A Super Joe in the mail and one method to my madness.

Last week I received an envelope in the mail from someone I didn't know, had never made a trade with and never purchased anything from, yet I was expecting it ! Sound confusing ? It's not, really. My two terrific sons are always thinking of me. Andy knew I was looking for the base version "Nickname Greats" Super Joe card. I already had the autographed version.There were plenty of them on ebay but not the base card. He happened to see it online, bought it and had the sender mail it directly to me ! Thank you Andy for putting me one card closer to completing my Joe Charboneau card collection.

Now that the important part is done, on to my madness.

I sure someone out there is very organized and has every card in it's place and knows exactly where it is located. Actually, I try to be, but it just doesn't always work. However, I do have a method in place for my new Tribe cards. Whenever I get any new Indian cards, whether by trade, flea market, card show or out of packs , they all go here :

My "Indians to sort" box. The cards shown in the front of the box right now are the 300+ cards I received in a trade with First Day Issue .

Toward the back of the box I have divider cards labeled with years from 1983 to 2009. It starts with 1983 because I rarely get many cards older than that,but when I do I try to put them in my albums immediately. The next step is to sort the cards,which leaves the box looking like this :


The cards are now sorted by year and placed behind the corresponding divider card.

The very first red divider is marked "misc.". Behind that goes minor league cards, retro cards and player cards I collect that have their own albums. That would be Jim Thome (Cleveland cards only!), Super Joe and Steve Olin. I also collect Jim Abbott (any team) but his cards are kept in another box for sorting. So, the cards are now all sorted by year and it's time to check to see if I need them and if I do they go to their happy new home here :


The Indian album shelves. Actually there are two more that don't fit on the shelf. You may notice that the ID strips on the binders don't match. There are different colors, type and layout.The entire collection needs to be reorganized with more pages added and probably more binders as some are really stuffed! That's part of my winter project. I will decide which label I like best at that time and make them all match. The cards are all sorted by year ,brand and player. I grab the first binder, and the new cards that go in it, and work my way through inserting cards I need in the proper places and also looking for possible upgrades. The dupes go back into the front of the box until I'm finished. Then it looks like this :

The duplicates all in front and the dividers in the back waiting for the next batch of goodies. Then the duplicates are transferred to a larger 5000 ct. box.Unfortunately, those are not all sorted !

Now I get to start on the 1200 card trade !