Scenario -

On one sheet, I have a user inputting data (in my case, exhibits).
The user is not in control of naming conventions.
It is strictly a record of verbal statements by clients.
duplicates are not abnormal.

Each client has different preferences and sometimes they can be illogical.
They may use alpha or they may use numeric or they may use a combination of both.
(i.e. they may simply list them as 1, 2, 3, etc.....or a, b, c, etc....BUT....at some point, they may go 1a, 1b, 1c, and then go to 2. Or they may go a1, a2, a3....before they go on to b).

I take these responses and bring them to a hidden page via VBA where the time of occurrence is logged.
Then, I list them out in a single column (on the same page).
I then use an array formula to extract unique values (remove the duplicates and ignore blanks).

From here, I want to sort the results (for further - future user input).
I had been using an array formula 
=IFERROR(SMALL($P$418:$P$517,ROWS($P$418:P418)),"")
This worked fine for numeric but it is ignores alpha.
Suggestions would be appreciated.