sorting sucks

[sliqwill]

im sure you all know, but sorting cards is terrible...

it takes way longer to sort than it does to rip...and after those blasters im sorting by number, i sort by 10's, so 1-9, 10-19...well so far ive done 1-39 in terms of going by 10s, and sorted 1-29 by number....i know the higher the number the quicker it goes, as all the others have been pulled, so sorting out the next batchs of 10's shouldnt be too bad, plus i have several #'s already pulled, so that will speed things up a bit, but when all is said and done, i will have OVER 1 full monster of unsleeved cards...technically its a 5000 count box, but who knows how many it actually holds, 1-15 consumes an entire row, 16-29 has a little room...

once all sorted by number i will make sets again...that and 50 card lots of each athlete, which ive already listed a couple, based on how their autos sell, figuring maybe there will be some base love...hopefully they sell...

keep in mind, ive already made 10 sets from before, and i have a monster and 2 rows of extras...

and im thinking about buying more...shoot me now

 

[sliqwill]

finally finished...did 50 card lots of each athlete, so I have a monster full of 50 sets and just under 2 rows of sorted base of the extras, I think there are at least 4 sets I could make in there, could be more, but aside from the 50 card lots, I did make 10 base sets after the initial 40 blasters...

still haven't ordered another round...I figure tomorrow ill list the bricks until I run out of free listings, I have 10 of what I consider the 'best' already listed, Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner, Hilary Knight, Bode Miller, Noelle Pikus Pace, Lindsey Vonn, Lolo Jones, Amy Purdy, Meryl Davis and someone else...I didn't see anyone offering large single player lots, so maybe the lesser knowns have rabid fans that are waiting for something like this to surface...

maybe ill wait a week and see what is going on, I didn't sell enough over the weekend to justify dumping another couple hundred bucks essentially chasing Gold, Wagner, and Knight autos...

 

[franklinguy52]

I actually still love sorting cards but I rarely have to do it

 

[andy]

I actually still love sorting cards but I rarely have to do it

I agree, can be almost therapeutic at times.

 

[Mike]

I actually still love sorting cards but I rarely have to do it

I agree, can be almost therapeutic at times.

You guys feel free to swing by my house anytime in the days immediately following one of our group breaks. I'd be glad to let either of you sort those cards whenever you want!

 

[andy]

You guys feel free to swing by my house anytime in the days immediately following one of our group breaks. I'd be glad to let either of you sort those cards whenever you want!

What kind of mileage rate are you offering? But seriously....If you really don't like it, guessing there is a local who would do it for cards

 

[Mike]

What kind of mileage rate are you offering? But seriously....If you really don't like it, guessing there is a local who would do it for cards

I don't mind it. It's just a little more than like me sorting cards from mail for my own PC.

Actually, I don't know a single person locally who collects cards so I'm not even sure that'd help. The nearest LCS is 50 miles away and I couldn't tell you the name of any of the people who frequent there either.

 

[sliqwill]

takes about an hour to get to a shop for me, don't know anyone that collects anywhere around me...

it took like 6 hours to sort, that isn't a good time...id rather make ebay listings

 

[captkirk42]

On my blog (search for "organization" label) I have mentioned an idea for an "organizing" service company. The basic concept would be collectors would ship their unorganized collection into the company w/instructions on how they want it organized (by set, or team or whatever) and storage preference boxes or binders. It would not be a grading or slabbing company there are already enough of those and this is not the same type of thing. The company would organize the collection then ship it back. The logistics of shipping collections back and forth (shipping insurance in case of damage both ways would be advisable) would be the biggest problem, and packaging for shipping back once the collection was organized.

Of course the company would need a huge supply of the basic storage materials (penny sleeves, toploaders, binders, binder pages, some kind of labeling) and sorting area. There would probably have to be some sort of minimum requirement of number of cards for sending in, or an extra charge for small sorts like a single set sorted into a binder. A basic menu of completion time estimates would have to be conceived and provided along with the prices including any "rush" orders to cut the time down some. Again based on number of cards, their type, how they will be sorted.

I have no idea how long a typical order would take to complete or how long people would expect. I'd like to say the average goal would be 1 to 2 weeks or a little less, probably 3 weeks total turnaround from collector shipping to collector receiving. Of course time estimate is based heavily on the total number of cards to be organized. A smaller collection/lot or just a single set or two could possibly only take a single days worth of sorting and could be out the door within 12 - 24 hours of receiving it. Provided a sorter/organizer got to it right away. Wait time for being in the service queue? Dependent on number of orders/collections in the queue their size in number of cards, the number of sorters/organizers on staff and probably a bunch of other factors I haven't yet thought about.

To be effective the company would have to have enough employees to be able to sort/organize properly. The initial service would not be a regular maintenance service, but eventually something like that might be available.

A service like that would also require the employees to be knowledgeable about the various brands/sets and have access to reference materials to deal with inserts and such.

An expansion of the service could be custom binders, but that would require more time and graphic design experts and would probably be a different company all together, heck a regular graphics designer company could handle that it is just creating the covers for a binder.

 

[andy]

I would think much more desirable than custom binders would be listing the collection in a database or some other digital format but like this idea. (Btw I am biased against binders )