Organization... The biggest thing I hate about the hobby

[TJCloutier]

All the time I get in the mood to enter more cards into my pc or list cards on eBay etc however I only seem to slowly pick away at my ultimate goal. I feel this is due mostly to poor organization on my behalf. I'd be lying to myself if I wish I hadn't put the time into my collection to organize by year set etc. I mean there is obviously some organization and if I needed to find an autograph I could find it relatively easily within a few minutes. However a common/insert could take me 15 minutes because I have the unique ones in binders and not separated by years or anything (yet, hopefully)

It's just discouraging, obviously only I can fix this but between entering cards in my pc and listing cards on eBay there just seems to be little to no time to organize the whole collection. As you start organizing you seem to become gradually more disorganized as well I feel. Just a thought that entered my mind today. Anyone's take on their perspective? Thanks.

 

[Beachbum]

I'm a spreadsheet nut...the first few years back in the hobby, I did little trading and mostly organizing since it was left off the way it was when I was 17 years old...not good (no spreadsheets when I was 17).

My only piece of advice would be to start small, build some momentum, and then it will get easier and more intuitive.

 

[HockeyBrawler]

I track all my autograph wants and haves on a spreadsheet in Google Docs and stored in a box by sport, year, set, and card number. That way if I'm at a card shop or show, I can pull up what I have and what I need for my signed sets with relative ease on my phone.

My unsigned stuff on the other hand... Yeah, not exactly. I do finally have everything alphabetized by player at least.

 

[jflan702]

I also had an issue with my organization on my collection. However, it as a little easier for me as I am a set collector and one I finish, I always re-check the numbers in the set to make sure it is complete. I have been at it a long time, way before spreadsheets. I keep a notebook with a hard copy of my needs, and keep my webs.com page up to date so that I can share the lists easier. IT took me a lot of hours to get my duplicates separated and into their own boxes. I am glad that I did take the time, as it is so easy for me to check lists for other traders, once I actually get time to do so.
Take a look at my www for some ideas and my photobucket for some pics if you would like. It might give you some ideas.

Take it slow and chip away at it as best you can. At some point you will get to be as organized as you want.

Good luck.

 

[PogoCards]

I have the same problem, but I think that my biggest problem is that I have too much stuff. I spend a lot of time entering cards on spreadsheets, but storing the cards in a way that I can find them easily, especially inserts, is difficult. I don't trade as much as I used to, partly for this reason.....and the rise in shipping costs. It is frustrating as it takes a lot of time, but overall the hobby is still a lot of fun, so I guess that it is worth it.

Barry Urbanek - PogoCards




*

 

[David K.]

Use to love sorting and getting my cards into order.....now days...its a harder to get stuff in order. Best regards, David

 

[BucCollector]

Try www.zistle.com. Nice UI; mobile app so you can take it with you; and if they don't have a card in the database for whatever reason you can add it. I keep my wantlists and tradelists updated there along w my inventory.

 

[oldmarine0311]

I hear ya organization that’s the Achilles heel of the collections business isn’t it? lol what I have to do choose from isn’t so much where but what I want to organize. As any collector I have a TON of junk that I just need to get rid of. But I currently use a combo or Becketts and excel as I need to best idea of price. I just wish there was another good place to organize my collection that’s what I want to see. I guess I could sharpen my much dull skills on spread sheets again but man I just don’t know.
Anyone have an idea in that direction for me?

 

[dlackey]

Organization was my goal this year and so far I have added/organized cards ever day this year. Some days with work I don't get many added but I always take a little time and add some cards to the list.

Dennis

 

[Beachbum]

I hear ya organization that’s the Achilles heel of the collections business isn’t it? lol what I have to do choose from isn’t so much where but what I want to organize. As any collector I have a TON of junk that I just need to get rid of. But I currently use a combo or Becketts and excel as I need to best idea of price. I just wish there was another good place to organize my collection that’s what I want to see. I guess I could sharpen my much dull skills on spread sheets again but man I just don’t know.
Anyone have an idea in that direction for me?

My suggestion would be to take the smallest amount of a brand of card you have and sort them out on a table by year (the smaller the better to get started) for example you have 20,000 topps cards but you only have 2000 fleer cards...start with fleer. Then take a blank spreadsheet page and name it "Fleer". I do mine chronologically but there are some people that do reverse chronologically (like a resume) and just enter the data one column at a time like year, name, card #, quantity, book value, etc. (I have a column called "factor" where I can degrade a card if it is in low condition but I wouldn't mess with that if you just want to build an inventory.

Once you get the smaller collection entered, you will have accomplished something and then you can tackle your larger sub categories like Topps, Donruss, whatever....

 

[t.rooster]

A lot of good ideas here, organizing is an art and as such it is something that, with practise, forces you to think in a certain way. The more specified, the more organized, for example, take a card manufacturer:
UD
base cards 1989--1999
base cards 2000--2005
etc.
inserts 1989--1992 chronilogical & alphabetized by insert set names

I store my cards accordingly. With a database I just use a simple word doc. to list and delete the cards coming and going, works well enough but the trick is keeping it current, we all fall to some degree there. Start small and gain momentum, hope that helps. best o you….

 

[Jaybo374]

I am a set builder who has something like 40,000 + doubles for trade. Over the years I would first slowly organize the commons by year. Next, I organize them by brands and sets. Finally, by number. Very time consuming but in the long run very worth it.

The problems I am now facing is two fold. First, I just do not have the time that I once did. I am lucky if I have an hour of time to devote to my collection so now I have about 200+ cards sitting and waiting to be put away.

My next problem is much more daunting. About a year ago my PC gave the blue screen of death. Fearing that this day would one day come, I would save a copy on a CD every time I updated it. The problem was the program I used was an old, outdated spreadsheet and when I bought a new PC, I could not find this program anywhere for purchase so the copy I saved was useless. As a result, beginning in March I would sit down for an hour or two per week and recreate my trade list from scratch. Given that the when I originally made the trade list I had more time than now and it took me over a year to build it, I'm looking at possibly next summer to have it entirely recreated, this time on Excel.

Overall, if comes down to how much time and effort are you willing to invest in organizing your collection. I'd say it is always worth it because and old collector once told me decades ago that a collection without sound organization is more of an accumulation than an actual collection.

 

[bsatttu]

I am a set builder who has something like 40,000 + doubles for trade. Over the years I would first slowly organize the commons by year. Next, I organize them by brands and sets. Finally, by number. Very time consuming but in the long run very worth it.

The problems I am now facing is two fold. First, I just do not have the time that I once did. I am lucky if I have an hour of time to devote to my collection so now I have about 200+ cards sitting and waiting to be put away.

My next problem is much more daunting. About a year ago my PC gave the blue screen of death. Fearing that this day would one day come, I would save a copy on a CD every time I updated it. The problem was the program I used was an old, outdated spreadsheet and when I bought a new PC, I could not find this program anywhere for purchase so the copy I saved was useless. As a result, beginning in March I would sit down for an hour or two per week and recreate my trade list from scratch. Given that the when I originally made the trade list I had more time than now and it took me over a year to build it, I'm looking at possibly next summer to have it entirely recreated, this time on Excel.

Overall, if comes down to how much time and effort are you willing to invest in organizing your collection. I'd say it is always worth it because and old collector once told me decades ago that a collection without sound organization is more of an accumulation than an actual collection.

That stinks! What is the old program? Have you tried finding a converter for the file?

 

[Jaybo374]

Truthfully, I don't recall. I came with the previous version of Office. Not knowing any better, I just started typing away.

 

[oldmarine0311]

Truthfully, I don't recall. I came with the previous version of Office. Not knowing any better, I just started typing away.

if your using excel as the program and i think even word has this option, if you have a saved version on a cd you can still access it in the newest word or excel by rolling your latest version to access it.