Those that know me may know that I spent much of 2017 deconstructing what was a pretty large type collection. Not entirely sure how it all started but by the ‘end’, I had 2-3,000 type cards in my typecard collection. It was heavily weighted to tobacco and candy/gum issues because those were always my favorites and because I also collected many of those cards as complete sets. As cards came into the sets and either got upgraded or large lots were bought, I would pull the card and put it in a semi-rigid and then label them with the American Card Catalog (ACC) classification with white DYMO tape labels at the top of the semi-rigid like this:
Boy….I spent a lot of money on those white DYMO label cartridges…..finally bought some on ebay in bulk. For mainstream sets, like the ones above, just the ACC was sufficient. For sets that were uncataloged, I did something like the card on the left below. And for sets that had variations….like back variations….I did something like the card on the right.
Some sets were represented by a single example while others had many examples. It was all a function of what was upgraded, what lots were bought and what was needed in my sets. As a result, the type collection grew to a pretty large size. I was up to nearly three full three row larger white card boxes.
I had cards from the ACC classifications of 19th century tobacco (N), 20th century tobacco(T), Early candy and gum (E), later candy and gum (R), Canadian Tobacco (C), Canadian Candy and Gum (V), US Tobacco Silks (S), US Tobacco Leathers (L), US Tobacco Blankets (B), Coffee (K), Baking soda (J), and many many more. It got a little difficult to keep up with them all. They were organized within each ACC classification within the boxes.
Things that were oversized went into 4×6 top loaders, 5×7 toploaders, 8×10 toploaders or other types of containers. The same DYMO tape labels accompanied and identified those cards too.