Massive Player Collections

[Julz24]

For anyone here with large collections of baseball cards of the same player:

I collect Ken Griffey Jr and have 2600 different cards. I've been trying to organize them so that I don't purchase any that I already have. Also, it's good to know what doubles I have to use for trade bait.

Here's a few questions...

First - How do you digitally organize your collection? Do you have a photo of the card alongside the card's information?

For me, I have been using Numbers - an Apple spreadsheet. I have all my cards organized by: Photo/Year/Set Name/Description/Number/Serial Number/Quantity/Notes/Grade.

It has been extremely useful to me. I tried to attach a few rows of the spreadsheet to this thread and was unsuccessful. Which is fitting because I'm having problems with it's size. Since around Row 2000 - the file has gotten slower and slower and slower. It is almost unmanageable now. I contacted Apple and they told me the spreadsheet was not meant for what I'm using it for and that I've exceeded expectations already, lol.

Also, it will not export in any format and to any other program, (that I know of yet) with the photos. I've tried Excel and many others. I think I need to get them out of Numbers and into a Database that will accept the photos. But how and to which one?


Second - How do you store/display your player collection?

Right now half of mine are completly raw in 2 800ct boxes. The other half are in toploaders in a giant box. Not very convenient or sexy.

I'd love to put some in pages and binders but the only pages I like are "Super Pro 2000 Gold" and they're hard to find. Not a fan of Ultra Pro, Platinum, MVP or BCW as the cards tend to slide up and thru the top opening.

So any other player collectors out there got any ideas or solutions?

[doug.goodman]

Use excel.

My Topps cards file has 12 worksheets, a couple of them have nearly 30,000 lines of info (one for each card), with as many as 12 columns of info per card I make changes to it in moments.

I have various other files helping me to keep track of various things, and all of them have multiple pages with many thousands of rows.

Sounds like "Numbers" isn't much of a spreadsheet program.

Doug

[Julz24]

No, its actually amazing but it isn't built for large amounts of data. The problem is definitly made worse by the size and amount of images in my file.

So do you have photos in Excel?

I've been researching databases like Filemaker and Bento only because they will accept an import from my Numbers file. I have tried exporting from Numbers to Excel and the text moves over fine. But the photos won't go.

[doug.goodman]

I don't have photos in my files, I keep them separate,

I respectfully disagree that a spreadsheet / data base program can qualify as "amazing" if it's not built for large amounts of data. Seems to me that large amounts of data are the main reason for those programs to exist.

Doug

[Julz24]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

I don't have photos in my files, I keep them separate,

I respectfully disagree that a spreadsheet / data base program can qualify as "amazing" if it's not built for large amounts of data. Seems to me that large amounts of data are the main reason for those programs to exist.

Doug

Ok, so all your photos ate stored separately. That's helpful in that I want to keep both photos and text together.

As far as the Numbers spreadsheet: I can only relay what Apple told me... Spreadsheets are basically for sorting ,organizing and number manipulation. Anytime one is dealing with massive amounts of information, a database is necessary.

Either way, there's no doubt Excel is superior between the two of them.

[Zach Wheat]

I mainly a set collector but also have a side collection of Mantle cards. I don't collect modern Mantle cards so the card management issue isn't too significant. I keep my cards stored graded by year in an ammo box which is water and fire resistant in a secure spot.

I keep digital images of each card on my PC staing year, maker, name, grade, price, description. I use the same format for name each picture for each photo. This makes it easy to sort and find what I am looking for.

I have started but not completed using ACT database to sort and catalogue cards and images. I imagine using Access would have worked the same but am familiar with ACT.

Z Wheat

[bsuttonosu]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

I respectfully disagree that a spreadsheet / data base program can qualify as "amazing" if it's not built for large amounts of data. Seems to me that large amounts of data are the main reason for those programs to exist.
Doug

Agree with Doug, but I think it's the images weighing down your file not the data elements. Spreadsheets aren't made to handle image storage. Also, and I don't know the technical aspects of it, but functionally Apple products are not built the handle spreadsheets the same way. I have both Apple and PC computers and work with spreadsheets alot. The PCs are always faster with them.

I use an Excel spreadsheet for my lists but I don't store images of everything.

[brookdodger55]

I have a massive collection of 1800 Mike Piazza cards , I use excel spread sheet
with. pictures of each card. I used what is called the cell hovering technique.
You place the mouse over the corner of he cell (small ear flap in corner and picture appears, double click it disappears. Using office Xp for many years and have never had a performance problem with excel with a massive amount of pictures.
Mike

[JLange]

With regard to displaying the cards, I am a big fan of using card saver 1s and placing them in 4 pocket sheets (postcard size pockets) the card savers easily slip in with a little room to spare,but don't slip around or turn in the pockets. This is the best of both worlds because you can put roughly 240-250 cards in a binder (single sided) but then easily remove ones you want for some other project, and they are always protected. It beats keeping the in a box.

[brookdodger55]

Never thought of that, great idea thinking about doing that with my 1952-57 Brooklyn dodgers team sets, that solves the problem of the sheets fitting the
52-54's.
Mike

[cwazzy]

My Campanella collection is small compared to the massive collections modern players can have. I only have about 200 different cards in my collection. To keep me organized I created a checklist in Excel using beckett.com as my guide. I printed it off and check the appropriate box as I get a new card. Of course it's MUCH easier with '50s player that only has around 1,500 cards including modern 1/1s. I keep scans of every card in photobucket split out between vintage, modern base/inserts, and game-used cards. For storage I use a Roop style box that I purchased off the internet for about $30. Eventually I will display some of my favorites in a curio cabinet or wall display but haven't gotten that far yet.

[brewing]

Originally Posted by brookdodger55

I have a massive collection of 1800 Mike Piazza cards , I use excel spread sheet
with. pictures of each card. I used what is called the cell hovering technique.
You place the mouse over the corner of he cell (small ear flap in corner and picture appears, double click it disappears. Using office Xp for many years and have never had a performance problem with excel with a massive amount of pictures.
Mike

Never knew this. Absolutely love this method. Thank You

[Julz24]

The cell hovering technique is definitely intriguing. I'm not that savvy with Microsoft Excel yet but I have started the research process. I've also heard about hyperlinking the photos to the spreadsheet as well as inserting images into a comment box, (which may or may not be the same as cell hovering)??

I wonder if cell hovering will decrease the size of the saved file? If it does, that might help increase my speed.

This weekend I'm planning on downloading Griffeys entire card checklist from Beckett. Apparently you have to subscribe to Beckett for at least one month in order to save the checklist as a pdf or download it into Excel. I think for nine bucks it's worth it. He has over 14,000 baseball cards so it might take a minute!

[brookdodger55]

If you would like, I can post a link to the steps to do this,very easy to do in a couple of steps. Post to let me know
You have some of it correct,one of the steps is clicking on the comment icon.
Thanks
Mike

[Julz24]

Originally Posted by brookdodger55

If you would like, I can post a link to the steps to do this,very easy to do in a couple of steps. Post to let me know
You have some of it correct,one of the steps is clicking on the comment icon.
Thanks
Mike

Absolutely!

That will give me somewhere to start for this weekends project.

Thanks.

[dabigyankeeman]

Originally Posted by brookdodger55

Never thought of that, great idea thinking about doing that with my 1952-57 Brooklyn dodgers team sets, that solves the problem of the sheets fitting the
52-54's.
Mike

Whats the problem with sheets for the 52-54's (actually thru 1956)? They make 8-pocket sheets to fit these cards. Am i missing something? Unless do you not want them in the sheets horizontally? That i can understand as i am not crazy about that myself!!

[Julz24]

Quick Update:

I signed up on Beckett for a recurring monthly subscription. I was able to download the entire Griffey collection of cards, over 14,200!!

I copied and pasted the list into Excel for Mac. Now I just need to organize all of the information. It transfered over into one row unfortunately.

[brookdodger55]

Originally Posted by dabigyankeeman

Whats the problem with sheets for the 52-54's (actually thru 1956)? They make 8-pocket sheets to fit these cards. Am i missing something? Unless do you not want them in the sheets horizontally? That i can understand as i am not crazy about that myself!!

No you are not missing something, I didn't want to store/display the cards raw
in the pages, I thought that the card saver idea was new to me along with the postcard pages. Hope this clears it up.
Mike

[dabigyankeeman]

Originally Posted by brookdodger55

No you are not missing something, I didn't want to store/display the cards raw
in the pages, I thought that the card saver idea was new to me along with the postcard pages. Hope this clears it up.
Mike

Gotcha Mike. I can tell you I have been collecting and storing cards raw in the 9 and 8 pocket sheets since 1980 with no problems, but i do understand where you are coming from.

I will say that some of the GU cards do have a tendancy to slip up as you say. I fill my albums tightly with pages then put giant rubber bands around them and the cards dont move when i move the albums. But yeah, when looking at them, they can slip around, mainly in the 8-pocket sheets. The post card sheet idea is excellant.

[cdn_collector]

Originally Posted by Julz24

Quick Update:
I copied and pasted the list into Excel for Mac. Now I just need to organize all of the information. It transfered over into one row unfortunately.

The problem with copy/pasting directly from your browser into the spreadsheet is that the formatting data may also have been copied (this is how it works with Excel on Windows, at least).

Two things two try rather than manually breaking that data into rows:

a.) Copy and paste it into a basic text editor and THEN copy it again and paste it into your program. In the Windows world, I'd use Notepad and then Excel. This will cause any formatting data that may have also been copied to be lost and *should* respect the proper rows/columns.

b.) If (a) above doesn't work, then again use the text editor but this time save the file and import (as opposed to open) it into your program. It *should* allow you to specify the where each column starts and ends, and should recognize each individual row.

Good luck!

Richard.

[baez578]

Haven't tried it yet..but it might work for you


http://download.cnet.com/Sports-Card...-10435152.html

[Julz24]

Originally Posted by cdn_collector

The problem with copy/pasting directly from your browser into the spreadsheet is that the formatting data may also have been copied (this is how it works with Excel on Windows, at least).

Two things two try rather than manually breaking that data into rows:

a.) Copy and paste it into a basic text editor and THEN copy it again and paste it into your program. In the Windows world, I'd use Notepad and then Excel. This will cause any formatting data that may have also been copied to be lost and *should* respect the proper rows/columns.

b.) If (a) above doesn't work, then again use the text editor but this time save the file and import (as opposed to open) it into your program. It *should* allow you to specify the where each column starts and ends, and should recognize each individual row.

Good luck!

Richard.

Thanks for the info!! I read about your method somewhere else too but I had already began with copy/paste.

Luckily I found a thread on another site (blasphemy acknowledged) which carefully details how to clean up the worksheet by using functions such as search and replace!! Still have a little work to do but I'm getting closer.

[vintage954]

Wow, I'm a Griffey collected as well but I only have around 900 different cards. Nice collection

[jrbeasley]

I just use zistle. No tech headaches.

[timzcardz]

My Ripken collection is somehwere north of 3,000 cards, maybe close to 4,000now.

I use an excel spreadsheet, however haven't updated it in a few years and need to find time this winter to update and maybe redo.

I keep the vast majority fo the cards in 9 pocket sheets in binders.

I also need to add the other Ripken collectibles to my spreadsheet. These include everything from food products to figurines to various autographed items.

[olrac44]

My friend has about 12,000+ Derek Jeter cards. He is fairly organized as all of his graded cards are organized by year in individual boxes, and all of his raw cards are in large 5000 Ct boxes (without the dividers). Each box is a specific product (i.e. Topps, Fleer, etc) top loaded and rubber banded by year.

Last year he purchased a high end Jeter card for $600 on ebay only to find out he already had the card. So I downloaded a Jeter Checklist from Beckett and together we cataloged them into Excel. He was a newbie to excel but he got the hang of it as I worked with him on it.

Then he was able to easily see if he had the card. It has also helped him see where he has heavy duplication and sold/traded the duplication to acquire cards he didn't have.

[bnorth]

I have around 7-8000 Wade Boggs cards with close to 1200 different. Very few are from 2000-present. I quit collecting in 2000 because I had enough of the crazy amount of inserts, parallels, serial #ed cards, and sets. I stayed in the hobby by flipping error cards. It was more for fun than profit. A few months ago I started collecting again but have not added many new cards to the Boggs collection.

[Julz24]

Update: I decided to stay with Numbers after all. It's just so familiar and easy to use for me I couldn't make the change. I ended up using a suggestion given to me thru pm by frankbmd, (thank you Frank). I created 5 separate sheets of data with the following titles:

- Main (1756 cards)
- Autographs & Game-Used (215 cards)
- Samples, Promos, Plates, Errors (52 cards)
- Oddballs (846 cards)
- Large Sets - ie. Moments and Milestones (435 cards)

Total: 3304 Different

By separating out the data into different sheets, the scrolling speed and search speed have dramatically increased. I also added a one cell table at the top and bottom of each sheet. That way when the software does start to lag, and won't let me scroll quickly, I can click on the "Bottom" table and it will take me directly to the bottom of the page.

After the first of the year, I plan on decreasing the amount of new pickups while I figure out how I want to sort and organize the actual cards.

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Originally Posted by Julz24

For anyone here with large collections of baseball cards of the same player:



I collect Ken Griffey Jr and have 2600 different cards. I've been trying to organize them so that I don't purchase any that I already have. Also, it's good to know what doubles I have to use for trade bait.



Here's a few questions...



First - How do you digitally organize your collection? Do you have a photo of the card alongside the card's information?



For me, I have been using Numbers - an Apple spreadsheet. I have all my cards organized by: Photo/Year/Set Name/Description/Number/Serial Number/Quantity/Notes/Grade.



It has been extremely useful to me. I tried to attach a few rows of the spreadsheet to this thread and was unsuccessful. Which is fitting because I'm having problems with it's size. Since around Row 2000 - the file has gotten slower and slower and slower. It is almost unmanageable now. I contacted Apple and they told me the spreadsheet was not meant for what I'm using it for and that I've exceeded expectations already, lol.



Also, it will not export in any format and to any other program, (that I know of yet) with the photos. I've tried Excel and many others. I think I need to get them out of Numbers and into a Database that will accept the photos. But how and to which one?





Second - How do you store/display your player collection?



Right now half of mine are completly raw in 2 800ct boxes. The other half are in toploaders in a giant box. Not very convenient or sexy.



I'd love to put some in pages and binders but the only pages I like are "Super Pro 2000 Gold" and they're hard to find. Not a fan of Ultra Pro, Platinum, MVP or BCW as the cards tend to slide up and thru the top opening.



So any other player collectors out there got any ideas or solutions?

I'll try to post what I have for Mayer, I just use a simple spread sheet that I'll screen shot


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