The Sorting Process

Not sure if I've done this before, but today I wanted to give anyone who cares a quick peek into my sorting process.

Figured I'd use the care package that Rod (over at Padrographs) sent me two months ago as the example.  Here's what the box looked like after removing the goodies seen in this post:

He included two 300ct. boxes filled with cards for my collection...

Step one, sort the two boxes into different collections and sub-collections:

With the exception of the Heath Bell relic... the top row are stacks of A's cards with one being dedicated to the 2023 Topps base card set.  The second row has a stack of SI for Kids cards and several Padres stacks.  Two of the tallest stacks are purely Tony Gwynn cards.  And the bottom row has some Japanese baseball players and more Padres cards sorted by team sets.

Next...  I slowly put away all of the A's cards into binders and boxes.  If you're wondering if I sort them as well... I sorta do.  I have a dedicated 5,000ct. box that is organized by players that have made a name for themselves.  I'm still in the process of getting specific players (outside of Rickey Henderson, Kurt Suzuki, and the Bash Brothers) into binders.  Hopefully I'll get around to that in the next year or so.

There were a handful of Japanese players that were sorted by player (not pictured), then either put into my binders or into my duplicates box.  The SI for Kids cards were scanned for a future post and put into a special box where I keep singles (organized by sport).  And there was a starter set of 2006 Opening Day Sports Illustrated for Kids.  Rod sent me 17 of the 25 cards.  Now I'm debating on whether or not I track down the final 8 and complete the set... or break it up and add them to player collections.

The remaining stacks were partial Padres team sets, Fernando Tatis Jr. cards, and of course several hundred Tony Gwynns.  I slid the team set builds and all of the other base cards , parallels, and inserts into a box dedicated to Padres.  When I go through Reader X and John's care packages... I'll see if they sent me any singles for these team sets... then the rest I'll track down on Sportlots.

As for the Gwynns... 

They're sorted by year.  Unfortunately my eye sight isn't what it used to be, so I end up using the magnifying glass (pictured on the left) to help me read dates (mostly on mid 90's through current sets I'm not super familiar with).

The final step is to go year by year through the stacks and my binders to see which cards I need.  This round, there were fourteen Gwynns added to the collection:

I'm not really surprised by these.  Nine of them are fairly new cards from the past few years.  Four more were inserts or parallels from the 90's or early 2000's.  The only card I was a little surprised by is the 2001 Fleer Genuine base card.  Then again... I took a break from the hobby right around that time.

These fourteen cards weren't the only new additions to the Gwynn PC that Rod sent me.  Way back in October of 2022, he sent me a bunch of other Gwynns.  Eventually I sorted and scanned them in December, but never got around to sharing them on the blog.

Until now.  It took me seven months... but here they are...

That's forty-seven Gwynns I added to the binders.  When you add them to the other fourteen... that's sixty-one new Gwynn cards and that's not including the coin, pin, VHS tape, and bobble head he also included in the care package.  Click here if you missed the post where I showed them off.

Thank you Rod for helping me build up my Gwynn PC!  Plus there were hundreds of duplicates that weren't even mentioned in this post... including an insane 50 copies of his 1990 Leaf card.

Figured this was the perfect time to pay it forward and help some of you build your Gwynn collections.  I'll post details in a future post (in the next week or so), so stay tuned.  Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!