Growing up a sports fanatics nothing was more exciting then opening up a new pack of cards. Particularly in the pre-internet (or early internet) days it was the best way to learn about players, memorize their statistics and build an encyclopedia level of knowledge. My go to spot was a place called Sluggers in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada (featured in the documentary Jack of All Trades) and in the US it was Field of Dreams. Between my brother and I we amassed quite a collection, but like a lot of kids cards end up fading in to the background and it becomes something your mother wants to get rid of so she can clear out space in her house.

While looking for things to do during the pandemic, my parents shipped my cards down to me in LA. The boxes came and there was a lot! The boxes were heavy and opening them up brought back a lot of memories. I had some of my more “special” cards in top loaders there were a lot in binders and even more loose cards in boxes. So I set out a goal to organize my collection!

I was 1-2 years too old to get wrapped up in the Pokémon whirlwind so I either saved (or cost myself) thousands of dollars. The majority of my cards are Basketball, though there is a little Baseball and Football in the mix. So I set out on my quest!

I’ve tested a bunch of card storage stuff and these are the must haves:

How did I organize the collection?

Ultimately I decided on a hybrid approach of Team and Player. I took items out of existing binders and boxes and went through all my cards and created 3 separate piles:

🏅 Hall of Famers

The icons who defined the game. MVPs, perennial All-Stars, and legendary talents whose legacies speak for themselves.

⭐ Notables

Solid contributors who made their mark. Players who may have earned an All-Star nod, or perhaps became familiar faces as coaches, commentators, or analysts.

🤔 Scrubs

The players you barely remember—those whose careers send you straight to Wikipedia, wondering if they ever really stepped onto the court.

From here the Hall of Famers got all stored together, the notables spanned a few boxes and the scrubs were a plenty and put in the furthest back of the closet (as that would be the final portion). Then came the next phase the actual sorting.

How I Sorted the Cards

🏅 Hall of Famers
Each Hall of Famer got their own dedicated binder pages, organized alphabetically by last name. If a card was especially cool—like a rookie, autograph, or standout design—it went straight into a top loader for extra protection and display.

⭐ Notables
These were the solid players—maybe an All-Star once or just someone memorable. I sorted them by team, gave each team its own binder pages, and later organized all the teams alphabetically in a separate binder.

📦 Scrubs
The players I barely remembered (or had to look up on Wikipedia) went into a big storage box. Still sorted by team, still alphabetized—but definitely not binder-worthy.

📅 Older Cards (Late ’70s / Early ’80s)
All vintage cards from the late ’70s and early ’80s got their own dedicated binders. They felt too classic to get mixed in with the rest.

🇺🇸 USA Basketball Cards
I made a full binder just for Team USA cards—Olympics, Dream Team, FIBA, all of it. It’s one of my favorites.

How long did it take?

A while! It was a fairly long process spread out over the course of several weeks. It wasn’t all consuming, so every night I’d clean up each night and just store the cards in ordering so everything wasn’t lying around all the time and getting in the way. On nights if I was half watching TV (TV is on but I’m on my phone/computer), I’d try to do the cards instead. I felt a lot less drained then I did after spending all those hours on my phone! It was also a fun trip down memory lane, so it had a good nostalgia factor. I still remember getting some of the cards, I also had 1 sheet of Portland Trail Blazers cards that hung up in the office of my grandparents store, so it always brings back great memories.

What did I use to organize the cards?

I still had a lot of sheets and binders from my youth that survived so that was a good start. Though I found that I quickly needed more sheets and a few more binders + a big storage box for the less eventful cards. Here where the items that I liked.

I bought some new top loaders:

Ultra Pro: Easy and affordable. It’s always good just to have some on hand

I bought a lot of different sheets:

DO NOT Buy the Amazon Basic Sheets!!!

They were super flimsy and all the cards fell out like anytime they moved, they’re also super wide which is strange

I ended up with the Ultra Pro Sheets as well as some that came with the IDJWVU binder

I bought 3 Different Binders:

The IDJWVU was a nice binder, I was able to fit all of my older cards in there, it is a good size easy to store. I liked having something waterproof especially for those older cards

The TopDeck binder is huge! It’s really big, but seemingly was the only option that offered 16 cards per sheet and I used this for my hall of fame players (I had 30 players featured in this binder). The sheets are built in and it does look awesome once they are all set and displayed

The Ultra Pro is the old reliable. It’s a good enough size to load with sheets.

For Everything else I bought a storage box:

It was pretty massive, but I filled like 80% of it, so it was worth it.

If you’re looking for a nicer storage box I liked VaultX

I’d love to know how you keep you card collection organized? Also would love to know about any good card shops (either in person or on-line)!