How do you sort your cards? What's the best way to share a trade list?

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Mike121

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I've never really been one to collect base/inserts unless they were Tony Parker. However, since joining this site I've been more and more attracted to the idea of trying to collect a complete set of something. To do that, I'm going to have to start keeping my base cards so I'm wondering how you all sort yours.

Should I sort them by team, players, or product?

I'm guessing since there are so many other set collectors on here it's best that I just sort them by product?

Also, what's the best way to put together a trade list?

I was thinking I might just start a new thread here in the baseball for trade forum with a list of everything I have available. Is that the best, or should I create a whole new page on another site for this?
 
Base cards I keep around for the product year or less, then they move on minus star cards. I keep them by product.

The stars that get pulled go into large boxes by player. I 'trim down' and reclassify 'stars' from time to time to thin the herd.

As far as tradelists go, I use Beckett organize for my collections. I can usually match up needs visually from there or post specific players/set needs as people request them.

My WANTlist is a simple google drive document linked in signature that is always 100% up to date via the cloud.
 
Because of the sheer number of cards I have, I am a set builder out of neccessity. So most of my cards are in year order and number order. If a card is $10 or more or a prominent RC, I put it in a top loader and soft sleeve. Some stars I have sorted by player for player collectors but I am pretty much sorted to help people with their sets.

If I did not tie up great numbers of cards in sets, I'd have a real mess on my hands............even worse then the mess I have now!
 
I'd have a real mess on my hands
I don't have many cards yet, but I already have a mess on my hands, hence the plea for help! I couldn't even begin to imaging what some of your collections look like who have been collecting sets for years!
 
This could be a fun problem as long as you don't let it get out of hand. I sort by brand and year, complete set and then doubles (or more). I use Webs.com for my wantlist. I keep a spreadsheet for tracking my competed sets.

Here's just a few pictures to scare you. I have 5 of those 4 shelf units holding all of my sets and extras. (I Like this insert picture function, double thumbs up!)

Do what makes you happy, this is supposed to be fun.

JF
 

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Thanks for all the tips, y'all! I bought some binder pages today to put the cards in that I'm going to try to collect. I've decided on a set to collect, but I'll post on that later. I'll put together a trade list first. Looks like I'll be sorting my traders by set and number, but maybe keeping a few of the big names separate.

Again, thanks everyone for your replies. Hopefully I'll be able to get some trades going soon and it won't take me hours to find the cards folks want from me. Ha!
 
Thanks for all the tips, y'all! I bought some binder pages today to put the cards in that I'm going to try to collect. I've decided on a set to collect, but I'll post on that later. I'll put together a trade list first. Looks like I'll be sorting my traders by set and number, but maybe keeping a few of the big names separate.

Again, thanks everyone for your replies. Hopefully I'll be able to get some trades going soon and it won't take me hours to find the cards folks want from me. Ha!
 
This could be a fun problem as long as you don't let it get out of hand. I sort by brand and year, complete set and then doubles (or more). I use Webs.com for my wantlist. I keep a spreadsheet for tracking my competed sets.

Here's just a few pictures to scare you. I have 5 of those 4 shelf units holding all of my sets and extras. (I Like this insert picture function, double thumbs up!)

Do what makes you happy, this is supposed to be fun.

JF
JF, it looks like you have something separating each individual box for ease of access. Where did you find those? I have a closet full of boxes stacked on top of eachother and accessing the bottom ones is a real challenge. The way you have it set up looks like a piece of cake to access.

Joe
 
Hi Joe,

I found these at BCW. They are called Card Houses and store 12 800 ct boxes. I use a few of them for the 1000 ct set boxes, and just let them stick out of the front. Extremely easy to access and store my sets. A little pricey, but for me well worth it.

Thanks,
 
Hi Joe,

I found these at BCW. They are called Card Houses and store 12 800 ct boxes. I use a few of them for the 1000 ct set boxes, and just let them stick out of the front. Extremely easy to access and store my sets. A little pricey, but for me well worth it.

Thanks,
Much appreciated! I'll go check these out.

Joe
 
For me sorting cards is I try to make it easy I'll put the 10s 100s 200s etc etc in separate stacks and start with the highest stack say
600s for Topps Flagship and find all the cards in the 690s then 680s and put those in order then move on to the 670s ..and so on
and there housed in its appropriate 5000 CT for example all my 2020 topps so far is in 1 5000 CT with room to spate for 20 Topps
Update--Off brand Panini Donruss are in a separate 5000 CT box

Baseball inserts | parallels low end are in 2 5000 CT boxes sorted by team product and brand so all Bowman is together followed
by Diamond Kings Teams are in alphabetical order Angels thru Yankees

Inserts | Parallels with a BV of $10 or more along with game-used and autos are kept in 2 row shoe boxes
RCs are keep in 800 CT boxes A Thru Z starting with players first name so all my Kyle Lewis RCs FT are under K
 
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I find it interesting and helpful to hear how others collect and organize their cards, etc. I have a small closet with a shelf that looks like JF's post #6. I never heard/saw the Card Houses so that is a great idea. For what it is worth, I'm basically a set builder and primarily Topps flagship sets. I keep my newer Topps sets in 3K boxes in numerical order. 3 years in the 3 rows. This allows me to put key cards in top loaders. I keep Update sets in 330 counts boxes but this limits putting key cards in top loaders so I may switch to Shoe Storage boxes. I keep my tradelist now by team. I use to keep it by year/product but I think there are more team/player collectors. I post and update my tradelist with a link in my signature. And F1 is always helpful to search for players.
 
Here is how I store all of my cards for trade, still a work in process...but I found getting the shelves that hold shoes worked best for me....only two boxes of cards will fit in each slot....and for my trade list, I just use old threads that I started here and end up converting those into my trade lists...keeps it very simple and organized for me
as far as my PC, I have those in binders, this way I can pull out a binder and look at the cards that I enjoy collecting:
1959 Topps---about 200 of these cards were my dads, which Included the #10 Mickey Mantle
1970 Topps---the year I was born
1988 Topps Autographed set
1996 Leaf Signature Autographed cards
Inland Empire 66ers card sets (try to get as many signed as possible...Have two completely signed sets..2008 & 2011)
Charlie Hough
Mike Trout
HOF autos
Dodgers autos
 

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