How to Store Baseball Cards: The Complete Guide for Collectors

Baseball cards have come back in a big way over the course of the last few years. People are buying up baseball cards in droves and collecting them like never before.

If you're interested in putting together a baseball card collection, you're going to need to learn how to store baseball cards from the start. If you don't get into the habit of organizing baseball cards in the right way, it could lead to some of them getting ruined and not being worth much at all in the future.

Would you like to find out how to store baseball cards effectively? We've put together a list of tips that will help keep your baseball card collection safe at all times.

Check out our guide on storing baseball cards below.

Start by Finding the Right Place to Put Your Baseball Card Collection

Before you begin trying to figure out how to store baseball cards, you should decide where you're going to store them. If you put them in the wrong place, you're going to come to regret it later on.

Your first instinct might be to throw your baseball cards into your attic, basement, or garage. These are, after all, probably the places where you have the most storage space in your home.

But these are also the places where your baseball cards might end up being exposed to water, extreme temperatures, pests, and other things that may do them harm. It's why you should try to shy away from putting your baseball card collection into any of these places if you can.

Ideally, you'll want to find a place for your baseball cards where it's nice and dry and where they won't be in any danger at any point. It'll prevent your collection from getting ruined if your roof leaks or your basement floods.

Invest in the Supplies You'll Need to Protect Your Baseball Cards

Once you know where you're going to store your baseball card collection, the next thing you'll need to do is begin investing in all the supplies you'll need to protect the baseball cards that you buy.

First and foremost, you should pick up boxes for baseball cards that you can use to store the majority of your collection. But you shouldn't stop there.

Outside of getting your hands on boxes that are specifically designed to hold baseball cards, you should also purchase different kinds of protective cases for your cards. Some good examples of the types of cases you should buy will include:

• Penny sleeves
• Toploaders
• Card savers
• Screw down cases

You might also want to think about obtaining baseball card binders that you can use to show off some of the cards in your collection. The more of these kinds of supplies that you have, the easier it'll be to keep your baseball card collection safe.

Come Up With a System for Organizing Baseball Cards

When you first start a baseball card collection, you won't have too much trouble finding specific cards in it. But as your collection grows, it's going to become more and more difficult for you to keep it in good order.

For this reason, you should begin organizing baseball cards from the start so that you don't have to worry about scrambling to find cards later. You're more than welcome to use whichever organizational system you would like best. But no matter which one you choose, it should make it easy for you to sift through your collection without struggling to find cards.

You should try to keep baseball cards from different years in different boxes. You should also clearly label all your boxes for baseball cards so that you know which cards are located in which boxes in your storage area.

Be Extra Careful With Baseball Cards When Opening Them

Part of the fun of collecting baseball cards is tearing open packs of them and seeing what's inside. You'll be so excited to find out which cards you're able to get your hands on over time.

But you shouldn't let your excitement stop you from being careful as you open packs of baseball cards. The last thing you want to do is damage any cards that could potentially be worth some money down the line.

You don't necessarily need to open packs of baseball cards with white gloves on or anything. But you should wash your hands prior to opening up packs of baseball cards and do your best to keep your fingerprints off them. Hold baseball cards around the edges and you shouldn't have any problem keeping them in excellent condition.

Decide Which Baseball Cards Will Need More Protection Than Others

As you're opening up packs of baseball cards, you're inevitably going to come across some that will need more protection than others. It's why you'll want to invest in the protective cases that we mentioned earlier.

You should try to get any baseball cards that could possibly be worth some money into a sports card protector as soon as you can. The quicker you do this, the safer they'll be as you move forward.

It's obviously not going to make sense to stick every single baseball card that you own into a protective case. But you should try to provide a little bit of extra protection to any cards that feature MLB superstars on them.

If you open up a pack of baseball cards and find cards featuring any of these players, it's safe to say that you should stick them into cases. You might also want to look into how valuable those cards could be.

Consider Cataloging Your Entire Baseball Card Collection

As we alluded to earlier, it's going to be pretty easy to keep track of your baseball card collection when you're first getting it off the ground. You won't have that many cards to keep tabs on at the beginning.

But once your baseball card collection starts to grow, it's going to get to be more and more difficult to find cards from it when you want to track them down. Because of this, you might want to start to catalog your collection from the start to make it easier to hunt down cards when you're searching for them.

Once upon a time, cataloging a baseball card collection was a painstaking task that had to be done by hand. But in this day and age, it's much easier to catalog a collection by setting up a spreadsheet on your company or by poking around online for baseball card databases that you can use.

It's going to take some work on your part to get your baseball card catalog moving in the right direction. But after you do, you'll love how easy it will be to see what's in your collection without having to sort through it.

Check Up on Your Baseball Card Collection Every So Often

As long as you catalog your baseball card collection, you shouldn't have to physically go through it all that often. You'll be able to use the spreadsheet that you set up or the database that you found to figure out what you have in your collection.

But you shouldn't let this stop you from checking up on your collection every now and then just to make sure that it's okay. Even if you put your collection in the safest possible spot in your home, there will still be a small chance that something could happen to parts of your collection.

You don't want to neglect your baseball card collection for months or even years on end and then discover that pests set up shop in it and damaged parts or even all of it. This will be absolutely devastating and will make you wish you had taken better care of your baseball cards.

To prevent this from happening, you should sneak a quick peek at your baseball card collection every month or two to make sure everything is in order. You should also rearrange your baseball card collection every few months as you add to it.

Work to Keep Your Baseball Card Collection Safe When Moving It

There might come a time when you'll decide that you want to pack up everything in your home and move to a new house. If you ever do this, keeping your baseball card collection safe should be at the forefront of your mind at all times.

You won't want to pack up your baseball card collection just like you would pack up anything else and move it to your new home. Instead, you'll want to take steps to prevent anything bad from happening to your cards while you're making your move.

Here are some tips on how to successfully move a baseball card collection from one home to another:

• Use plastic totes to pack up most of your boxes for baseball cards rather than using cardboard moving boxes
• Work to keep your baseball card collection organized as you pack it up
• Place any valuable baseball cards that you own into the same moving box so that you can keep them close to you
• Move all your baseball cards yourself instead of relying on a moving company to do it
• Look for a place to store your baseball card collection in your new home and move them right into this spot

Moving a baseball card collection can be very stressful. But by putting these tips to good use, you can get your baseball cards from point A to point B without a problem. Just be sure to put a plan into place that will enable you to store baseball cards in your new home before you arrive.

Enjoy Your Baseball Card Collection in the Years to Come

There are some people who get so hung up on trying to store baseball cards in the best way that they lose sight of why they started collecting them in the first place. They suck all the fun out of collecting baseball cards when they do this.

You do want to work on storing your baseball cards properly so that they stay safe. But you don't want to get so carried away with storing baseball cards that you forget to enjoy the process of putting together a collection.

There is nothing wrong with taking out a box of baseball cards and flipping through them to remember all the cards you have. There is also nothing wrong with allowing others to look through your collection if they show an interest in doing it.

You can share your love for baseball cards with others by letting them look at all the cards you have. You might even inspire them to want to start a baseball card collection of their own, at which point you can provide them with pointers on how to store baseball cards. It'll help keep the art of collecting baseball cards alive and well for many years to come.

Let Us Help You Store Baseball Cards in the Right Way

Would you like to start stocking up on all the items you'll need to store baseball cards safely? We can supply you with everything you'll need when it comes to baseball card storage.

We can also set you up with a wide range of baseball cards so that you can add them to your collection over time. We welcome you to shop around on our website to see all the baseball cards we have in stock. We also have lots of other types of sports cards available.

Contact us today for all your baseball card needs.