My cardhoarding misadventures - the struggle to keep collecting viable

Nothing is ever clean like the way I go about things but it doesn't mean I'm not trying to figure things out - however, at times I feel like I'm swamped with baseball cards and a reboot is in order to stave away the idea all I've collected isn't relevant.

If I'm not efficient, if I'm not putting things away, then why even bother [?] - maybe there hasn't been any commitment to what happens after the fact.

From reading other card bloggers, it's hard to believe that baseball / sports / non-sports cards can fit so neatly within their daily lives - I have no card room, no card table and no space to really leisurely stretch out with my cards.

Maybe my safe haven is being able to be upstairs in my sister's old room - but then having gone through this past summer, there are prolonged periods of time when I just don't want to be in there because it is too hot.

I find myself struggling with the collecting dilemma - how do I keep things relevant, where I care about the cards for themselves, when I get overwhelmed and feel like I've outgrown them.

If I can see things five or six years from now, I'm sure I'll still be collecting something - so I kind of want to have a blueprint of my collecting activities i.e. this is what I'm doing with the cards I add on a regular basis.

I'm afraid I'm the guy with no focus on his collection - if I'm sort of, kind of collecting, how do I stay away from being aimless?

Not really having the card space to deal with anything but squirreling them away in random spots - where I hope to get back to them [or not].

A.) What I really want is a 'competent' A-Z singles collection - I want to build up a collection of trade bait perhaps, but just cards I can flip through as far as relevant players and possibly some relevant, but not quite my PC stash of cards.

B.) I also want is a comprehensive 'PC' where I have any cards picturing Angels / related to Angels accounted for - anything picturing an Angel at some point is part of my PC, though with varying qualifications.

Angels commons are cards I generally don't care about though I want to keep some handy. - most cards produced between the junk wax era, say 1986-1992 and featuring a rank-and-file player, is stored as commons within my A-Z archive.

I have a section of Angels among my 'team boxes,' which is basically an assorted group of cards put together with the idea I have something to flip through - this is where I sort of want to keep any card that piques my eye but isn't really worth more than about a quarter.

Cards of Angels team stars are stored either in my decade star boxes or within my A-Z archive for space - some players I sort of still care about, but others, not so much.

Angels inserts - I think I'll tend to lose them if I put them in a book, but if it doesn't feature a prominent Angel or even one who made it with the MLB team, what am I going to do with some card?

Angels A-Z singles - what maybe more decent than a common insert, but something less than something for my PC/showcase collection.

Angels personal collection - I feel like I don't have enough unique Angels cards for a Top 30 PC deal, so maybe change the name to 'showcase collection,' so it maybe a little be more inclusive.

C.) Realistic and reasonable consumption - can I go to a Target and pick up a blaster or a rack pack of sorts and feel like I'm not wasting my money? Sometimes I get self-conscious when I feel like I'm not really going to get the nice hits and it's not worth it for me to rip retail in any form.

It's easier for me to grab some packs at my local card shop, when I see there is something new out - though at times my LCS visits maybe infrequent.

I was totally disinterested visiting a card show this past weekend- maybe it was because it was in the morning and I'm not a morning person, but I was meandering around, wondering if I could pick anything up.

If I could go watch myself without a purpose and a plan - almost feeling out of my element.

Maybe I prefer the quiet LCS or at least picking things up online - the only things I picked up were six single packs of penny sleeves [non-premium] for $0.50 each.

When I hit the bargain bins at the card show, card shop, et al, how do I find cheap cards I'm going to appreciate - what do I really do when I bring home a 'haul' of assorted cards worth about $0.50 or less? What do I do to prevent decent looking cheap cards from being just another grouping of cards, particularly the ones I end up not picking up because I can get them autographed in-person at some point.

D.) How do I hammer on the established activities and shine them up [?] - collecting topics, mini sets i.e. transaction box, maintaining decade boxes of 'binder stars,' etc.