General Forum

This forum is for broad discussions of collecting. Threads relating to a specific set, person or team should be created on that set, person, or team's page.

Inappropriate messages may be deleted. See forum rules for details.

How Do You Organize Multiple PC Binders?

Posted By

Message

spazmatastic

Posts: 5,905
Joined: Dec 2014

Sunday, June 16, 2019 11:41 PM

I seriously wasn't trying to knock your style, mtc32226. David (switzr1) was right in his post though. I'm not called Spaz for no reason!

But I really didn't want to insinuate that your way or anyone else's way of collecting or cataloguing was wrong and mine was right. Everyone is free to do things how they want to do them. I used to welcome suggestions for storing cards many years ago. But I've been stuck in my ways for about 15 years now. Nothing else I tried before has worked as well as what I do now, so I stick with it and suggest it to others.

mtc32226 wrote:

He asked for options, I gave him some. I thought that was the point of the post?

Impressive you know every card...good for you.

Old Style vs New is all it is, whatever is best for you what you should do. That is the joy about the hobby everyone does their own thing. But i guess I'm sorry for doing it different ?!?

spazmatastic wrote:

Every bit of that sounds like so much useless work! I have a Jerry Rice collection too. I don't need anything you listed to find any single card of his. I pull out the album and flip to the year. OH, there's that card I was looking for! The End. My Rice collection might be smaller than yours, but I still don't need all that technology for any part of my collection. I've never used Excel in my life and I also don't need to use TCDB or Beckett to find any single card in my 1360+ Jimmie Johnson collection. I know where they are and how they are organized. I don't need computer programs to tell me where my cards are or how to find them. And the ONLY label I need is for which album is which (#1, #2, etc.). Why do so many people over-think collecting? It's not hard and it doesn't matter if you store in albums or boxes. Labels on the spine of albums or the end (or top) of boxes is all you need. Technology doesn't make your collection better or help you store it. Simple practices make the techno part unneccesary and then you only need it to make trades online to people far away from you. If the internet stopped working right now, I'd still be able to make trades with anyone around here real quick.

mtc32226 wrote:

So my Jerry Rice PC each go in penny sleeves and top loaders. Then in chronological order followed by alphabetical of brand followed by numerical if set has more then one in it. I find it way easiers to find stuff and move it around.

Now for binders my question would be are you good with excel? if so here is my suggestion

1. Number or Label the binder

2. If you are going to put mutiple things in it put in dividers for subsets (i.e Teams or different players). Get the binder organizers from walmart with the color tabs so they stick out and you can label them

3. Instead of trying to move the cards alot just always add the card to the last open spot in the subset and start a new page in the back every time you add one. (unless you are doing a complete set. Then use the blank pocket method.

4. Create an excel spreadsheet and a table. You can create as many columns as you like to track; Name, Brand, Number on Card, Year, Condition, Price....etc. However for tracking you want Binder Number/Name, Subset, Page, Pocket Number. (Depends on how crazy you want to get).

If you did this would be able to find a card in under a minute. Just go to excel find the card you are looking for based on the Brand and number (or whatever). Then it would tell you everything else. No more flipping through pages trying find stuff, excel would tell you everything. I have something close to this but not extreme but I can't tell you how many hours it saves me looking for cards.

Just a few ideas.

-------------------------------

NO PWE's EVER!!! PLZ PM me 1st before sending any offer. ONLY selling cards as of March 2024. No trades or purchases right now.

_______________________________________________________________________

Largest total PC card collections by Team, then Athlete (as of 3/22/24):

STL Cardinals (MLB) - 8810; Carolina Panthers - 2888; GB Packers - 1790+ cards

Mark Martin (NASCAR) - 2038 cards; Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR) - 1875 cards; Jeff Gordon (NASCAR) - 1594; Ricky Rudd (NASCAR) - 839; Ozzie Smith (MLB) - 707

Gunny

Posts: 1,323
Joined: Jan 2009

Monday, June 17, 2019 4:26 AM
Random I keep everything on random. I use the comment field here when I add a card to my collection to tell me where the card is located. Looking through my binders is fun for me because every page is different, some all hockey, some all soccer and some pages a mix of sport and non-sport. ------------------------------- We all live in a Perry Groves World...

BenG76

Posts: 257
Joined: Oct 2012

Monday, June 17, 2019 4:57 AM

With player PC I keep the cards in a penny sleeve and toploader then in a box in order with the checklist on this site. I am considering putting some of the smaller ones in a binder soon and I guess I will leave empty spaces for what I am missing and go with the order of the checklist for that player here.

For my Cubs team sets I typically do a binder for a brand and put each years team set again in order with the checklist here. I am nearing the end of my project to make binders for pretty much all the Cubs team base sets I am working on. Which has been a much bigger undertaking than I expected. Any parallels and higher end inserts will go in a shoebox for now. I leave a space for the cards I am missing in my team sets binders also.

I am planning on making a video of my team sets binders once I complete that project hopefully within the next few weeks if time allows.

mtc32226

Posts: 86
Joined: Apr 2019

Monday, June 17, 2019 3:03 PM

All good!! Spaz was just caught off guard at first. No worries. Thanks.

spazmatastic wrote:

I seriously wasn't trying to knock your style, mtc32226. David (switzr1) was right in his post though. I'm not called Spaz for no reason!

mtc32226 wrote:

He asked for options, I gave him some. I thought that was the point of the post?

Impressive you know every card...good for you.

Old Style vs New is all it is, whatever is best for you what you should do. That is the joy about the hobby everyone does their own thing. But i guess I'm sorry for doing it different ?!?

spazmatastic wrote:

mtc32226 wrote:

Now for binders my question would be are you good with excel? if so here is my suggestion

1. Number or Label the binder

Just a few ideas.

-------------------------------

“Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't”
― Jerry Rice

budler

Posts: 2,175
Joined: Dec 2017

Monday, June 17, 2019 4:33 PM

As the Nebraska Cornhuskers Football collector. Over 9100 cards 798 players. I have them in binders by the years (except a few) inside the binder they are by brands. (as listed here) Each brand may have only 1 card or many. Then I try to have them by the card number. It is nice to see the base set and the next page a parallel set and so on.

I do have a binder of just Police sets due to the fact there are many cards in the 80s and 90s that are local/team issued cards

Another binder for all my Nebraska schedules. Then one for the Nebraska issued sets. 2 binders with the encase/slabbed cards and 2 for the oddball cards. Total 32 binders. Years from 1933 to 1990 is in one binder but but year 2007 has to have 2 binders to fit all the cards. I build a shelf for them but at this time I need to build another one.

Biggest issue I have to move cards at times to get the new cards in the right place.

That is just me

CollectingAfterDeath

Posts: 1,219
Joined: Jun 2016

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 12:23 PM
Edited on: Aug 12, 2020 - 5:05PM

Godzilla8you

Posts: 349
Joined: Jan 2019

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 12:30 PM
I really only collect the Topps brand. I organize by year. Then I take the regular print cards and put them in by alphabetical order. After that I sort the inserts, again by alphabetical order. I even leave spaces if I'm lacking a card. I've done that since I can remember. ------------------------------- Collecting Red Sox-----All Years.

Sportzcommish

Posts: 6,018
Joined: Oct 2016

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 1:01 PM

Excellent idea, CAD! I've actually been looking to commemorate that championship season. And I do love to write. Thanks loads!

CollectingAfterDeath wrote:

From a few of your past posts, Commish, I remember you enjoyed making themed displays. Using that same idea, and what V3 did with his Merkle B collection, a binder of unique events filled with the players who were involved could be interesting.

Just for an example, the 2017 World Series, a section of the binder could be made with the entire world series roster for the Astros, and use the batting order of the seventh and deciding game as the first nine card page. Then followed by the pitching staff and manager, etc.

Then, maybe a write up of the game, with the box scores, and a description of the ebbs and flows of the series printed out on an 8X11 sheet in its own sheet protector could be inserted too. I would do this myself as my memories for names is beyond terrible. It's an idea I've been floating around, but have yet to venture forth on.

Sportzcommish wrote:

I'm looking for ideas to organize my PC binders. I mainly collect baseball players, but have a few football and basketball that I collect.

For baseball I basically collect Houston players, including stars that spent most of their careers and are usually identified with other teams, i.e. Andy Pettitte with Yanks, but I also collect many players who never played for Houston.

Currently there's a smattering of rhyme and reason for where my PC ends up in binders, but for the most part they're scattered around. Here are a few examples of my "organized binders":

Killer B's - Bagwell, Berkman, and Biggio
Batteries - pitchers and catchers that were stars but not HOF types
Alphabetical - this is for both Astros players and non-Astros players in different binders

I'm just looking for some ideas on what you've done to enhance the enjoyment of our cards. I'm leaning toward having most of my PC in individual binders, which except for a handful eventually should reach way over a hundred cards.

-------------------------------

Follow my blog - I Identify as a Card Collector.

“Aslan didn't tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of us once he's up, I shouldn't wonder. But that doesn't let us off following the signs.” - Puddleglum in The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis

General Forum

How Do You Organize Multiple PC Binders?

Account

Browse

Features

Resources

General Info