General Forum

Trying to figure out how to organize my collection for easy access. 

Curious how other people organized there collections?

By year, team, or player?

Thanks, Jeff

I sort my PC by team and then by player.  My traders I sort by set. 

Sport.  If I notice two cards of a player, I'll put them together in an album and look for a 3rd to finish a row. Otherwise, unsorted in boxes except by sport.  This is a fairly new method for me, and may not last.

First I sort by sport, then by team listed on the card, if it's a uniform with a college then i put it in its own box. if it's a random card from something like goodwin champs then it goes in the same box as college but they are seperated. My pc is sorted by team then by player. Everything in the team boxes get penny sleeved. Those boxes are only base as my rookies and inserts are in there own boxes. My pc gets at least a penny sleeve. Hopefully one day they will at least be all toploaded.

First I sort by sport, then by team listed on the card, if it's a uniform with a college then i put it in its own box. if it's a random card from something like goodwin champs then it goes in the same box as college but they are seperated. My pc is sorted by team then by player. Everything in the team boxes get penny sleeved. Those boxes are only base as my rookies and inserts are in there own boxes. My pc gets at least a penny sleeve. Hopefully one day they will at least be all toploaded.

I sort into sport, then into years, then by set in numerical order. I do not bother with sets in any order just making sure the set is together. I do the same with dups so trades will be easy. I also try and put complete sets in binders.

My collection is sorted exactly how it is on the TCDB.  First by sport, then year and set.  So when I go to my collection and click on sets, it will match the order that I have them in my boxes.

I have all my collection in one place in a few 3200 count boxes.  

I only collect baseball, and I first separate my cards into the following groups, listed by hierarchy: 

1.- San Diego Padres (if they played or coached for the San Diego Padres and their MiLB affiliates). 
2.- HOFers
3.- MVP's, CY's, ROY's, WS MVP's, LCS MVP's.
4.- Other milestones, but not in HOF: 500 HR's, 3,000 Hits, 3,000 K's, 300 wins, No-No's
5.- Other players I liked but don't have any milestones listed above.
6.- Players from Mexico (honoring my heritage).

Once separated by the categories above, I organize them in alphabetical order by last name, and then by year starting with the earliest.

So my Curt Schilling/Barry Bonds/Roger Clemens cards are currently on my group 3 , but they get elected to the HOF, I'll move the cards over to my group 2. However, if anyone (or all) of them ends up coaching for the Padres (or their MiLB affiliates), they jump over to my group 1, regardless of whether or not they make the HOF.

I stopped collecting sets a long time ago, because I prefer to go after cards of player I really care about. And this system works for me.
 

I use three different approaches, depending on the collection type.

My Expos cards are all in binders, by year, major brand, set and alphabetical order of players. In cases where there are multiple parallels for a given card, they are all planed one next to the order by order of what looks the nicest.

My pre-Expos or post-Expos cards of Expos players I wish to collect, are also placed in binders, but sorted by player first. then major brand and set.

Sets are typically in boxes, individual for my older sets, and 3200ct boxes for the most recent sets.

Cheers!

Sets are in 800ct boxes labeled by sports. Inserts are in 5K boxes separated by sport and listed by how they are found in here. My PC is also in 5K boxes and done alphabetically regardless of sport. Oddball/non-sport have their own 5K box.