General Forum

I know there have been a few organization/storage collections in the forums recently, but I have one more.  I've recently figured out a workable storage solution for my PCs, set builds, and trade bait, but I'm not sure how to go about my Team Collections.  I want to ask those of you who collect teams, how do you organize it?  Is it by name?  By year?  By position?  I already know all of them will go into binders, but I'm not sure which order the cards will go in inside the binders.  Any insight is welcome.

Thanks for starting this topic!  I'm also looking for inspiration and/or direction for my Mets team collection.  You know, other than having thousand of cards sitting in a bunch of boxes scattered around my den.

Like you, I'm sold on doing the 'binder' thing.  However, the biggest thing for me to reckon is having to reshuffle and reposition the cards in the album pages every time I get a new card for a certain set or year or player, etc. It's such an unappetizing thought, and it's probably the main reason why I've procrastinated this long.

I leave a blank space in my binder page where I'm missing a card. Sometimes I stick a note in the pocket with the # and name of the card I'm missing.

Don't know if this will work for you, but I leave placeholders spaces for the cards I need to obtain.  I collection just by total sets, so I put a placeholder with the cardholder and the name of the player that I need to obtain.  This process uses alot of card holder sheets, but it works for me, so easy to slip the card in its place when/if I do obtain it.

Maribeth

My team binders are organized by year. Each year separated by card company. Then I put in order by logo card first, then team card, then manager, and then players alphabetically. If a card has multiple players from the same team, they go at the end.  I put a piece of paper with name and card number in place of missing cards; so no reshuffling when I obtain the card (and I love the feeling of replacing the slip with a card).  And for cards kept in my safe deposit box I print an image of the card and put it in its place in the binder (this would work for graded cards also).

Mine is almost identical to C2C's, excpt managers go in the the players. (Exception: when the manager card has the team checklist on the reverse - that takes precedence.) That's how I started it more than 30 years ago!

I am writing this on iPhone while waiting to see SSI Dr I HAVE A 3 pm appointment with.

    I have limited space for 50 plus years of cards. 

The sets are in binders or boxes.

Team sets. Only Topps base and heritage make it to seperate binders. Cards are sorted by number with a scan picture of missing cards. Inserts follow. First 3 spots are researved for. Final Standing of NL or NL EAST. 40 man Roster from baseballreferance.com then highlights of Phillies transactions for that year.  Before Traded series came out pre 1981, I would add a players card to set if he was acquired by Phillies. Example Sparky Lyle in 1980.

The other teams sets from Fleer. Donruss. A&G. G Queen UD ect in those hard card cases boxes.  Then in a shoe box.  I use to keep them in binders by year but i got tired of seeing same player on 20 different cards. Think Utley or Howard.

Robert

I organize my teams by player age from oldest to youngest. 

Although I'm a complete set builder, my sets are broken up by teams.  I put the team card on top with everyone else organized by age (the manager is not always the oldest).  For multi-player rookie or prospect cards, I use the youngest person's age for the date.  For other multi-player type cards, I tend to put them in front of the youngest person, unless the older person is more popular, in which case I will put it behind him. 

When a player has multiple cards, I put the newest card first (i.e.  Traded/Update card in front of Base card, Variation in front of Base card, highlights/all-stars/leaders after base cards from newest event to oldest).

The only real exception I can think of right now are the Rookie Debut cards from the Topps Update sets in recent years.  These cards go behind all of a player's other cards because it represents the player's first appearance (even though the card itself is newer than the base card)

I think this method provides an interesting insight to the generational relationships within each team as players move from being rookies to veterans over the years.

I've recently figured out a workable storage solution for my PCs, set builds, and trade bait

Do tell

I collect Cincinnati Reds cards only. I store them in boxes. My sorting is as follows

1. Major brands like Bowman, Fleer, Donruss, Topps, Upper Deck etc.

2. Each brand by year, oldest to newest.

3. Each year by base set, parallel sets then inserts.(Alphabeticall order)

4. Minor brands, sorted same as major brands.

5. Minor league sets, sorted same as major brands.

6. Minor league team sets, oldest to newest, sorted by team affiliate

This allows for expansion as needed and makes it easy to find any card I have or holes to fill.

PS. For simplicity sake, my Ultra cards are with Fleer, Stadium Club cards are with Topps, etc