Organizing Some Random Thoughts

A while back now, in reading a post about organization from a fellow card blogger Mike (member of TCC and a Facebook Pal) on his card blog, he also has a comics/toy collecting blog which was his original catch-all blog, I was reminded of an organizing rant post I did in November of last year (2012). His dilemma is frighteningly similar to mine. Years and years of having cards in boxes (or elsewhere) not organized or semi-organized and needing to be put in binders or displayed in someway. Apparently we are not alone in being overwhelmed by a hoard of cards. Colby over at Cardboard Collections  sometimes feels defeated. Oh and for those who didn't know Greg The Night Owl is NOT a pack rat (but he might play one on TV) here is his proof.  I'm not either, but I don't have any proof to disprove it yet. I'm lazy and organizationally challenged. Ironically when I was a kid I was a neat freak, I think public school corrupted me. So being disorganized can sometimes be a common enough feeling.

In my previous post (mentioned in the paragraph above) the first part was another kind of rant when I was in a bit of a funk about the hobby and wondering "Why?" then I settled down some and talked about an idea I have had for a while, but is not very practical. 

The idea was this: Have a service company that will sort and organize your cards for you. The basic premise is for collectors to send their collection, or the unorganized part of their collection they want/need organized with instructions on how they want it organized (by brand/by year/by team or whatever). The service then sorts the cards and puts them in boxes or binders based on the instructions, and service level purchased. It would probably make extra money selling the supplies or at least the binders, or heck supplies cost could be figured into the processing/organizing fee.

This would not be a grading/authorizing/verification/slabbing service there are plenty of those kinds of services. I haven't thought all the details out on if graded cards would or could be entered into the mix, probably not.

An obvious problem would be the cost of shipping cards in those volumes. More so on the company sending out the neatly organized collection in spiffy new binders (or boxes). Keeping a huge inventory of all the needed supplies would initially be a pain: Having a large inventory of the right kind of binder, the binder pages, penny sleeves toploaders, card boxes.

Then there is the space needed while organizing. A nice clear table large enough to hold a bunch of cards and some assorted supplies. There might have to be some sort of limit to the number of cards sent to be organized at a time "x" number of 5000 card monster boxes worth.

For right now I need to actually start doing all the sorting, organizing and proper storing of my own card hoard first. I have a problem of knocking down card piles and having to restack them and in the process their original "order that they came in" gets totally messed up. Someone else blogged about knocking over leaning pile towers of cards some months back sorry I forget who it was. Messy unorganized apartments don't help either.

hmm. I stumbled upon this link: "How to Organize Your Trading Cards" It is a "Simple" guide to organizing your cards too simple. Sadly it is way too simple and looks to be geared toward beginning collectors not seasoned collectors that are re-organizing for the zillionth time. There are other "similar" links including this one: "How to Organize Baseball Cards". Again not really for seasoned collectors ((Sigh!))

Another problem I have that contributes to my collection not being totally organized is my backlog of neat and fascinating cards and oddball sets that I have waiting in the wings to be blogged about. I have one set that I started a post about. I don't remember when I first wrote it up. I have updated it several times, and I still need to get the cards scanned. I had to add the set to zistle since it was such an oddball set.

Related Links:
How to Store and Organize Trading Cards
5 Easy Steps to an Organized Sports Card Collection *


*This seems to be the best advice I've seen yet. I already do some of what is mentioned in the article.

**Sorry for the blurry pics they were quick and dirty shots taken with my webcam handheld.