Organizing Cards

[Goggy29]

Hey everyone, I got a quick question for all of you. How do you organize your cards? Alphabetically or by set? Currently I sort mine alphabetically, but that makes it difficult to figure out what cards I'm missing from sets. Anyone have an idea?

Thanks

[RGM81]

PC: Player, then Year-Set-Card Number

Traders: Year-Set-Card Number

[30ranfordfan]

Depends on what the cards are.....

Depending on what the card is, I collect three different things:

1. Players
2. Sets
3. Oilers


Player collection (i.e. Bill Ranford): Eveything is sorted by year, then set, then card number.

If I was collecting a set.... I would never mix the cards from that set in with cards from another set. Everything would be sorted by Card # within the set.

My "all time Oilers collection": I collect one or more cards of anyone to have ever played for the team. I'm looking for a Rookie Card, an Autograph, a Game Used, and a "pictured as an Oiler" for everyone on the team. I typically do this with as few cards as possible (I own a Cup Rookie of Leon Draisaitl. Since it's a RC, has an autograph, a piece of game used, and pictures him as an Oiler - I don't require any additional cards of him for my collection). These cards: I have them sorted by the season in which a player made their Oilers debut, and within that season the cards are sorted alphabetically.

[Goggy29]

Thanks. That gives me a few ideas!

[JayT_59]

Your Oilers method is very intriguing. My Leafs PC is identical to this but I haven't been able to be happy with the many ways I have reorganized it. I think I may adopt this.

Depends on what the cards are.....

Depending on what the card is, I collect three different things:

1. Players
2. Sets
3. Oilers


Player collection (i.e. Bill Ranford): Eveything is sorted by year, then set, then card number.

If I was collecting a set.... I would never mix the cards from that set in with cards from another set. Everything would be sorted by Card # within the set.

My "all time Oilers collection": I collect one or more cards of anyone to have ever played for the team. I'm looking for a Rookie Card, an Autograph, a Game Used, and a "pictured as an Oiler" for everyone on the team. I typically do this with as few cards as possible (I own a Cup Rookie of Leon Draisaitl. Since it's a RC, has an autograph, a piece of game used, and pictures him as an Oiler - I don't require any additional cards of him for my collection). These cards: I have them sorted by the season in which a player made their Oilers debut, and within that season the cards are sorted alphabetically.

[30ranfordfan]

Leafs might be a little trickier to do, because when do you start?

For the Oilers: I've never included WHA years, so I start in 1979-80...... so 79-80 has cards for every player that played for them that year. 80-81 only includes players that didn't play the prior year.

There are a few things you have to watch for when building those lists though.....

- guys who have had multiple stints with the team
- players whose first cards come out YEARS after their first season with the club (it looks odd, that's all)
- players who have changed their name

I also created a separate list of players who had cards as Oilers, but never played for the team. I'm not talking about backup goalies that dressed and never got into game action - but players who would have been drafted.... had cards made.... and never played. This wouldn't happen today, as players can't have cards in an NHL set until they've actually played in a game, but that wasn't always the rules.

I have all of this stuff stored in top loaders or one-touches (depends on the card). Currently I'm into my 4th monster box... the 5th is probably still at least 3 years away from being needed.

I've considered adding WHA years to my collection - I've just never really got to the point where it was something I wanted to do. If I were going to do it.... I think I'd still use 1979-80 as my "base" or starting year.... and I'd first add anyone from the final WHA season (78-79) that didn't play on the 79-80 NHL team, and then continue to work backwards.

Your Oilers method is very intriguing. My Leafs PC is identical to this but I haven't been able to be happy with the many ways I have reorganized it. I think I may adopt this.

[creasecollector]

A have a bunch of stuff in binders. I have one main PC binder, and the other binder I use is for minor PC stuff + Traders. I also have a binder that holds my completed sets. Hope this helps :)

[Goggy29]

A have a bunch of stuff in binders. I have one main PC binder, and the other binder I use is for minor PC stuff + Traders. I also have a binder that holds my completed sets. Hope this helps :)

This is what I'm thinking about doing. So much reorganizing to do now!

[Sharky94]

I have one main PC binder

I already have two Hertl 3-in binders that are almost completely full! One has just Panini card from his rookie year, and that is so full I cant close it. Panini did love their jersey cards... The second is all UD and other stuff, and that is almost as bad. The sad part is I don't even collect booklets because you cant put them in binders, so space would be a serious issue if I did.

But binders is the best way to do it if you want to show your cards to anyone. I have my team UD Exclusives cards all in one binder. PCs in different binders, and other binders for other collections. All my traders are just in boxes by teams. And usually I just have numerous piles of cards sitting around all over the house waiting for me to do something with them....

[MacDuff77]

I've got a mix of binders and boxes. I collect sets, so once a set is complete it usually moves from binder to box. The issue I'm running into is sets that have jersey cards or high valued cards that are in top loaders as top loaders don't fit into my 550 count or 800 count boxes and I don't want my McDavid sitting in a binder with the rest of the set. So experimenting with large flat boxes as they fit the top loaders, but the base cards are not tightly snug. Sigh. Will keep experimenting.