General Forum

I know the organization of cards in binders has been covered in other threads, and I read through several while researching this topic. I wanted to share my own experience in organizing my binders here. Over my break from trading, I've been pulling some of my completed vintage sets out of boxes and placing them in binders and, I have to say, what a rewarding feeling that is! I insert them so that there are two cards back-to-back in each pocket with only the fronts showing. I initially was placing them in numerical order, however I didn't like the randomness of the cards as I flipped through the binder. I felt there was no consistency to the order. With the cards being back-to-back, the numbers weren't showing anyway, so I thought it was odd to follow that order. Changing from numerical order to something else is a huge step for me because I'm all about organization. Breaking a complete numbered set apart so it's not in order was something to get over.

I decided to pull all of the cards back out binder pages and rearranged them by teams. It was a good feeling to dig into each set and look at every card and place each player into the pile with their teammates. Much more rewarding than looking at only the number on the back of the card and placing it straight into the binder. Overall, the organization looks like this:

• World Series and playoffs cards: I figured since the set is a review of the previous season, it'd be good to start with these. Kind of like closing out the previous season.
• All-Star cards: I arranged these by position number: Pitcher (1), Catcher (2), 1st Base (3), 2nd Base (4), 3rd Base (5), Shortstop (6), and then Outfielders (7, 8, and 9). American League, then National League.
• Any oddball, highlight, league leader cards. Hard to place these within teams since some have multiple players from different teams on them.
• Teams in alphabetical order: Each team starts with the team photo card, then arranged by position number: Pitcher (1), Catcher (2), 1st Base (3), 2nd Base (4), 3rd Base (5), Shortstop (6), and then Outfielders (7, 8, and 9). Players at each position are in alphabetical order. Each team is closed out with the manager and coaches cards.

I found the experience of digging into each box, looking at each card, and arranging them in an order that was unique to my collection and brought some consistency to the set was more rewarding than just looking at the number on the back of the card for binder placement. Thanks for tagging along as I shared my journey into new binder organization.

Well done. I am a hockey set collector myself and love binders ... over 75 right now.  I understand the need to put players and teams together, but I still go by card #.  Although with hockey, at least Upper Deck, the sets are usually organized by team.

Nice idea. I like the idea as far as the All-Star cards and I'd probably continue keeping subsets together if I did it your way. 

That is one of the things I loved about the old Fleer baseball sets, teams were numbered together! Nice that you could reconnect with the cards in this way! 

Wonderful idea. One day when I get to the point of putting my sets into binders I will have to consider this. I enjoy looking at the stats as much as the pictures so I don't know if I could put them back to back. It sounds like your sorting would be very visually appealing.

That's almost exactly the way I organize my sets, whether they're still in boxes or putting them in binders (preferred). But I put only one card per pocket and arrange the teams by league and division, starting with the NL West and ending with the AL East. Within each division, I simply order them by distance from my hometown of Los Angeles. I also put League Leader cards after the postseason cards but before the All-Star cards and I put managers before players. And I've been doing it this way ever since I was nine years old--just made more aesthetic sense to me than number order.

I also like when the last card of one team sits in the ninth slot and a new team sits in the first slot of the next page--in other words, two teams don't share one binder page (each team occupies only whole pages). So I will add in some parallels to make sure each page is occupied by members of the same team. It's actually more challenging this way but more satisfying, too.

That's similar to how I do it, but in a different order. I put the teams in order of finish of the year of the stats on the back. For example, 2024 sets will have the Rangers first, Dbacks second, and so on. I use the same organization by position you do. Then I put in subsets, and finally all rookie cards go at the end of the day, also by position.

I love hearing how everyone has their own way of organizing their binders and collections. There has been some really very interesting and creative ways.

All my full sets, no matter if they are in a binder or box all have to be placed by card #( just my OCD I guess). I find it easier to keep track of and to find what missing cards I need. 

The one thing I do with my binders is I have the important/favorite cards from that set in 4 pocket pages in their toploaders or one touch in the front of the binder before the rest of the set, leaving the spot they should be in open in the 9 pocket spot(again I think it’s my OCD haha).

I do miss the days of sets being grouped by teams. I definitely preferred it that way.

Bob,

Thank you for the reply. Rearranging my complete sets out of number order was tough for me to overcome as I'm an organization freak. I normally have my complete sets in boxes with the backs of the cards facing forward so the numbers are clearly showing. It's more of an accountability thing than for show. To get over the rearranging hang-up, I told myself that the numbers aren't as important once the set is complete than they are when I'm building the set. Rearranging them made the set more personal to me and I learned some things about the game for that year along the way.

I can see your way of organizing as a good way as well. The stars are easy to get to and look at in a binder while the remainder of the cards are organized in boxes.

Happy New Year and Happy Collecting in 2024!

Gene

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From: BOBSCARDZ

I have a slightly different twist. My albums are setup by value tiers, this way only a set value gets you in the album. Each album is then setup by years and brand, then, 50s, 60s, 70s etc. This way it keeps commons in a set box and RCs, stars, semi stars, errors, variations in the album, ready for viewing.

TY, Bob