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.

Rebooting my core interests in cardboard

Thinking about the baseball cards I collect, my interest lingers but my lair is in ruins, my collection is in decay - life isn't linear, years go by, stuff happens or doesn't happen and and it's just a matter of when things get blown up, when I thought I had a system in place for five or six years.

Maybe cardboard is useless anyway but I feel like stuff I've coveted at various points are literally collecting dust, loose in places where I don't want to deal with them - have I gone too far in literally not doing anything with cards I once collected?

While the part of my collecting life as in-person / through the mail autograph collector has been pretty much spelled out - I'm kind of 'lost' at times as far as other aspects of collecting baseball cards for themselves.

I feel like I've got to reboot my collection in a radical way because I've sort of lost the way I organize my cards - the way I physically put them together isn't quite how I want things to be and it bothers me.

I keep in mind lists list of all the countless, various places [representing various interests] where I funnel cards into - but that is mostly sorting cards to be autographed and separating them in a nuts-and-bolts way as opposed to having a definite way to collect certain cards [that are not really meant to be scrap cards to be autographed or shoved away as part of my collecting topics collections].

I don't know where cards I've blogged about end up - I hoard and look for stuff that ends up being clutter.

What about the personal collection cards - is there a core set of cards I can showcase or is it all just jumbled up?

What about the various cards in my 'A-Z' singles collection that are now scattered all over - various certified autograph cards of prospects who are supposed to be great but end up being busts?

I cling to the idea I've got to play with all the cards I've hoarded instead of looking for the next cardboard fix - this is my cardboard collecting life and I make my own fun and try not to worry about anything else, everyone else is doing.

However, as much as I wouldn't care to admit it, I'm more hoarder than collector and its come to a head - I have gotten older and as much as I want to collect, maybe it's time I stop pretending to be a mad scientist.