Sorting Sports Cards Trick! Faster and Easier!

Sorting sports cards is a necessary evil when you are a sports card collector. It’s like how taking out the trash is a necessary evil after you have a bunch of friends over to watch a big game! It’s like how you have to take a shower after eating 25 buffalo wings! Necessary tasks you don’t enjoy as much as the initial event!

(While we say this is for sorting sports cards, it will also work for any other type of numbered cards, including TCG and other non-sports.)

I’m going to show you a trick for sorting sports cards that I learned 30 years ago – and I can’t even remember how I learned it, who showed me, or anything else about it! I just know, it’s this mathematical wizardry that happens, allowing me to sort my cards without having to put them in a specific numerical order by hand.

I posted a YouTube video of this two years ago, and it became one of my all-time most popular videos, with now about 6,000 views.

There are dozens of comments on that video from people who remarked how this sorting sports cards trick blew their minds with this sorting sports cards trick! Enjoy!

The Old Way of Sorting Sports Cards

Most people, when they’re sorting sports cards, they will first separate all the cards into the hundreds, like a stack for all the cards that start under 100, then the ones that are in the 100s, then another stack for the 200s, and so forth.

Then you would take each pile of hundreds, and separate them into 10 piles of 10s, starting from the single digit cards, to the 10s, to the 20s, and so forth.

Finally, you’d pick up each pile of 10s, and sort them numerically by their last digit. It’s this last step that is the most precarious with your cards’ corners. Many of us pick up these small piles and just sort them in our hand, since there are usually like 8-10 cards, and we just shuffle through them, putting 1 in front of 2, and 2 in front of 3, then we have a 9, so we put it toward the end, then we find a 5, so we put it behind 3, until we find a 4, then we put an 8 in front of the 9, and then a 7, and then another 8, which we put next to the other 8, and so on!

The reason this old way of sorting sports cards is not ideal is because there are just too many opportunities to damage the corners of your cards, just so you can get them in order. First, you touch/sort them many times, until finally, that last round is too tricky to not accidentally catch a corner and damage it.

You can use this method of card sorting if you recently picked up a box of 2025 Topps Series 1 cards! (Here’s our top-15 rookie cards to grab out of that series!)

The New Way of Sorting Sports Cards

This is a numbers trick, not a card trick.

DISCLAIMER: YOU WILL NOT BE ASKED TO DO ANY MATH!

You’ll see as we go, but basically, you’re going to sort through your stack of cards three times, and math will somehow make it right, and all your cards will somehow be sorted, with very little effort from you!

Try it out with 100 cards, just so you understand the steps, and see how it works.

STEP 1: Get Card Numbers on the Back in Same Corner

This sounds stupid, but card manufacturers can be stupid. First, go through your cards and get all the card numbers in the same corner. As you know, some subsets and horizontal/landscape cards have the corner in a different spot from the vertical/portrait cards, so try to get them as close as possible (it might be impossible.)

STEP 2: Sort Cards By LAST Number (the 1s)

This is directly opposite of the way you used to sort your cards. Normally, you’d sort them by the 100s digit, then the 10s, then the ones. In this exercise, you will sort them by the ones first, then the 10s, then the 100s.

Set them on your table/mat with the zeros on the bottom left, then 1, 2, 3, 4 to the right. Then on the row above it, will be the cards ending in 5, then 6, 7, 8, and finally, 9. (It’s important to do them in this order. It might be good to write those numbers on pieces of paper, so you always see them.

Sort all your cards from this particular set out by the ones. Then make your piles neat, so they aren’t touching piles next to them.

BONUS TIP: A smart move would be to make some index cards with the numbers on them, and a written-out number sticking out the very top, so when you put cards down, you can still see that number.

Sorting sports cards is much easier if you use card sorting trays, like the ones I like from Amazon. This is a two pack (15-slots in each tray). That makes them perfect for sorting baseball cards and basketball cards by teams, since there are 30 teams or fewer in both of those leagues. If you don’t want to use card-sorting trays, you should use a breaking mat, at least, just to keep the cards clean and from sliding around on a table.

STEP 3: Pick Cards Up, Stacking 9s on Top of 8s, on Top of 7s, on Top of 6s, etc.

This is another VERY important step. You must pick the piles of cards up in this order. If you pick them up in the other order, with 0s first, on top of 1s, etc., the whole thing won’t work.

This is also the most difficult thing to remember when trying to replicate this sorting sports cards trick,

Once all card stacks are picked up, proceed with the next step.

BONUS TIP: Along with your index cards you created with the numbers, you should add an index card to show the order of the numbers, and the order that you pick them up on this first round (you’ll change the order for the next round).

STEP 4: Sort Cards By MIDDLE Number (the 10s)

This step is a little tricky, only in that your eyes will trick you once in a while on which number is the middle number.

Again, once all the cards are sorted, adjust the piles so they aren’t touching each other.

STEP 5: Pick Cards Up, Stacking 0s on Top of 1s, on Top of 2s, on Top of 3s, etc.

This time, when you pick up the cards, you will start with Pile 0, and stack it on top of Pile 1, then Pile 2, then Pile 3, and so on.

BONUS TIP: Make another index card that shows the order for picking up the stacks in Round 2.

STEP 6: Sort Cards By FIRST Number (the 100s)

If you are sorting Topps flagship series (350-card checklist), you’ll likely only have four stacks — the 0s (or no first number), 100s, 200s and 300s.

Again, once all the cards are sorted, adjust the piles so they aren’t touching each other.

STEP 7: Pick Cards Up, Stacking 300s on Top of 200s, on Top of 100s, on Top of 0s.

This should be self-evident, but now, you’ll just pick up the stacks so that the 0s (cards without a third number are on the bottom, with the 100s on top of them, the 200s on top of them, and the 300s on the very top.

STEP 8: Confirm Your Cards are in Order!

That’s it!

(If they’re not in order, then you most likely picked up the piles in the wrong direction during at least one of the steps.)

Please let us know in the comments what you think of this sorting sports cards trick! We hope you enjoy it and share it with others! Feel free to share any sorting suggestions you have, also!