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Yesterday, I tackled the basic notion of when might be an ideal time to post your blog entries. Today, I want to switch gears a bit and talk about another equally important aspect of blogging (especially card blogging) - organization.
From what I have gathered from reading other people's blogs over the years, there are basically three types of organizers out there.
There's the super organized person - this is the guy/girl with all his/her cards organized in labeled boxes and/or binders. This person can find a 1990 Topps base card Jim Abbott just as easily as he or she can find a 2008 Upper Deck Star Quest Super Rare insert of Justin Morneau. This is the type of organizational aptitude that most of us strive for, yet few actually reach.
The second (and seemingly most common type) of organized person is the person with some sense of card order, but still way too many cards all over any and any and all drop leaf tables throughout the house...or maybe at least throughout the basement... For me, I'm definitely in this group - as I type this post, I'm staring at a small pile of cards that I need to send to Night Owl, a stack of Allen & Ginter cards from a trade that fell through, and a stack of Ginter cards for another trade that I need to package and get into the mail tomorrow morning. However, as you can see from the side bar on my blog, the majority of my cards are organized - most of my recent set duplicates are fully typed and listed for trade - and most of my older cards are separated by teams in different boxes in order to make trading easier. ALL of my cards that I'm keeping are safely tucked away in binders...except for the (many) small blaster boxes full of cards that still need to go into binders thanks to recent trades.
The last type of organized person is the person who actually isn't organized at all. This is the person who has a box full of cards and could just as easily have a Hank Aaron rookie card sitting in there as twenty-seven copies of a 1987 Topps Bip Roberts. The unorganized blogger is usually the one who is most likely to do "team dumps" on people - and that usually occurs when the unorganized person decides to make drastic moves in order to shift up one spot on the organizational ladder.
Now, what does all of that have to do with a successful blog? Well, in my view, my blog has been (moderately) successful almost entirely thanks to my trading ethic and organization. I have plenty of cards available, I keep my wants/haves up-to-date, and for the most part, I'm fairly quick at sending out packages (though occassionally I get bogged down with my "real" job).
My question for you: Do you consider yourself to be organized? If so, what do you do to maintain the organization as trades pour in and packs get busted? If you aren't organized, why not? Finally, is there another classification of "organized" that I didn't address?
One last note: You may have noticed my one link in this post to another page on CSN stores - they have contacted me once again to host a product review so I was able to "cleverly" disguise the link to their store within a post I already had written and ready to go. It's amusing that I've had Google's Ad Sense on my blog since its inception and have now officially "earned" $15.54 but CSN likes my blog enough to reward me with the chance to review (and keep) a product of my choosing from their family of websites for free - and that product will (probably) have a much higher value than the lousy $15 and change that Google says I'm worth. With that, a true thank you to CSN...and unless someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong with AdSense, it might be time to say adios to Google!
From what I have gathered from reading other people's blogs over the years, there are basically three types of organizers out there.
There's the super organized person - this is the guy/girl with all his/her cards organized in labeled boxes and/or binders. This person can find a 1990 Topps base card Jim Abbott just as easily as he or she can find a 2008 Upper Deck Star Quest Super Rare insert of Justin Morneau. This is the type of organizational aptitude that most of us strive for, yet few actually reach.
The second (and seemingly most common type) of organized person is the person with some sense of card order, but still way too many cards all over any and any and all drop leaf tables throughout the house...or maybe at least throughout the basement... For me, I'm definitely in this group - as I type this post, I'm staring at a small pile of cards that I need to send to Night Owl, a stack of Allen & Ginter cards from a trade that fell through, and a stack of Ginter cards for another trade that I need to package and get into the mail tomorrow morning. However, as you can see from the side bar on my blog, the majority of my cards are organized - most of my recent set duplicates are fully typed and listed for trade - and most of my older cards are separated by teams in different boxes in order to make trading easier. ALL of my cards that I'm keeping are safely tucked away in binders...except for the (many) small blaster boxes full of cards that still need to go into binders thanks to recent trades.
The last type of organized person is the person who actually isn't organized at all. This is the person who has a box full of cards and could just as easily have a Hank Aaron rookie card sitting in there as twenty-seven copies of a 1987 Topps Bip Roberts. The unorganized blogger is usually the one who is most likely to do "team dumps" on people - and that usually occurs when the unorganized person decides to make drastic moves in order to shift up one spot on the organizational ladder.
Now, what does all of that have to do with a successful blog? Well, in my view, my blog has been (moderately) successful almost entirely thanks to my trading ethic and organization. I have plenty of cards available, I keep my wants/haves up-to-date, and for the most part, I'm fairly quick at sending out packages (though occassionally I get bogged down with my "real" job).
My question for you: Do you consider yourself to be organized? If so, what do you do to maintain the organization as trades pour in and packs get busted? If you aren't organized, why not? Finally, is there another classification of "organized" that I didn't address?
One last note: You may have noticed my one link in this post to another page on CSN stores - they have contacted me once again to host a product review so I was able to "cleverly" disguise the link to their store within a post I already had written and ready to go. It's amusing that I've had Google's Ad Sense on my blog since its inception and have now officially "earned" $15.54 but CSN likes my blog enough to reward me with the chance to review (and keep) a product of my choosing from their family of websites for free - and that product will (probably) have a much higher value than the lousy $15 and change that Google says I'm worth. With that, a true thank you to CSN...and unless someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong with AdSense, it might be time to say adios to Google!
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Comments
I'd probably fit into the first group. I hate clutter and disorganization. It's probably sickening to some at how neat I keep my collection but I hate not being able to find stuff I know I have.
ReplyDeleteAll my base cards go into 3200 ct boxes organized by year, brand, and set. Inserts and parallels go into another 3200 ct box separated by teams. Superstars and HOFers get their own 1600 ct box. All of my complete sets are neatly labeled in their own 800 ct boxes. I have about 80 or 90 complete sets so it would take up an enormous amount of space to binder-ize them all! My Orioles collection is in its own 3200 count box and my Cal Ripken Collection sits in two 3 inch binders.
I wander back and forth between 1 and 2. Very ordered stuff...but only just posted all the stuff I have for people.
ReplyDeleteI still put baseball cards in the spokes of my bicycle, so where does that leave me?
ReplyDeleteI'm with Ryan; I've got to know where everything is and I want to be able to get to it quickly. I've blogged about the Wrigley Wax World Headquarters here and here.
ReplyDeleteLike SpastikMooss, I vacillate between groups 1 and 2. My pre-1980 collection is in binders, and those binders are labeled and even have extras spaces in the sheet to place the cards I still need. I keep a wantlist on my computer, so once I add anything...I update the HTML file and upload it to my server so my online wantlist is as current as possible.
ReplyDeleteMy post-1980 collection, on the other hand, is sitting in boxes. I really need to go and label those, and separate the dupes from the rest, but it's a project that's demanded procrastination from me for a while now...
Definitely in the 1st category. I like my cards (and most of my belongings) to be in order so I don't have to waste time looking for them. Although I don't have a blog, I like reading them and going through wantlists and finding cards that I can offer up, even if its just a couple, like in our small trade from the summer).
ReplyDeleteI'm striving to be in the first group with my team (Rangers) collection. I'm in group 2 right now...with everything.
ReplyDeleteI think I would still be in the second category but am going to strive to be in the first. Thanks for the link. This has really helped out a lot.
ReplyDelete