Card Organization--Newbies

[RKenworthy]

My 6 year old son and I are newbies, we just rec'd a 2005 Topps Complete Set Series 1 & 2. We'll be collecting team sets and keep them up to date. We're collecting just for fun and education. We're using binders and 9 pocket plastic sleeves. We'll organize by team. Before we start stuffing cards into pockets we're wondering if anyone has devised the perfect layout. It seems to me that with multiple pitchers, team card, manager cards, etc. that there's probably an "intelligent" way to order the cards and we're into learning from others as opposed to reinventing the wheel ourselves. Thanks kindly for any help!

[vasprtsfn]

If you are intending to collect cards by team sets, it sounds like that is the best way to catalog them in your binders.

[Mike D.]

The beauty of it is that there's no "right" way...as long as you guys are having fun and spending time together, it's the "right" way!

For team collecting, one thing I can suggest is that there's nine pockets per page on a sheet, and nine players in the regular lineup for a team. Maybe you could have the "starting nine" on a team's first page, then move on from there with reserves, rookies, managers/coaches, and team cards?

The important thing is to have fun, not make too many "rules", and share the collection together!

[liquidsolid]

baseball

My 6 year old son and I are newbies, we just rec'd a 2005 Topps Complete Set Series 1 & 2. We'll be collecting team sets and keep them up to date. We're collecting just for fun and education. We're using binders and 9 pocket plastic sleeves. We'll organize by team. Before we start stuffing cards into pockets we're wondering if anyone has devised the perfect layout. It seems to me that with multiple pitchers, team card, manager cards, etc. that there's probably an "intelligent" way to order the cards and we're into learning from others as opposed to reinventing the wheel ourselves. Thanks kindly for any help!

If you and your son want help collecting check my site out www.liquidsolid.zoomshare.com

[rugbyfreak]

Organizing sets

I'm a veteran collector (try ebay--I have great luck there), specializing in Topps sets and various other subsets (e.g. World Series and leader cards). Some suggestions:

By all means, mount them in pocket binders. Any hobby store sells the albums in bulk, as well as packets of sleeves. I have two ways of arranging sets, and there are pros and cons to each.

By teams--This is my preferred way, because when someone comes over to look at my collection, they will invariably have certain favorite players they want to see, and this way I can find him immediately, by his team. All other cards in the set (leaders, WS, rookie stars, etc.) I put in the front, then follow with the teams. Only drawback here is, with my incomplete sets, it is much more difficult to keep track of which cards I still need. Which brings me to the next option...

Numerical order--I generally purchase the older, "vintage" sets in partial form (much cheaper, plus I then have the fun of filling the missing numbers over time, making it feel like the old days, as a kid, when we hand collected sets, card by card). So, when they arrive, the first thing I need to do is check to see that each and every number that the seller claimed was there is actually there. (Or, to be more precise, that none are missing other than those he said were missing.) When the cards are in numerical order, this only takes me a matter of minutes. Vintage sets almost always come in numerical order (since, presumably, they have already been hand collected for years). But the newer sets (which I do buy complete, since they are much less expensive), often still in their factory box, are never in order, leaving me the very tedious task of first putting some 700+ cards in numerical order, then checking to see that none are missing, a two-step process. Make that a three-step process if, after checking the numbers, I feel up to re-organizing them by teams. (Sometimes I do, but sometimes I never get around to it, which explains why some of my Topps sets are in teams, and some are in numerical.)

The chief downside to displaying sets in numerical, is that finding a specific player means consulting the set's check list to find the player's card number. Over the years, some of Topps competitors organized their sets by teams (Fleer comes to mind), so that each team's cards ran sequentially, so you had the best of both worlds. I loved this idea, and I've always hoped that Topps would pick up on it, but they never have, at least not recently.

COLLECTING VINTAGE SETS

My personal threshold when considering whether to buy a partial set, is it must be about 85% complete. This is because most sellers of partial sets tend to pull many of the stars and the expensive high numbers and sell them separately. If too many premium cards are missing, even if it's only 20 or 30, the cost of buying them separately could exceed the cost of the entire 90% I just bought. Then, you have not gotten the best deal.

What makes a set vintage? It's very cut and dried. Most collectors reckon any set that's 1973 or older as vintage. Why? Up through the 1973 set (Topps began its line of sets in 1951), the company sold its cards in 100- to 130-card series, with usually six or seven series comprising a full set. The first series would arrive (to great anticipation, as I remember), hitting the stores at around the beginning of the baseball season, or a little earlier. Adhering to a pre-determined release schedule, Topps would give collectors a number of weeks to complete their series (I seem to remember five to six), benefitting from repeat business, as many collectors would keep buying packs in pursuit of ever-more-specific numbers. Toward the end of the cycle, collectors would accrue more and more "doubles", which, although a bit annoying, at least gave them more stock with which to trade with fellow collectors, who may very well have doubles of the cards they needed.

As demand for a series petered out, Topps would then release the second series, then the third, and so on. This strategy worked well for the first four or five series, but then toward the end of the summer, as kids prepared to return to school, their interest waned. Thus, retailer re-orders for the late series tended to be minimal, compared with earlier. So Topps stopped reprinting the higher numbers, making them far more scarce and valuable. Today, even high-numbered benchwarmers from vintage sets carry quite a price.

Beginning in 1974, Topps did away with the series method, and began making whole sets available at the beginning of the season. There is quite a noticeable spike in price for any pre-1974 set. Conversely, sets printed after 1973 are still readily available in complete form, so it always makes sense to buy these sets complete, whenever possible, since they're still quite cheap.

Matter of fact, there was a period, from about 1984 to 1993 (known to dealers as "The Dark Ages"), when Topps abandoned its specialty-hobby retail partners and mass marketed the hell out of its sets (through Kmart and others), to the point where, even today, they carry virtually no value. ($20 will usually get you any of these sets, which is good news for collectors such as myself, who are stictly buyers, and care nothing about resale value.) So, if you plan to start collecting sets, start with this period.

Beginning with, I believe, the 1994 set, Topps bowed to popular demand and restored the proprietary nature of its sets, selling only through approved dealers and limiting its print runs, and these sets, in addition to increasing in value, are also nicer looking, as Topps finally upgraded from paper to a much more durable, glossy plastic, and began featuring far superior graphic design.

Well, that's it-I've said enough for now. Other last minute hints for a beginning collector:

--Decide on a few specialties and collect them (certain teams or manufacturers, subsets, etc.). Nobody can collect everything.
--Try ebay: It's a lot of fun, there's a vast supply to choose from, and its auction system is designed to protect bidders from themselves (no matter how high your bid, you only pay enough to top the next highest bidder.
--Go to a show and meet other collectors, and find some real bargains (don't be afraid to barter with dealers if you don't agree with their price).

Well, I said I was going to stop and I meant it! Email me sometime and I'll help you with Web sites, where to buy stuff, or any other questions you may have. Good luck to you and your son. I have two sons--four and three years old, and I can't think of a better dad-son thing to do together than cards. I hope I can convince mine to get the bug. Take care!

Geoff Bermingham
[email protected]

[Captain Cold Nose]

If you and your son want help collecting check my site out www.liquidsolid.zoomshare.com

I'm sorry. How does a site that lists what you have in your collection help someone with organizing their own cards?