Tips On Collecting: Sorting Baseball Cards

Bloggers Note: This is the first of a series of 4 Tips On Collecting Sorting edition. Now remember, this is how I sort my cards. These tips are to give you some ideas on what you may want to do with your own collection and not what you have to do. Since I don't sell any cards and keep what I get, there is a lot to sort and this is how I break it all down.

It all starts with a pack or two of baseball cards. After opening them up, you may ask, what do I do with them now? Some of you may toss the base cards in the trash or off to the side. Then you may take out your PC stuff and then the rest is for sale. As for how I would sort these, this isn't how I would do it.

Now, my form of sorting is a little time consuming. But I am very well organized. Here is how I would sort the baseball cards:

After opening up baseball cards, I know there is a long road to sorting. First I search for PC, Yankees, Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Jeter which is Pile One. I then take out the inserts or hits for Pile 2 and 3  is if there is a jersey or auto hits. After that I take out the non auto/jersey cards with the rookie symbol or if its a Bowman or Panini Elite Extra Edition product prospects will go there as well making up Pile 4. Pile 5 will consist of Star players (players I consider a star I base on if they are listed under a products pricing in Beckett and ones that I like as well). And that leaves pile 6, which are base cards. There is even a Pile 7 but that will come later on.

Now with Pile 1, I will go into a binder with the rest of the Yankees. I label the outside of the binder with a NY1. All of my binders are labeled. I sometimes will have to backtrack to make sure I don't have duplicates of the cards I am putting in. Those duplicates I put into Pile 7. I then follow suit with the Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter Cards. I have an 2 old Trapper Keepers with their photos on them so I know which binder is for which player. I put the cards in and place the duplicates in Pile 7.

Pile 2, I take out the star players I keep like I do in Pile 5 and place them there in Pile 5. With the rest I put them into my insert binder unless the insert is valued above $20. The ones valued over $20 get placed into a penny sleeve, top loader and are placed into a tote that is labeled inserts. If there are any duplications, those get pulled and placed into another pile which we call Pile 7.

Pile 3, jersey or thick cards are placed into a 50-100 count plastic box. If I happen to have a 25 count box, perfect size for jersey cards without damaging them, I use that so they are all in their own cases. The autographs I place into penny sleeves then into top loaders and into a separate tote.

Pile 4 gets separated into 3 piles. You can call that 4a, 4b, 4c. 4a is for True Rookies as listed in Beckett. If Beckett doesn't list a rookie as a true rookie meaning the RC symbol next to their name, that gets put into the 4c pile. 4b pile is for Bowman Prospects or Elite Extra Edition cards. And the last pile, 4c, is for the ones marked rookie on the card but are not True Rookies. With the True Rookies, I sort those by teams then place them into a binder that has separators for each team and are labeled that way. The prospects get their own binder but are not sorted by team but sometimes may be sorted by number . And finally the rookies with the symbol but are not True Rookies get placed into their own binder not by team as well. If there are any duplications, I keep em. There is nothing like having rookie cards on hand True Rookie or not. The hobby is built on rookie cards.

Pile 5 of star players get sorted by player, then placed into a 800 count white box labeled Bsbll players on the outside. Each player is labeled and separated by index cards. I used to store these in binders but found it easier to use the boxes. If there are any duplications, those get pulled and placed into pile 7. Sometimes with these it takes extra work if you buy older products. I go through and search just to make sure I don't have any duplications between the new one I just got and to the older ones already in the box. Can be time consuming.

Pile 6 can be the most time consuming of all. I take all of the base cards, sort them by number. I then place them into 800 count white boxes. I label them by brand and year. The outside of the box I put a number depending on what box I am on but for an example 7. I then take the number 7, write it into a book. And write the contents inside for easy searching. Depending on how many I have of each product, every box holds between 6-7 different brands.

And finally this leaves us with Pile 7, which is the duplications. The inserts I use for giveaways on here among other cards I pull out as well :) The double base cards and star players I use to build the Yard Sale boxes I spoke of on here a couple of times.

Now this seems like a lot of work and yes it is. So don't ever fall too far behind on sorting or buy too much at once lol. But I find this sorting really efficient and easy to find stuff you need or are looking for.

Let me know your thoughts on this crazy sorting. And how you sort your baseball cards.