[somedudescards]

Hello

I was given a collection of over 250,000 baseball cards. The previous owner ran a trading/selling hobby on ebay, sportslot, card shows and i am sure other venues.

His health had been declining for awhile and the organization of the collection had suffered not to mention the strange habits that we all develope in our own organizational structures along with moving the collection... to say that the collection is now in disarray is an understatement.

I wont say that i am new to collecting or selling trading cards as i was mildly successful doing it from around 2005-2012(mostly football) but life got complex and i recived a nice offer for my collection so i moved on.

Needless to say being given this collection and browzing through it has gotten the dopamine levels way up again and i am hoping to restart my colllection and selling trading again.

My problem is the sheer volume of cards and odds and ends that i dont know where to start.

He had a about a third of the stars and semi stars priced and sorted by name. I have moslty kept this the way it is in my explorations.

When i made it to more or less current players i have found myself lost as i have not payed much attention to players outside the reds for years.

How would you go about organizing this collection for trading, selling and collecting because my head feels like its going to explode at times.


Thanks for the time.

[kerryandbeth]

Not knowing what you have in general, I would suggest that you not waste time listing base between 1987-1992 or Bowman base cards after 2012 because there are tons of these out there.

Inserts or parallels are worth letting others know they exist as they are much easier to trade.

Finally, for newer cards it would help to read some of older posts on the forums as there is a lot of discussion about young prospects and rookies that others want to collect.

Good luck.

[somedudescards]

Not knowing what you have in general, I would suggest that you not waste time listing base between 1987-1992 or Bowman base cards after 2012 because there are tons of these out there.

Inserts or parallels are worth letting others know they exist as they are much easier to trade.

Finally, for newer cards it would help to read some of older posts on the forums as there is a lot of discussion about young prospects and rookies that others want to collect.

Good luck.

Will definitely scour the forums and pricing guides to see whats been happening the last few years.

About 10% are 69 and older about 30% are 2000 and newer.

The majority are 70s 80s with a decent amout of 90s. Very few of the 80s and 90s are not star cards carew ryan ripken thomas or second tier players. most of what i would consider non star cards are rookies of players that never made it or never quite achieve stardom.

So not worried about not being able to move them I found away in the past and will do so again.

I was just hoping someone would offer some insight on sorting and organizing a large amount of cards with out overwhelming and burning myself out.

I was elated and floating on endorphins for the first few weeks but now the grind is wearying.

Thanks for the thoughts.

[kerryandbeth]

Elbow grease...not just for cleaning. LOL

[DrMitchJ]

There are so many approaches ... my opinion, I'd first start sorting by company, then by product. Those are the largest and second largest overall categories. Once you have them by product line, then separate each of those by year. That would be my overall approach to tackling such a large amount of cards.

[bonds20001]

I think I would start sorting by years, then product and then review what is there..older cards are going to be more $$ generally..pre 1981 anyway..

I'll bet there is something worthwhile there

Good luck

[sparty78]

I would sort them into years first then sets. . I aquired a large collection last October and I'm still listing the inserts and parallels first. It is quicker to list all the cards of a certain subset rather than going by players name. Once you list the subsets and parallels then start the regular cards , listing short prints first then stars. As stated here before you can forget 1987 through 1994 except a few of the more expensive sets. In those years you can sell in lots of certain players or say a team lot of 50 or 100. In those lots be careful of your shipping. The prior to 1980 cards should be good to sell or trade as long as you are honest about their condition. Good luck and have fun don't make it work!

[chevy man 22]

Would you be interested in selling the lot and let someone else do the labor ?

Would also be helpful to post some pics so we can get a general idea of what you have and condition.

[waynetalger]

I would get 3" binders and put them in by years so if your trading you know exactly where to go look for the cards

If your looking to collect Reds for yourself and that is all your going to collect and I would do the same thing with binders and or top loaders for game used, autographs and scarce cards 50 or lower

[hempick]

Sounds like a dream. I'd love to have the problem of sorting through that many cards lol.