General Forum

I collect sets and players. For the sets, anything older than 1980, I put them in plastic pages so I can look at them more easily. All the other sets are in boxes suited to fit the set. For players, cards older than 1988 and special cards from later years go in hard plastic. HOF player cards newer than 1987 go in binders. All others are in boxes till I get enough plastic sheets to put them all in. They are ordered by year / set similar to this site. As for the differing number of cards from one reference to the other, most of the more available cards are listed. It is only the very rare, limited quantity cards that are not listed. I have been entering my collection and not that many have been missing. But whichever way you choose to collect and sort, make it so you can enjoy the cards you like the most.

I'm probably the last guy to chime in on this topic. Maybe some ideas will be helpful, as I have changed strategies many times: 1st- I've reduced collecting to baseball and football with a few favorite "others" included. Most hockey, basketball, non-sports and the like are on or will be on my trade/sell list. MOST sets are boxed with favorite/valuable cards in toploaders. Many many favorite/valuable cards are either kept in a binder or toploaders+. MY SUBSETS/SMALL BOXED SETS are displayed on a rack. FOOD ISSUES, MISC ISSUES, REPRINTS are in separate boxes for display and ease of handling. ALL Publications, memorabilia, figures are displayed around the mainroom. ALL multiples are kept in @300+ large count boxes and identified by year/maker. MY CHERISHED ERRORS/VARIATION collection is displayed in binders with the corrected card, easy to access, visitors find this collection fascinating. MY VERY SPECIAL STICKER COLLECTION is housed in plastic count boxes also easy to access for show. Although some cards are kept in a section of my upstairs office, they are "ticketed" for eBay or Sportslots. MOST of my collection is on display in 2 dark [when the lights aren't on], cool, humidity controlled, smoke- free basement rooms. But now that I found the DB, organizing has taken on a new perspective and this may lead to a few more changes. Hope this helps?? ~BOB~

I sort my collection by player if I have nine cards of a guy.  Those cards go into a binder.  Preferably nine different cards on a sheet, but not always.  Then I have sheets for mixed St. Louis Cardinals and for mixed baseball HOFers that don't have a full nine yet.  They get combined until they have enough to fill another sheet of their own.  Then other cards that I like, separated only by sport in the binder.  These are cards I want to look at regularly, because I look through each of my binders at least once a month.  Anything not in a binder is only separated by sport in boxes until I get a full nine of a player.  And if I need to know if I have nine cards of a guy yet, the database tells me.  By doing this, I have no wasted space in my binders.  Every sheet is full.  Women using our card sheets for their coupons has tripled the price of nine pocket sheets, so I don't want to waste them.  Ideally I would like all of my cards in binders, but that just isn't realistic at this point in time.

This could all change tomorrow.  I've never stuck with a routine for too long where sorting cards is concerned.

  I collect only Cincinnati Reds cards. All are stored in 5000 ct boxes and sorted by brand then year. They are grouped as follows.

Major league sets - older ones in top loaders and the rest in sleeves.

Game-used and autographed cards. - Autographed sub-divided into certified and non-certified

Misc - Includes small sets, food-issued and other misc sets.

Minor league sets - includes sets like Best, Excel and team issued sets

 

  Easy to index, find and add needed cards.

Awesome suggestions

 

Dixxy wrote:  As we go along and more members discover unidentified sets and oddball stuff, those numbers will grow.  For me, pages work great, but I organize by set and year.  Every set is separate, they don't mix on a page, so organizing is quite simple, EVEN IF I add another set inbetween. SO, usung the Ray Bourque example, if you are to go by the site for organization by name, It goes by set and by year as well.  that means that those 4031 cards all have to move if one Bourque card gets added inbetween the 2768th and 2769th card. heaven forbid you get a card that gets #1 spot!  *shudders*   I suggest the box idea if you are going to organize that way.  It cuts your Organizing time down immensely!  less time wasted moving 1262 cards to include the 4032 card...

Since this is the only site I have ever found that I like I based my PC on this site's system. I collect only Ranford cards so mine is very easy to deal with. I have him by year and then make and then numerically as per his card list. Yes I had to move a few cards from time to time for mystery sets and the odd oddball card but Billy only has about 800 cards or so so it is never more than a few one way or another. Mine are kept in binders and for evey card I do not have I have an inserted paper in its spot with all important info needed to identify the card. Once I get the card the paper gets the boot. I have got my PC up to date to the 2006-07 season as you might know avs as we have been spending quite a bit of time fixing sets from that year ..... lol. One mod I am going to make is to change all the SN1 or 1 of 1 cards to a colored paper for easier reference. To date I have zero of this type of card and most likely will never get any. The price is simply unrealistic. I did scoop a card show 1 of 1 the other day from an online shop but it is just a foil stamped card from a set from days gone by, not a true 1 of 1 as it only cost $10 bucks.

I collect Royals and keep them in binders.  My question is whether the binders should be stored laying down or standing up.  Advice?

Whichever way allows the cards to remain flat. If the binder is full (as in, it's a 2-inch binder with 1 3/4" to 2" of pages), and it will be surrounded by like binders, upright on a bookshelf will be fine. However, if you have a 3-inch binder with 20 pages in it, storing that on a shelf standing up will allow the pages to sag, and potentially bend the cards. I have literally 100s of binders, and I have them in both orientations.

mrbenaka wrote: I collect Royals and keep them in binders.  My question is whether the binders should be stored laying down or standing up.  Advice?

Good Question.  My collection has gone through many evolutions.

I collect complete set of Topps baseball cards.  I store them in $0.99 binders from Wal-Mart and 3-4 Ultra-Pro Platinum pages.  A complete set tends to fill from 1-3 one-inch binders.  I store all of my binders in copy paper boxes that I've taped up for added durability.  I use the copy paper boxes like book shelves or drawers that I can pull out and find what I need.  With a personal collection of about 50,000 cards, I've managed to fill only 11 boxes.

I do integrate the sets in my personal collection.  For example, my 1990 Topps set consists of Topps (792 ct.), Topps Traded (132 ct.), and Topps Debut (152 ct.) cards intermixed  and arranged by team in order from World Series winner down to the team with the lowest regular season winning percentage.  The teams are organized with team cards in front and then from oldest to youngest player/manager.  All subset cards that don't belong as part of the team sets are placed in the back of my binders in some made up order ending with the checklists.  My insert sets then follow the subsets, which for 1990 Topps include: Wax Box cards (16 ct.), Glossy Send-ins (60 ct.), Glossy Rookies (32 ct.), and Glossy All-Stars (22 ct.).  

As far as sell/trade items are concerned, I store those numerically by set in 100/200/400/800-count boxes as appropriate.      

I have my Royals organized by year and use the database here for my guide to a complete set.  I put them in binders, leaving spaces between cards for cards I don't have yet.  Do the pages need to be full of cards to be considered full and not a risk for being damaged or is it ok to have gaps and still store upright?  Currently I store them flat because I don't want to damage the cards but the number of binders is starting to take up a lot of space and would be easier to store upright.  Also, is there a guide to how many pages it takes to fill a 3" binder?

Thanks for the help, guys!