I used to buy collections of cards from the 1960s and 1970s and they were almost always organized by team with rubber bands around each team. I don't think I ever bought a collection where the cards were organized by number.
I think the #1 cards are beat up because they were in the first series and first series cards were played with all summer whereas the higher series are usually less beat up because they were bought at the end of the season.
I have bought some complete sets of cigarette cards from England (usually 50-card sets) and often they put the #1 card behind the #2 card and have the set wrapped in a paper strip. Those small sets are always saved in numerical order and the #1 cards do get more wear in that type of set.
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