Does anyone have a rational or easy way to sort cards that makes sense?

[doniceage]

What I would like to do is do a card show to get rid of some of this stuff to make the collection more manageable, but I'm from Illinois and this state takes Covid profoundly seriously so I cant foresee any card shows popping up in the near future. But if I could it would be great, I could buy a couple of tables and plop a dozen 5000 ct boxes on the table and let the "pickers" pick away, lol.... That's how it used to be, lol.

There quite a few shows in IL for July why not hit a show unless your still close to COVID-19. I know Ky has had recent shows and Greg have one good week in Mi where I am visiting so they are opening back up. Feel free to see if you could attend one and sell away.


Don

[30ranfordfan]

I think it really depends on what you've got.....

If you have a whack of Young Guns from 2003-2012, other than the stars - I suspect the only people who are ever going to want them, are people working on those sets. It's probably easiest to keep them together.

For "good" cards (something that would sell for $10+) - While set builders would be interested as well, I think now team and player (or "nice card") collectors are going to be interested.

I don't have nearly that kind of inventory anymore, but if it were me.....

I'd keep $10+ Rookie Cards sorted by player.
I'd keep all other $10+ cards (autos, game used, parallels, inserts, good base, etc) sorted by team
I'd keep the under $10 stuff sorted by set

The key with that much inventory is to know where it is though.

If I come along and ask for your Braden Point YG, it shouldn't be too hard to find. Likely would only be in one of three places.

[odjickfan]

My stuff is organized by years and sets. I'll be looking to downsize at fall during the rainy days, to keep it easier to manage and make a few $$$.

[Savard18]

There quite a few shows in IL for July why not hit a show unless your still close to COVID-19. I know Ky has had recent shows and Greg have one good week in Mi where I am visiting so they are opening back up. Feel free to see if you could attend one and sell away.


Don

Oh I would love to and looked around but they all appear to be canceled..... Supposedly we're in "Stage 4" of reopening.... Either way 90% of people are still wearing masks (I never wore one, and I never got sick)...

But yea, the second it's business as usual around here "card show" is the first thing on my "to-do list",lol... I'm sure it will be a blast too considering I haven't done a show since the mid-90's, lol.... I mean I only got back into the hobby 4 years ago, and with ebay and all the hobby has changed... I don't have to go to shows or the LCS to find cards I need or want - I can sit here in my underwear and buy any product I want and have it delivered to my door, lol...... However ebay will never replace card shows - the atmosphere is great, collectors are everywhere and you can have fun chats, trade and network with other collectors and pick up some stuff for your PC..... So I look forward to doing my first card show in what, 25 years? lol.... Heck, I may just put on my own card show, I've done it before. I mean if I can find a place that can fit at least 100 tables and get enough dealers and collectors to buy in. Hey, I did it when I was 13 (with help from my mom of course) so I don't see how I couldn't do it now.... It would be a lot easier given the internet and all.... Yea, I was 13 when I put on my first show - it was a 30-40 table gig so a small show and I remember I had only sold like 5 tables until the night before the show... Man I thought that show was going to flop and I committed myself to a terrible idea and that my mom would be pissed but the night before the show my phone rang off the hook with dealers and collectors looking for tables so I was gladly relieved that I sold them all...

But yea, I have more than plenty of cards for a show, tons of hockey, some baseball, football and basketball as well (at least 50,000 reasonably priced stars, HOF'ers, GU cards etc).... And whats good about shows is that you can get rid of a lot of lower-end stuff, you know - your base stars, rookies and hall of famers and such from the 80's to the present - you know, the cards you wouldn't list on ebay - they're perfect for the quarter bin or 5 for a buck bin - that stuff usually sells quick... I also make those "mystery packs" and those packs used to sellout really fast because I would be pretty generous with the cards I put in them - I'd just load them up with stars and a couple beat up vintage commons pre-1970 here in there..I always made sure collectors were getting their monies worth when they bought the "mystery packs" - and again that is another excellent way of getting rid of excess stars, rookies and HOF'ers. But yea at a local show I wouldn't anticipate selling anything high-end or anything more than $150.00, but I would bring some high-end stuff anyway just in case, lol.... Hopefully get rid of some commons and base sets too - I have way too much of that nonsense anyway..... Heck when I was a kid, lol I had these 5,000 count box lids and I would just dump all my mixed commons, semi-stars and some stars into the lid, there would probably be a few lids out with a couple thousand cards in each lid - then I would put up a sign that says "4 For a Penny" or "A Quarter Cent a Piece" and in hindsight it's funny how many people would dig and dig and dig though those boxes for 20-30 minutes - but hey it attracted a ton of collectors to my tables and I got rid of a ton of junk I didn't want - it's a lot better than just throwing them away like some collectors do.... I mean it really is a good way to draw people to your table.... Because they may go to your table and check out the "4 For A Penny" box's but then they would see your other cards - you know the good ones, lol - and then before you know it you have a $50 sale on your hands - you just covered the cost of your tables, lol....

Man Don, you got me all nostalgic now thinking about all the good times I've had at card shows, lol

So yea, absolutely I'm doing a card show once this Covid nonsense is over and done with - if it ever is.

- Nick

[Savard18]

I think it really depends on what you've got.....

If you have a whack of Young Guns from 2003-2012, other than the stars - I suspect the only people who are ever going to want them, are people working on those sets. It's probably easiest to keep them together.

For "good" cards (something that would sell for $10+) - While set builders would be interested as well, I think now team and player (or "nice card") collectors are going to be interested.

I don't have nearly that kind of inventory anymore, but if it were me.....

I'd keep $10+ Rookie Cards sorted by player.
I'd keep all other $10+ cards (autos, game used, parallels, inserts, good base, etc) sorted by team
I'd keep the under $10 stuff sorted by set

The key with that much inventory is to know where it is though.

If I come along and ask for your Braden Point YG, it shouldn't be too hard to find. Likely would only be in one of three places.

Oh, I do keep my Young Guns and Rookies together generally, unless they're super high-end like my Matthews YG, Crosby YG etc but those are in my PC anyway - and when I do have doubles of high-end YG's or rookies in general I keep them separated from the $15.00 and under rookies...

As for the other cards I have all of the stars in alphabetical order, which has become an issue because my collection is still growing - because I am buying unopened product - I mean I will go down to Walmart once a week or 2 weeks and see what they have and usually buy a few blasters and a handful of fat packs, so obviously I get stars, rookies and hits out of that and the boxes just grow and grow and grow, lol....I mean when it comes to "G" for example I have 2,500 Wayne Gretzky cards in top loaders which takes up half the box, lol... Not to mention all the doubles + I have and that applies to pretty much every card I own. I mean I'm sure I have more doubles of cards than I do of just a single card... I mean I have 40+ Jari Kurri rookies, lol, 75+ Brian Leech rookies and at least 300 each of Rick Diepietro and Marty Turco rookies - it's pretty insane, so yea, I have "bricks" and half bricks of a ton of different cards..What I'm going to try and do is get them out of the top loaders and into team set bags... I mean I don't like the idea of just keeping a $15.00 card unprotected or in a sleeve.... Oh and the fact they're making cards so thick these days doesn't help, lol....

Yea, I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to do... I'm going to buy a "1,500 count divided shoe box" for each letter of the alphabet and just sort the stars alphabetically, because I think 1,500 card box for each letter should be enough for the majority of the alphabet... That way if I need a Paul Kariya for example I just go to "K"...

So yea, I think my biggest problem is that my collection is just growing too fast - I mean if I add 20 more Gretzky's tomorrow for example then my 5,000 count box will spill-over 20 cards, then you end up with multiple boxes with half of the Ovechkin's in one box and the other half in another box, lol...

It's funny tho, when I got back into the hobby 4 years ago I didn't anticipate, well I just forgot really - the amount of work it takes to maintain a collection, lol.. I mean I have 1,000,000 cards - something like that - and the majority of them are stored just fine they're in 800 and 5000 count boxes, I'm just having issues with perhaps 100,000 of them - essentially my stars, rookies, HOF'ers, GU, autos etc....

- Nick

[doniceage]

Oh I would love to and looked around but they all appear to be canceled..... Supposedly we're in "Stage 4" of reopening.... Either way 90% of people are still wearing masks (I never wore one, and I never got sick)...

But yea, the second it's business as usual around here "card show" is the first thing on my "to-do list",lol... I'm sure it will be a blast too considering I haven't done a show since the mid-90's, lol.... I mean I only got back into the hobby 4 years ago, and with ebay and all the hobby has changed... I don't have to go to shows or the LCS to find cards I need or want - I can sit here in my underwear and buy any product I want and have it delivered to my door, lol...... However ebay will never replace card shows - the atmosphere is great, collectors are everywhere and you can have fun chats, trade and network with other collectors and pick up some stuff for your PC..... So I look forward to doing my first card show in what, 25 years? lol.... Heck, I may just put on my own card show, I've done it before. I mean if I can find a place that can fit at least 100 tables and get enough dealers and collectors to buy in. Hey, I did it when I was 13 (with help from my mom of course) so I don't see how I couldn't do it now.... It would be a lot easier given the internet and all.... Yea, I was 13 when I put on my first show - it was a 30-40 table gig so a small show and I remember I had only sold like 5 tables until the night before the show... Man I thought that show was going to flop and I committed myself to a terrible idea and that my mom would be pissed but the night before the show my phone rang off the hook with dealers and collectors looking for tables so I was gladly relieved that I sold them all...

But yea, I have more than plenty of cards for a show, tons of hockey, some baseball, football and basketball as well (at least 50,000 reasonably priced stars, HOF'ers, GU cards etc).... And whats good about shows is that you can get rid of a lot of lower-end stuff, you know - your base stars, rookies and hall of famers and such from the 80's to the present - you know, the cards you wouldn't list on ebay - they're perfect for the quarter bin or 5 for a buck bin - that stuff usually sells quick... I also make those "mystery packs" and those packs used to sellout really fast because I would be pretty generous with the cards I put in them - I'd just load them up with stars and a couple beat up vintage commons pre-1970 here in there..I always made sure collectors were getting their monies worth when they bought the "mystery packs" - and again that is another excellent way of getting rid of excess stars, rookies and HOF'ers. But yea at a local show I wouldn't anticipate selling anything high-end or anything more than $150.00, but I would bring some high-end stuff anyway just in case, lol.... Hopefully get rid of some commons and base sets too - I have way too much of that nonsense anyway..... Heck when I was a kid, lol I had these 5,000 count box lids and I would just dump all my mixed commons, semi-stars and some stars into the lid, there would probably be a few lids out with a couple thousand cards in each lid - then I would put up a sign that says "4 For a Penny" or "A Quarter Cent a Piece" and in hindsight it's funny how many people would dig and dig and dig though those boxes for 20-30 minutes - but hey it attracted a ton of collectors to my tables and I got rid of a ton of junk I didn't want - it's a lot better than just throwing them away like some collectors do.... I mean it really is a good way to draw people to your table.... Because they may go to your table and check out the "4 For A Penny" box's but then they would see your other cards - you know the good ones, lol - and then before you know it you have a $50 sale on your hands - you just covered the cost of your tables, lol....

Man Don, you got me all nostalgic now thinking about all the good times I've had at card shows, lol

So yea, absolutely I'm doing a card show once this Covid nonsense is over and done with - if it ever is.

- Nick

To me Cardshows are the best way to kill a few deals as sometimes you get a good deal and that only rekindles the desire to look for more good deals. Plus, factor in that you can touch the card walk away with it asap and not worry about anything going wrong thru the mail, packaging, a seller getting remorse for letting it go too low, and all the things that can go wrong when buying something 2nd hand. Of course you have to wear a mask if you want in the show LOL and bring your hand sanitizer as you touch all the cards everyone else just touched.


DON