting and organizing before worrying about entering the cards into tcdb.

Ive bought several lots, and have found that separating everything is a good start. By sport, and then by set (seems a bit more efficient to sort by design/color (not looking each one up), Once thats done, sort/collate cards....enter them and put them away a set at a time. That way its not endless sorting of cards, and feels much more like im making progress. It seems like a better way (for me) so I can cross-reference the cards/sets I already have, and then they are in same spot and no one task seems overwhelming.

You go by Sets, Which will take care of everything in one go. Then you go back and put the sets in number order and sorting is done. Now you can go on to listing them.   

Not blasphemy AT ALL! That's exactly what I did. Sort and organize first and add to the site when it's all done. I did take some breaks from sorting and organizing to add cards on here but it was ONLY after I had everything organized for that single sport. I needed a break from organizing the other cards and I already had some sports done. It was a nice breather from sorting when I just didn't feel like doing it. It also gave me an incentive to get more cards ready to be listed here in order.

I mean, it's ultimately up to you.  If you want to sort by year/set/number, or by names, even by position, all the power to you.  There isn't really a right way.  I've got mine sorted exactly as they show up in my collection here. helps me find things quickly when I'm trying to impress people with the random button.  As for the progress thing, I haven't found my desk since 2015. You are not alone.