General Forum

Hi every body, I'm Dorie, new here​​​​​ and boy do I feel like I stepped off into a big boy world!. I was recently given a card collectipn that was a collectors nightmare, cards were thrown into bags, boxes, some were in binders but in no particular order,many had suffered the effects of the humidity here in Tennessee.I've logged some hours just sorting, putting them in order, getting some idea of where I'm at and what I've got.

I discovered this site while I was pricing some cards, and I was amazed at how much information you  have. But there's the problem right there, I dont have a clue what I'm doing , and while there is a wealth of information on the cards,there isn't much in the way of guiding new members as far as our collections go or what to do with them. 

Any tips, pointers or advice y'all can give me on cataloging  my collection  is much appreciated.. I've got a few things listed on my profile but don't know if I did it right or not.

Thanks y'all

Welcome to the site and welcome to the fun world of collecting, whether it's just for as long as this collection you received or beyond that!

There really isn't a correct way to collect. Some people collect full sets. Some people only collect certain players or teams. If you're sorting through the cards, see if there's a common player that you see coming up often, or see if there are a bunch of cards with different players where the card design is the same or similar. That'll help you determine if there was any pattern to the collection, whether it was player-driven or set-driven.

To catalog anything on here, if you can't tell what the set is, I recommend clicking on the sport dropdown at the top and searching for the player name, then there's a "Filters" link where you can enter a card number (or year, or brand, etc.) and that will help narrow down the options, then many common cards will already have images on here and you should be able to find the one that matches yours.

If you need any help figuring out something, there's a forum where you can upload front and back pics and we can help assist.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the site Dorie!  I hope you get as much enjoyment as I have.

As far as your question, I think finding general info guiding what to do is tough because the reality is there is no right way or better way to collect.  It is what you like and what you prefer.  I like collecting sets, so I sort my cards by set, keep them in cardboard boxes or some of my favorite sets in binders and pages, I sort them by number and file them by sport, year, and company.  Some people collect teams, such as only Yankees, Cardinals, Royals, Chiefs, etc.  Some people only use binders.  Some people collect players.  Some people display their collections, some have special storage locations.  The options are endless.

I think the best idea is to figure out what type of collector you want to be, how you want to store cards, and then just ask general questions to people who collect simlarly to learn best or different practices.  I've have gotten a lot of good ideas from other set collectors on the site and also some great info on general storage questions, etc.  The people on this site are wonderful and extremely helpful and I can't thank them enough for their help and their contributions to the site.  Hopefully this starts you on your way.

Hi Dorie,

Welcome! Wow, where to begin? I hope you're just having fun and enjoy organizing your cards and discovering what you have. You may even get lucky and find you have a few cards that are worth a few bucks. Based on your description of how the cards were stored, it sounds like the previous owner was not really a serious collector --- and in the world of sports cards, condition is critical if you're trying to price cards or sell cards. So, cards that are damaged or stored improperly quickly lose their value. I don't know how you're going about pricing the cards you have, but keep in mind that most price guides do not properly reflect the current selling price of a card. For example, the price guide may say a card is "worth" $10 --- but if you do a search of closed auctions on eBay, you'll find that the actually selling price of the card is closer to $1. Also, don't expect to sell your collection to your local card shop even if there's a sign in the front window that says, "WE BUY CARDS". What that sign means is that the store does on occasion buy cards, but you can't even pay them to take your 3200-count box of cards of massively over-produced cards from the late 1980s and early 1990s. So just relax, ask questions, meet some cool people, and try to have fun!

Thanks everyone. Let me fill in some of the gaps about these cards...First, the focus seemed to be more on baseball than anything else, although there are some NBA and NFLcards too. I stopped pricing them when I joined the site, now it does that for me when I enter a card into my collection. And yes I'm having fun with it, especially when I see a name I can recall hearing in a game.

As far as damage goes, a lot of it came from having more than one card in a sleeve and moisture setting in, I'm told they were in an attic.I have a deep love for anything collectible and so that bothered me, but these cards have a good home now, I've even added to the lot in the way of a box of WNBA cards and another one of Tennessee Vol's cards.

I will probably need help entering the cards correctly, tho.

Welcome to the hobby! You've come to the right place. You've gotten some really good advice already. Figuring out what you have can be overwhelming when it's all brand new, but learning is a big part of the fun for me. The filter tool is a great one! Card number is probably the easiest for an absolute beginner but please keep in mind that there are many cards where the number will be listed here as nno, so check that as well if you can't find it under the actual number. 

Another general tip is that if there are stats on the back it's usually from the year after that.

I'm glad to hear you've already begun to add to the collection. Those cards might be good ones to really learn how the site works since you already know what set they are from. 

I hope you have many years of enjoyment from the hobby, like most of us here have. Feel free to ask questions and somebody will surely know the answer or at least be able to figure it out.

As over whelming as ity can appear in sorting a collection that was just thrown in a box (or whatever) without being sorted, there are ways to break it down into smaller steps.

First thing I would do is sort by sport which sounds like you may have already done.

Next I would sort by set where there is a large number of cards in your collection.  This is fairly easy to do as you will find that the cards are very similar in appearance. There are some exceptions to this but those can be determined when your pile of unknowns is reduced to a small pile.

Once this is done, sort the set by number then find it on the site and start entering your cards for that set.

Once all of the bigger piles of cards from the sets are done, yyou should be down to just the unknowns.  For those, no matter how much you know about cards, the best way to find these are through the filters by sport, name, card number.  You can pare down this pile fairly quickly and reunite the card with the rest of the set that was easier to identify earlier on in the process.

A few hints:

Stay organized and keep those you have determined well away from those you still have not.

There are some cards that will only be found in the Multi-sport category because they span more than one of the major sports.  These are often in the Topps Stadium Club Member's Only and any of the Draft Picks sets.

Be aware of the parallel sets that are being produced in increasing numbers every year.  Parallels started in the early 1990s and now there are several hundred for each set (I exaggerate but sometimes it seems like not by much).  Some of these parallels can only be determined by looking at one side of the card.  A good example of this is the 2007 Topps Red Backs.  The front is identical in the base set and the parallel set but he back on the Red Backs has the number of the card in red.  Meanwhile, the Topps Gold parallels of the early 1990s can only be determined from the front of the card as the name of the player is in gold foil.  The backs are all identical to the base set.  You can probably guess that sorting these requires looking at both front and back before entering them in your collection.

There is so much more I coudl pass on but for now, I think you can get started in earnest.  Ask questions if you are stumped; someone here will gladly tell you what you have.  Enjoy!

Hello and welcome to the database!

Already a buncha great advice.  I shall just add that it sounds as if you got a collection which could have come from me.  My collection is on random.  I mailny collect players and teams I like and throw in some cards that I think look cool.  My main collection is stored in top loaders in boxes which are then categorized by either Base and Inserts, Serial Numbered only, Relics only and lastly Autographed cards.  I also have separate boxes for any graded and/or slabbed cards I have.  My collection also includes a buncha binders.  Most of the stuff in binders is either base or inserts.  Some of the sets that I have collected also appear in binders.

Good luck and enjoy!

Welcome to the Database.

Welcome! I know exactly how you feel. When I started collecting, no one else around me knew anything about them. I bought boxes and boxes of miscellaneous cards, but didn't know anything about them and didn't know where to look. This is exactly the site for newbies to the hobby. If you need any help, let me know!