General Forum

Okay, I just finished logging all my basketball trade list and have slowly been adding to my want list, meanwhile trading for some in the process.

Since before our lockdowns I'd been organizing my traders while my actual collection piles up and eventually gets filed in boxes or binders. But I'm frustrated. There, I've said it. It's much easier to find cards I'm trading away than what I've traded for and here's the gist of frustration with my collection, or collecting habits (not unlike many of you):

1. Extensive PC spanning four sports;
2. Colt 45s, Astros, Cowboys, and Rockets team sets;
3. All-Star subsets or small sets
4. Food issues including Post, Kellogg's, and several others
5. Diamond Kings and Upper Deck Team Cards
6. Any subset or insert that catches my eye

So, not wanting to be as some politicians who constantly point out deficiencies but have no plan for effective change, here's what I've thought of doing, and I'd like your input on either the plan I present, or what you do (if you have similar tendencies) or would do if you were in my shoes.

It's important for me to be focused, and currently my mind is as scattered as my collection is with parts in binders, boxes, or in stacks on my desk. I'm honestly unable to enjoy my collection because it stresses me out to not know where cards are, and I wish to one day (soon) be able to sit down and look at cards, slowly. My plan is to:

1. Combine ALL my collection within a sport rather than having it segregated by PC, team, or set/subset;
2. Use TCDB's set order for each sport (multi-sport will go with the player's sport);
3. Organize binders by year, company, team base with PC at front (if not part of subset), subsets, inserts, small sets
   • 1990 Topps Astros will have Biggio at end of team set to segue the start of the All-Star subset
   • 1968 Topps Astros will have Joe Morgan #144 to start team, #364 within All-Star subset numerically

So what do you think? One thing to note is that I do not usually keep duplicates, except in rare circumstances when a card is on display and I really like it, but 99% of the time I'm okay with just one of each card and I'll trade away the other.

You need a procedure for when you make a trade and when you recieve a package.  My step one is always update the online collection, right now I'm running two; one here and one on Beckett.  Then I pull the cards (actually this should be done before you accept the trade), then package those cards and get the package ready to ship.  I do this all for that one trade before moving on to the other.  If you start doing two or three at once thats how you end up with people getting the wrong cards sent to them.  When receiving;  the online collection gets updated, the cards get sorted and put into a tray, then they get put into whatever binder or box they belong to.  I don't wait long to get them into where they are stored.  You should be storing by Sport, Year, Set, then card number. How you sort by set is up to you but you need to be consistent.  I followed the set order in the Beckett database, since I'm over here I'll will probably switch that up next time I do a full inventory, which I always do once per year usually between Super Bowl and Draft.  

If I can't pull any card in my collection in less then a minute I'm super pissed because I didn't follow procedures.  

I'm with you on this one. In fact, it's one of the reasons I turned trading off to begin with. I had stuff all over the place and was bringing more in without sorting through what I had. I was putting thing away in places I didn't want to and when I went to go get it...gone??? As far as your list above I have actually made it through 1 and 2. My traders and keepers insert sets are set up like you mention in 3 (year, company, but number for me). Always like it's set up in here. That way I can have a trade screen open and go line by line instead of jumping back and forth. Now that I am more organized on the trader and insert side my sanity is returning. I have 4 stacks of football traders left to add and I can turning trading back on again. I havea ton of baseball to add, but now that I have a system that will be so much easier. BTW, I think I picked up a fair deal of things you'll like so hopefully was can pull off another bigish trade soon.

As far as my sets upstairs, well.......

Jim, I agree on two things, disorganization has led me to close up shop at least twice, and we do need to trade again.

HOWEVER, both of you missed my point...

It's not my traders that I am concerned about nor trading. My trade inventories are organized and easy to get to (note my second paragraph on OP).

I'm concerned about my actual collection - my PC, team sets, etc - not my traders. My collection is what's disorganized because they are not together as my traders are. So that outline is my plan to organize my collection. 

I feel the same frustration. My sets have been apart since 2004 for NBA, 2009 for NASCAR, and never for hockey. And I can't put them together until I finish scanning everything. They are in the boxes in whatever order they got scanned in, or got added to my collection in if they are waiting for scans...mostly. Some are semi-sorted by person from when I tried to save my original Excel file back circa 2004. 

I really look forward to the day when I can get them all together by set again. I don't know when that will be. It probably won't be this decade, because no matter how many scans I do per week, I'm generally adding new cards which of course slows me down...example, I had hit the halfway point on scanning my NHL collection. Then I bought a shoebox at the card show in February, which added 998 new cards...then for Easter my mom gave me 2 factory sets and 2 hobby boxes, and I added 800 more new cards. At best I can scan 250 cards in a day...and I'm rarely at my best. Most of my output lately has been 27 cards a day, or one 3-page wave. 

On the other hand, I'm also not looking forward to it, because then it means I'll have nothing to do, at least in this hobby. I have other things in line for scanning, but cards are the main hobby. Of course I have thought about going back and rescanning some of the cards my older scanners couldn't handle as well. 

For me, I'm set based. Storing them any other way just feels "wrong" to me. Since I have the Cardboard History Gallery up and almost fully formed now, if I want to see by team or by person, it's just a couple of clicks away. And of course, by set and by year or type is also something I've done. So, one card appears in 4 places, at least. Even though I may not know exactly where the physical card is, I can find the scan of it in a matter of seconds. 

What I think might be best for you is to sort your collection the exact same way you have your tradelist stored...just as long as you don't mix them up by mistake! For me, actually, my tradelist IS sorted in numerical order by set, chronologically, which is my ideal way of sorting. 

Oh, I didn't miss that point at all. I was using traders as an example of my overall "disfunction". In the time I've taking away from trading I've gotten my traders, PC, inserts, etc all organized properly. The only things still left to be done are my sets in whichever flavor they are in. I have them all stashed in a closet awaiting me to finally decide its time, time to face my fears. I have a box of cards that need to find homes in their sets. I just don't want to pull the sets out, mark them properly and put the cards awaiting homes into the box. Every time I go in there thinking I have it figured out just to find out it's a big lie....

Many new arrivals are in a box waiting to go to their "family". Whenever something comes in I make sure the site is updated then my tracking spreadsheet. Plop them into a box or they side on my side desk so they can be tranferred and, well.... 

Sportzcommish wrote:

Jim, I agree on two things, disorganization has led me to close up shop at least twice, and we do need to trade again.

HOWEVER, both of you missed my point...

It's not my traders that I am concerned about nor trading. My trade inventories are organized and easy to get to (note my second paragraph on OP).

I'm concerned about my actual collection - my PC, team sets, etc - not my traders. My collection is what's disorganized because they are not together as my traders are. So that outline is my plan to organize my collection. 

my organization is somewhat like you, Joshua.

I am organized, but behind on putting away (which is why I have trading turned off, and do 1 or 2 small trades here per week)

my want lists are completely up to date, and my traders logged here are 99% accurate..but I am just behind on putting away the cards I have received into their album, box, or team set bag.

but I am not bummed about it, as I get to enjoy the cards (again) when I look through them and put away)

I am trying to take the mindset to just enjoy the cards (while buying very little)

good subject, thanks for bringing it up

mark

Joshua, I didn't want to chuckle as I read this. But I couldn't help it. I know what you are going through, but I've posted many times on here in the past 5 years exactly how I organize my collection (both PC and traders). I always chuckle when long-time collectors (and especially long-time members) of this site get confused. Like you, I collect a bunch of stuff.

In baseball, it is mostly STL Cardinals but also a few other players I watched as a kid and teenager (like Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Griffey Jr., Big Hurt, Rickey Henderson, etc.). My baseball collection is completely organized for keeps and traders. My STL collection is about a dozen different players sorted on their own and the rest of the Cardinals cards are together in albums by year, brand (ABC) and card number. Ozzie Smith has his own album with over 600 cards all in order (basically as the list would show up on this site). The other players that are seperate from the team albums are in ABC order in a few other albums. ALL albums are listed on the binder spine as to who is in them or what years are in them for the team collection.

In football, I collect 3 different teams. Some players have their own album and some are combined into multi-player albums and listed on the spines. All other team cards are in albums specific to the team. For a simple example, my #3 team is the Patriots. I have 2 albums. #1 is a small 1" binder with all Bledsoe and Brady cards. The main album is 3" and has all of the other Pats cards. It starts with specific players (Randy Moss, Terry Glenn, Curtis Martin, Ty Law and Ben Watson) and then has my AU and MEM cards. After that the album is filled by year, brand (ABC order) and card number per brand.

In NASCAR, I collect 16 different drivers. Jimmie Johnson has 3 albums now, Mark Martin has 2 albums. A few other drivers have their own album or share an album with another driver or two. One album has several drivers in it. Everything else is in my trader albums or boxes.

I also collect astronomy-related cards, Star Trek cards, The Simpsons TV show cards, some random musician cards and certain Marvel cards. All of those also have their own place in my collection, even if they share that spot with something else. All of my astronomy-related (non Star Trek) cards are actually at the front of a group of NASCAR drivers in an album. My Simpsons TV show cards are at the front of my 1st MLB Complete Sets album.

I also have several NBA players that I still maintain collections of their cards. They have their own combined album. My NBA collection is probably the messiest as far as organization. I'm sure that's why I haven't finished adding keeps or traders after all these years.

As far as dealing with new arrivals: I catalogue them on both TCDB and Beckett when I get them. Then I sort them by sport. I have room on top of my entertainment center to store them in stacks until they make their way into my albums. ALL PC cards go in pages in albums! I have room for about 6 stacks of cards on the EC and I always make sure the sports are lined up in the same order. That means I don't have to see the face of a card to know which stack I am picking up when I am ready to get them into albums.

So now I have question for all of you reading this thread. Do I seem to be...

1. OCD

2. highly organized

3. highly experienced in collecting

4. combo of everything 

My entire collection is organized according to the alphanumerical listings here.

My full wantlist is on one page of a spreadsheet.

The colums are:

• Sport
• Year
• Set
• Parallels (For the base sets, I hit the space bar for this field. It forces the base set to be listed before the parallels when you sort.
• Card #
• a (when a card has a VAR) It helps to keep it in proper numerical sequence when you sort. Example: You have a 300 card set, but card #177a is a VAR. It would sort after card #300. When the VAR letter is entered in the 'a' column it will list after 176. (Delete the 'a' from the card number).
• Trader
• Player Name

Use one row for each card, even if you have multiples.

The same thing goes for my sale/trade cards, all on another page with one extra column: 'Box' so you know where to look.

In each box for the sale/trade cards, I have an index card with the year and set name written on it, including one for each subset. Just last week, a 600 card trade was verified and pulled in a pretty short time.

When a trade is in progress, the member's name goes in a column next to each card in the trade. It makes it tougher to screw it up that way. Trust me, I've done it.

Not one that really should be giving much "organization" advice as it looks like a card bomb exploded in my collecting area......

When I DO get around to actually organizing my cards and putting them away, I had my stuff organized like such:

When collecting and younger:

Sets (in binders) by year and manufacturer.  I used to pull out the rookies and valuable (over $20) cards and put them in screw downs (yes yes yes...I know....bad screwdown!)

PC in binder by player sorted by year

Now:

Moving all my sets from binders and pages to penny sleeves and boxes.  Using 5000 count boxes for the main set (and traded if necessary) putting major stars/rookies into one touches in the box also.

Newer sets I have been sorting by set and just putting into boxes based on set size.  

I haven't restarted my PC's yet, but would do the same when I do.  Binder with pages depending on what the item is.  

I don't collect teams, but I would do the same with those.  Binder by year and brand.

All my trade stuff goes into other boxes so that I don't have to go back into the set boxes unless I'm adding something to that set such as an SP or other limited item I didn't collect with the set.