When it comes to toploaders, having them simply stacked up somewhere may become hard to manage, and keep track of where everything is. Typically when stored you are not able to easily flip through and see all your cards quickly like you would with card pages.
That is why having a system set up to have a consistent way to have your toploaders organized is essential to know what cards you have and be able to find a specific card without having to sift through all your toploaders.
Let’s look at some ideas on how to organize your toploaders, along with some essential tools and accessories to have on hand to make your organizing setup easy and simple.
Choose A Single Method Of Organization
There are countless ways to organize toploaders and the cards that are inside. Though your collection may not have just toploaders, having a common method of organization for your collection will make it much easier to keep track of and find certain cards. This is true both in collecting, knowing what you have and what you want or need to finish a piece of your collection, or if selling cards being able to easily find sold cards.
Some examples of organization methods are to sort your toploaders by card type, be it the sport or game involved with the card, and if a set collector may be by set or card manufacture.
To get more nuanced with the sorting, possibly having different features such as all autographs grouped, serial cards, short prints and rookies all divided on their own.
Sorting by the individual teams if dealing with sports cards is another way to do so.
There are countless other ways, and these methods can be combined to be even more direct, such as sorting your autographs together, and then from that subset sorting by team.
Choose a Storage Solution and Accessories
Just like the method by which you organize the cards themselves, there is no point if you are not able to store the toploaders in that way.
A common and cost-effective way to store your toploaders in any way possible is to use storage boxes specifically designed to hold toploaders.
These boxes will be sized to the dimensions of a toploader, making it as easy as quickly putting together the box commonly made of corrugated cardboard, and placing the toploaders inside.
From that point, the two most important accessories to have on hand are labels of some kind to be able to mark the boxes for which cards are inside to make it easier to know exactly what’s in the box without having to go through everyone, and some type of divider to separate each toploader by your organization method.
This is not necessary, for instance, if you are combing autographs in a box with no further breakdowns then the dividers are not necessary, but to save space and the number of boxes needed, dividers will come in handy either when combining two separate types of cards, or if you are wanting to break down a subset of cards, for instance, autographs in a box, then breaking it down by team.
These dividers can be made with simple paper and pen, sticky notes, or specially made plastic dividers made to fit perfectly in the toploader storage boxes.
Technology Solution to Help Organize and Track Your Toploaders
Depending on how accurate and detailed you would like to be in tracking and organizing your collection and the toploaders within, you may want to consider using some type of technology.
This could be as simple as a handwritten log kept in a notebook, to a spreadsheet that holds specific card data, all the way to sophisticated options such as a card database that enables price tracking, collection tracking, and valuations.
With technology the options and levels are endless.
Not only do these options provide an all-in-one place to see what toploaders you have in your collection, but help in the planning of the direction you would like to take in building a collection to help avoid duplicates and setting up the pathway to acquiring your most desired cards.
Perform Regular Upkeep of Your Organized Toploaders
As your number of toploaders grows in your collection, be sure to reassess your organization set up to ensure that your system is most optimal for the current state of your toploaded card collection.
This would include both the actual organization method, for instance, if starting with separating by features such as autographs may become difficult over time with more and more autographs being acquired, where to make the system make sense you need to add parameters such as keeping rookie autos, numbered autos, etc. to help keep track of everything better.
Technology options should also be regularly considered, either to begin using them or upgrading them or even looking at new and improved options that may become available in the future to match the current needs.
Final Thoughts
The most important thing when starting to organize your toploaders is to set up your plan.
Having what you would like to have in mind in terms of the method of organization and the storage solution is crucial to having success in the final product.
Remember that this does not have to be the final version of your organization process and that it can adjust both in the direction you want to take your collection, along with what toploader cards you may have in the future.
Organizing your toploaders, and using the available tools both in accessories and technology can help increase efficiency in the amount of space taken up by your stored cards and help in knowing the exact cards you currently have.