Wow, I thought I was the only person crazy enough to do this!
And...I'll go you one better. Since starting collecting in 1967, I have always arranged my baseball sets by team and the teams by league. Within each league I arrange them by the standings from that year (i.e. in 1975 the Reds went first in the NL West, the Phils first in the NL East, etc.) The special cards (league leaders, World Series, All-Star cards) would go in between the two leagues and the Checklists go at the end.
And on top of that...each team is arranged based on their starting line-up: Team card first, Manager next, then the three starting outfielders followed by the infielders (in order- 1st, 2nd, SS, 3rd), the catcher and the "main" (most successful, best record, or most used) starting pitcher.
Then come the most used fielders followed by the remaining pitchers, starters then relievers and finally the multi-player cards ("Casey Teaches", "Cards Clubbers") and the multi-player rookie cards.
When I first started, I would know the line-ups every year during the season, but as I branched out into older sets this would take a lot more energy; you had to go to the library and find a baseball encyclopedia to get the info.
Now it's all easy using the internet. I've also started printing a standings page with league standings, award-winners and play-off/world series results to go at the beginning of each year's set.
Is this complusive behavior? Collector mania? A big waste of time?
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