Best Way To Organize Base?

[AThrash37DSnyder]

I use Microsoft Excel

Easy and free

[cfagent0]

I use Microsoft Excel

Easy and free

Not what I asked about...

I already said I am importing all of them to Zistle. I don't need help with inventory. I need help with storage and organization.

[cfagent0]

Anyone else?

[Tivo32]

I use the big 5,000 count boxes and organize base by teams and toss them in there with dividers. Has worked well for me. :)

[stlcardinalsfan]

i putt all of my cardinals in to binders by year and then by brand.

star/semi star i put in monster boxes but star/semi star status

all the rest of base i put by team in other boxes.

[GabsForPrez]

I build sets, have a number of "hit cards" and collect certain players. This is the system I use. I found that through the years, this is kind of expensive to maintain, but keep cards at their best and keep them VERY accecable.

1- Autographed football cards, weather pack pulled or signed in person-have their own "graded" card box. I keep them in a "graded" (slightly taller and wider than normal boxes) box because I penny sleeve, top load and then team bag EVERY autograph card. File them away in the graded box, sorted by players I like the most to least liked. I do the same exact thing for GU/JSY cards for football. I have so many football "hits" that autos have their own 2 row box. GU/JSY has it's own 2 row box. I do the penny sleeve, top loader, team bag for EVERY hit (auto or jsy card). Baseball "hits" have their own box, as does Hockey. I don't do basketball. All hit cards that are penny sleeved, top loaded and team bagged are in "graded" card box because it fits team-bagged top loaders PERFECTLY. Thats what I do with "hit" cards.

2) As a set builder, when I put away a set, I put every card in it's own penny sleeve, put them in 9 pocket pages (one card per pocket, so you can read the back of the card) and put the pages (obviously) in binders. Then mark the binder with what sets are inside. If a set isn't complete, I keep the cards in a box until complete. This makes it VERY easy to find certain cards and awesome if you're a kid or grown-up that likes to read the back of cards. It costs me around $20 bucks to put a set away like this though. If I already have a binder it's around $15. Putting away a Topps or Score set away obviously costs more since you need 400+ penny sleeves and that many more pages. This keeps cards very protected, though.

3) Player collections. The first card I get of a set, if it is a player I collect, that card goes to the player collection before the set, unless it took me forever to find that card. I have 200+ "commons" (any card that isn't auto'd or have a JSY piece to it) which include inserts and numbered cards of multiple players. I am a sucker for player collections. I put these cards away the SAME way I put a set away (penny, 9 pocket page, binder) to keep the cards prestine and accesable. On the end of those binders, I put which players are in the binder, and player collection binders are sorted by position (i.e. Running backs, wide recievers, etc.). Then, for example, I have all my jamaal Charles cards together, I sort them by year. Rookie cards in college uni (press pass, sage) go before rookie cards in a Chiefs uniform. That way, if most of the cards you're getting of a certain player are new, you just add to the back. Admitedly, the WORST part of sorting player collections this way is, if I get a card that is a few years old, I have to put it with other older cards of that player, which are a few pages away from the new stuff. So then I have to remove cards and file them backwards, and when that happens, you're moving alot of cards.

With random cards like that, I would sort by sport. Then player(s) or team, then file them by years. That way you will always know where a certain card is. Hope my long-winded explanation helps you.

[cfagent0]

Thanks for the help guys. As of right now, I'm leaning towards by team by player, but anyone else is still feel free to voice their opinion.

[giants1249er]

Thanks for the help guys. As of right now, I'm leaning towards by team by player, but anyone else is still feel free to voice their opinion.

The problem I see with this is players get traded/released/sign with new teams therefore it might be harder to find all cards of 1 player. I like my way (my post above) but it has its downfall in that I have lots of plastic shoeboxes that are stacked on top of each other and to get to a certain box, I have to take them all out before getting to the box I want. The upside is that shoeboxes are not as heavy as the larger boxes used to store cards and they don't kill my back.

[cfagent0]

The problem I see with this is players get traded/released/sign with new teams therefore it might be harder to find all cards of 1 player. I like my way (my post above) but it has its downfall in that I have lots of plastic shoeboxes that are stacked on top of each other and to get to a certain box, I have to take them all out before getting to the box I want. The upside is that shoeboxes are not as heavy as the larger boxes used to store cards and they don't kill my back.

Yeah, that is a good point. That was what I originally planned on doing, but I have way to many singles and not that many sets or partial sets, so there would be so many dividers and such that it would get messy.

Also, what do you use to make your dividers?

[forginator215]

I like to sort my cards by team and leave it at that. It makes it harder to find cards, but saves a ton of time in organization.

As for storage, I currently have all my cards in 9 pocket sleeves, two cards per slot, and then held in binders. Going forward, I'm finding that this could be awfully costly as I like to keep large quantities of cards.

I'm considering changing my storage to BCW 3200 count monster boxes. One fully loaded average size binder can hold less than 1000 cards while the boxes will hold three times that for a fraction of the cost. Obviously I'll sacrifice a little protection to save money, but if handled properly the monster box shouldn't be a problem.