How do you all sort your common cards?

[98whitesteed]

Just trying to get a feel for what would be the most efficient way to do this. I was thinking by sport and then by team. For a bit I thought of doing it by player, but that seems a little overkill.

So, how do you sort them?

[jdthakid36]

I don't think there's any wrong way to do it...I do the following:

- of course, I have all of my Nolan Ryan cards in poly sleeves, then a top loader. Organized by year, then brand/company, then number - I store them in "jumbo" shoe boxes

- Star players (base, inserts, autos, etc.) go in sleeve, then top loader; sorted by player last name, then year/set/number - stored in jumbo shoe boxes

- non-star cards, Short Prints, RC's over $1 go in sleeve, then top loader; sorted by year/set/number - stored in jumbo shoe boxes

- commons, very low-end inserts and oddball cards under $1 - sorted by year/set/number - stored in Monster boxes (5-rows)

I have my Ryan boxes numbered, so I can tell what cards are where. Same deal with the STARS and cards over $1. Eventually, if I get another wild hair up my butt, I might list the box # each card is in on my Excel Spreadsheet...but I doubt i'll ever get to that becuase once I get started trading again, it will change so much!

I, at one time, had every card I own listed in a spreadsheet! When I had back surgery 4 years ago, and the doc said I wan't allowed to lift anything over 5 lbs, I had all my cards at waist level lined up on book-cases around my hobby room. One by one, I listed each card by team, player name, set, subset, insert, card number, serial number, value, quantity, and type of card (base/insert/serial #'d/oddball/auto/RC/GU'd/etc...). I got a little behind about 1 1/2 years ago when we were expecting our second child and had to give up my hobby room to my duaghter...so I have a little work to do to get back on track! However, I can get a trader a specific list in seconds and it helps a ton with my trading!

I also listed each and every trade I made, and organized that on the spreadsheet as well, by trader name, location, date, etc...

Do I go overboard???? Maybe, but I enjoy it!

[Bluedogcards]

My base sets i put together, and add a sheet on the ones am missing. auto's goes in another box by sport same with GU, I try to keep the rc all together by sport and year, all others just goes in a box by sport.

[DaClyde]

If you have any plans on selling any singles, sorting by sport, year and by set is your best bet for actually being able to find individual cards later. How you organize really depends on your plans for your cards. Back when I was first starting out, I had all of my cards alphabetized by player. Now that I'm selling off all my commons on Sportlots, I have to sort them by set to be able to find anything.

[dayzdtomato]

I sort by set initially. I like to sell in team lots and my schtick is to not have duplicates. This is much easier to put together when the starting point is sets because all of the dupes are right there next to each other.

[bangsportscards]

I'm working on coming up with a plan of action too. It seems first by year/set is a good foundation as you can pull teams from this organization.

Like another posted noted, if you want to help others fill sets, then sorting by player/team would be tougher to work.

I'm going to be finding the area where I realize the most interest in cards and go from there.

Brian

Brian

[tutall]

I put everything by team in shoeboxes... Inserts, RC, GU, and star base go into toploaders, commons just go in the box... I tried going by sets but i just had way too much of some sets and people it seems are always looking for team/players instead of sets anyways.

[kdeckard]

I am just starting, so this is a good thread for me too.

[Thrillseeker]

I break them into sport, then I do it alphabetically.

[the_future]

The majority of my cards are sorted by set, but I still have many commons that are unorganized at the moment.