How have you gone about upgrading your existing collection

[steve B]

My upgrading has been haphazard at best.

For years I'd buy cards that were not exactly in great shape. Except sometimes I'd get nicer ones. I just wasn't picky, so whatever seemed like a decent deal at the moment was what I bought.

Now I try to get nicer examples, especially of commons. And while I have some checklists/spreadsheets (The spreadsheets are just checklist grids) I don't bring them to shows or flea markets. So I get a few that I already had. I just compare and swap in the nicer ones. Occasionally I can't decide. Perfect centering but with a crease or bad corners - Or the one that has almost no wear but isn't centered. Sometimes I just keep them both.