General Forum

I do my Rockies collection purely by player.  I have seperate categories for players as well.  If they never played a game for the Rockies, but are on a Rockies card, they go into a box no matter how many I have.  For relics, autos, and thick cards, they also go into a box.  For tobacco sized cards, I have a seperate binder also divided by player. 

For players that played for the Rockies, if I have 1-3 cards of them, they go in the short timers binder.  If I have between 4-94 cards of a player, they go into the common binders.  I currently have 15 of them arranged alphabetically.  That second number changes based on availability and binder room.  If I have between 95-300 of a player, they go into the semi star binders.  I have 36 of those players and I arrange them 4 players per binder as equally as possible.  301-600 is for my star players, currently 7.  They get a binder all to themselves.  601-1200 is for my superstars, currently 6.  They get two binders each split as evenly as possible at the end of a card year.  My final category is for Todd Helton.  I have over 1500 of his cards, so he gets 3 binders. 

I am VERY particular about my system.  It probably wouldn't work for most people.  But it is the only way I want to do it. 

Moster boxes organized chronologically , then in each year by manufacturer.

I collect Milwaukee Brewers cards (base & inserts). I use 5" Cardinal binders from Amazon. I also sort by year & set. I've also include 1969 & 1970 Seattle Pilots team sets. I have a separate binder for for autograph cards.

It's aesthetically pleasing to keep cards of the same set together (so, year/maker/set), either collated in a box or sleeved in a binder. Sets that have beautiful designs, those that make good use of font and color, look even better when there are stacks or pages of those cards together. This is true whether you're collecting teams or complete sets. Certainly if you're collecting players you'd keep all cards of a particular player together, but that looks more scattershot with all the different set designs mixed together.

Both, Semi & Star cards I have it sorted by alphabetical order by year and manufacture alphabetical and by number... Commons & newer cards by year and numerical order...   Stuff I sell on eBay in another stash for easy access in alphebetical order

That is very true.

When my collection is organized (usually it is just too overwhelminigly an unorganized hoard that is stuffed in boxes with some in binders) I sort by Sport > Year > Brand > card number. NNO usually in back then inserts. Parallels have been mixed in the past sometimes right after the base and sometimes at the end as a "new" set. I prefer having them separate even though looking at them all together looks nice.

I sometimes call my self a set AND Team/player collector, but I am primarily a Set collector but don't/can't collect ALL sets.

I appreciate that there are many different ways to organize as there are collectors. Some sytems are unusual but I try not to be negative about them.

For those who sort their teams by current line up that means you are resorting your collection every year/season. When do you swap out the players that get traded or retire? When they leave the team or at the end of the season? 

I feel like I should give some visuals, so here they are with 2 new photos. The first photo is my Cardinals "Specific Players" Albums. There is an uncorrected error in there as the 3rd album from the top still lists Pujols in the album although his cards needed to get moved into the 1" album on the top of the stack. The 2nd picture is all of the non-specific Cardinals player cards that I own. All of the boxes between the albums are empty ones that I use for trading or for temporary storage before cards from any sport go into albums. I'd like to make better labels for all of the albums but I need some new printer ink cartridges before I can do that. This is just how I work around it until I have the ink and time to make things match better.

To answer your question about organizing team collections. I have separate binders for each team; Mets, Raiders, Sabres.  The binders are organized in chronological order by year. Each year is organized alphabetically by brand; Bowman, Donruss, Fleer, Score, Topps, Upper Deck, etc.  Each brand is organized first with any team-type cards (logo, checklist, team photo), then the head coach/manager card. Then all the players cards alphabetically by last name. Any cards with multiple players (of same team) go at the end.

This is more or less what I do but I switch some things. I make the players alphabetical, and then the players by year, and the year by brand. Not the TCDB order of brand, but my own. Once they get 100 cards they go into a binder with all the other 100+ and are organized the TCDB listed way.

I primarily collect Red Sox, so I have them in binders by decades, half-decades or sometimes quarter-decades based on how many cards were produced over that timeframe. Then I go by year within those binders and start with Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck, and then a mish mash of order afterwards.