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How I keep my collection organized

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gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
Well, now that I've moved and set up most of my card room, thought I would take some pictures and share how I keep my collection organized.

General photos of my card room:
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Card organization:

I start with 4 shelf metal shelves you can get at Home Depot or Lowes. They're the perfect size to hold 5,000 count row boxes side by side. I get 24 5,000 row boxes per unit, 6 per shelf.

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When I open a box of cards, I first separate out the stars and inserts. I penny sleeve them, and put them in 5,000 count boxes by player. I use corrugated plastic board available at Hobby Lobby to cut player dividers (cut 2.5"x4"), and use a label maker for the player names at top. I currently have 32 star boxes like this. I number the box lids, not the boxes themselves, so the lids can be changed if I run out of space in a box and add another. Keeping it alphabetical, I can find any player in a matter of seconds.

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For commons, I sort by team. This system works great for me: I take 6 5,000 count boxes and stair step them a little on one shelf at chair level. The 6 boxes have a total of 30 rows, which is the exact number of MLB teams. So I can sit in my desk chair and easily drop each team's cards into its designated row. When a row gets full, I transfer the cards for that team into a 660 count box and keep those team boxes on their own shelves.

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My player collections are kept in 3-row shoeboxes. The shelves also nicely hold 3-row boxes three per row. Boxes are labeled, and all PC cards are in toploaders or one-touch holders.

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Thanks for looking, hope maybe you found a few tips you can use. Obviously I'm not a set collector or the whole system would be different!
 

Yanks2151

Active member
Nov 9, 2013
3,231
8
Were you organized like this from the very beginning? I am trying to take a very unorganized 30+ year old collection and make it look like yours. I wish I had a system years ago.
 

Austin

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
5,706
41
Dallas, Texas
Have you ever considered putting your player collections in 9-pocket pages and binders?

I',ve always kept all of my collections (players, sets, autographs) in binders and find I'm much more encouraged to look at my cards when they're in binders. Like I'm looking through baseball picture books.

I rarely look at cards I store in giant monster boxes. Even ones in top loaders.
But when they're in binders, I look at them all of the time.

If you're worried about pages and binders damaging your cards, I've had cards In binders since the day I pulled them from packs in the '80s and they've remained in mint condition like the day I got them.
 

gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
I prefer toploaders and one-touches as they allow me to add cards in order without having to rearrange hundreds of cards. All my PC cards are organized by manufacturer, brand, year, and rarity (from base to inserts). If the cards were in binders it would be tough to add a new discovery and keep it in order. I like the protection offered by toploader and team bag. I don't like binder pages as sometimes cards fall out the top, and the pages can tilt past the covers a little when handling, which presents a chance for damage.

That said, I do store the few sets I have (72 Topps Baseball, Football, Hockey and Basketball) in binders. With a set, you know where the cards will be and can leave space for the ones you don't have.


Have you ever considered putting your player collections in 9-pocket pages and binders?

I',ve always kept all of my collections (players, sets, autographs) in binders and find I'm much more encouraged to look at my cards when they're in binders. Like I'm looking through baseball picture books.

I rarely look at cards I store in giant monster boxes. Even ones in top loaders.
But when they're in binders, I look at them all of the time.

If you're worried about pages and binders damaging your cards, I've had cards In binders since the day I pulled them from packs in the '80s and they've remained in mint condition like the day I got them.
 

jszczech

Well-known member
Dec 27, 2010
2,315
243
Minnesota
Love your organization man. Might be time to downgrade Mike Hampton from the stars box though haha. Seriously though I'd love to have my card room set up like this at some point.
 

MisterT

Well-known member
Mar 7, 2011
2,609
36
Virginia
Dang...I envy your organization. Every year or so I think I will get that far...so I start and make it though a few boxes and then give up.

Well done!
 

sierra79

Member
Feb 15, 2016
215
0
Deland, Florida
Nice setup. Everyone should have their own man cave. My wife calls it
"our office/study room", but in reality it's my man cave. Looks like a great place to get your head clear.
 

Gwynn545

Well-known member
Aug 29, 2008
5,526
44
North Seattle
You are not a player collector until you Detolf! You have been downgraded... ;)

Seriously, awesome stuff! If I would have been that organized, maybe I would have kept more of my older stuff (much to the chagrin of my wife!)
 

gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
You are not a player collector until you Detolf! You have been downgraded... ;)

Seriously, awesome stuff! If I would have been that organized, maybe I would have kept more of my older stuff (much to the chagrin of my wife!)

I actually looked at those last week at IKEA. A sealed display cabinet may be a future addition. The file cabinet next to the desk is the ALEX cabinet from IKEA. Lots of drawers to store toploaders, penny sleeves, bubble mailers and loose cards.
 

olerud363

Active member
Jun 14, 2010
3,212
14
Ontario, Canada
As I was reading how you store the bulk of the cards by players or team, all I could think was, "How would he find cards for a particular set if he were trading with a set builder?" Then I got to the last line of your post!

My organization is pretty much the same, only on a much small scale. I only have one of those metal shelves from Home Depot, my monster boxes for bulk cards are 4-row, and my Olerud PC is in 2-row shoeboxes. Sort of a mini-me version of your's. :D

I'm excited to hopefully soon be moving into my very own hobby room in the near future too. We're currently finishing our basement and it'll probably be ready for me to move into by the spring. The drywall taping, mudding, and sanding is just about done, and our contractor will then install the ceiling. He's working on his own and works full-time at another job, so it's been a very slow project.
 

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