The first step was to separate the sports so I could see what I had. I was surprised how many baseball cards I had but also pleasantly surprised to see how many football cards I had lying around which was a nice bonus.

One lesson I learned was that baseball, basketball and football are really the only sports that have any value. Hockey cards have some value if you have old rookies from the 60's and 70's. I decided to purge my hockey cards and got rid of them for less than what I thought the value was but it saved me a lot of time of not having to sort through them and I was happy to get $1000 for them. I hadn't even looked at them in ten years.

I bought a Beckett Card Monthly and logged onto Beckett.com and these were my guides to finding out a range of how much each card was worth. The magazine was a little limited as to who they priced but the website had everyone who had a card for every year. It is still quite time consuming.

I am still trying to decide if this is and inventory task or I may have a money making venture on my hands. I know some of my cards could bring me quite a few bucks but sentimental value is playing a huge factor right now.

The cards are going in three ring binders which I have (borrowed) from my office and and I bought a box of top loading sleeves which carries 100 pages. So that is 900 cards stored away or 1800 if I use front and back. I am only using the front so I can read the card number a little easier on the back of the card. This is saving me some time as well.

I have chosen to keep my rookies separate from the common players. They have more value and there is just something about a players first year. then they are organized by year. Right now I have them randomly in binders and my next task will be to rearrange them chronologically.

One day I hope my son will enjoy these as much as I have enjoyed them so hopefully for him, I don't sell them to make some quick cash.