General Forum

Getting close to being done with adding collection online (140K), but am looking for any tips/suggestions on how to organize (and keep it that way) If anyone feels like they are highly organized and can offer suggestions fire away. I was trying to organize by mfgr/yr but find myself constantly shuffling to accomodate diff set sizes in 5K boxes, but my best efforts got me to a point of what to do with them? so I thought Id ask organized "pros" (was very disorganized to start, so Im making progress? lol)

My collection is by sport to start. Then in 5k boxes as well. But it is orginazed by year then by manufacture. I have each box labled with years included and a index card with the year and an arrow showing what year are behind the index card. I am also not worried to continue a year to another box or row. This allows me have a timeline if you will.

Edited to add: Complete sets are in binders.

When my collection was small it was in binders. I honeslty love the Beckett organize tool. I can easily create folders and collections and add any number of cards to whichever I choose. Now that I have over 60K unique cards I have everything $1 or more in 4 row boxes, organized by Sport/Set according to this site. The other stuff is still in binders for now. I have dividers between each year or set as needed. Also have everything labeled so whatever I get I can easily look up where it's friends are stored so it won't be lonely. I'm really an absolute ball of chaos but my collection is beyond organized.

I primiarly build baseball card sets, but do pc certain players and team too...

Cards for Collection: Single sets I label at the end of each box with Sport/Brand/Year.  I then keep all the sets seperated into two groups,  incomplete sets and complete sets. I put the complete sets in totes so I can stack them without damaging the boxes or cards inside the boxes,  I label each tote with the Brand, Sport and Year.  I also keep the incomplete sets grouped by sport, then brand and then stacked by year on shelves....this makes it easy to add cards to them as I aquire cards that I need for the incomplete sets. (I also have a box that I place cards in that need to be merged into the incomplete sets.)  For the player / team pc cards, I put them in the two row boxes and label them according to what they are, player/team pc, etc.  

Cards for trading: Anything that is not for my collection goes into boxes for sorting. After sorting is complete  I then try to get all of these added to my Tradelist, and then mingled with existing cards that are already on TCDB within four row boxes as they are not as heavy as the five row. Since I don't have much outside of baseball for trade I keep one two row box for anything that is not baseball. In addition I keep a couple of the two row boxes for misc cards, such as  parellel cards, numbered cards, odd ball cards and such. 

This works for me the best...I'm sure there are other methods too. 

I don't have a huge collection (6,300-ish cards), but I have had a way to sort my cards almost since I started collection. I sort by year, then set (alphabetically), then team, then position, then statistics. So if there are multiple players in the same position, I might sort by batting average, yards per carry, etc. depending on postion. When I sort pitchers, I divide Innings Pitched by Games Played, and based on that number I determine if they are starters, relievers, or somewhere in between. On older cards it is easier, because it has games started. For position players, I do At Bats divided by Games Played. If that number is over 2.5, then that player is deemed a "Starter" and I sort the starters and the non-starters separately.

I'm still organizing but the direction I am going is by sport, year and brand and then I am also putting them in numbered order. My collection has swelled after buying up some collections over the past couple of years so the task seems never ending. I have been transitioning from 5000 ct. storage boxes to the box tops from paper when we get it in the office. They are free and they are the perfect height for my cards. With me being able to get these at no cost the other thing I have started to do is I do not combine years in any box so if I fill a box of 2020 then I start another. If I get some 2021 cards they go into a new box. I'm hoping this will work well.

do it just like tcdb..

year-

manufacter-

sets -(inserts, parallels, etc) alphabetically

card number ..

i have been trying to find a way to organize all my cards for trading. i mostly have it sorted out by sport

My Sets are in set boxes with a pack wrapper taped to the front for identification. Danny Wuerffel and Elston Howard are in a binder along with other special cards. Gators in the boxes with Gator logos. Shoeboxes have high value cards in top loaders or smaller slabs, larger slabs and graded are just hanging on the shelf till I figure a better box. Top shelf is for trade inventory, sets and singles. Three shoeboxes on the top of the cabinet have more trade inventory organized by sport and then brand. Biggest drawback is TCDB lists all brands by year so if there are a lot of cards across years and brands I am jumping through boxes to get there. Will probably revamp and organize my trade inventory by sport, then year, then brand soon.

I wish I could binder things, but space says otherwise...

I'm primarily a set collector. All my sets are in 800ct boxes with many boxes having mutliple sets. I have a sticker at the end of each one with a code (sport/brand/ID#) that helps me identified what is inside, or at least, what I wrote on my cheat sheet. All my inserts and traders are in 5K boxes (not that same ones!) organized by how they are found in the DB. My PC and oddball/team sets also each have their own 5K boxes. Oversized cards are in shoeboxes. Good thing about being size 13, 5x7 cards fit perfectly inside of one.