Collection Organization

[Gerode]

How organized does everyone keep their card collection? Do you keep a massive heap under your bed, or meticulosly sort your cards out?

I have 3 2-row boxes for my unused singles, sorted by Color in alphabetical order, and a small trade binder for unused rares. [READ - Shiny Boy is a perfectionist]

 

[Darsh]

Sigh..I really need to organize my cards better (I'm also a perfectionist) I keep mine sorted by color and sub-sorted by Instant, Sorcery, Enchantement, Creature.

 

[nodnarb24]

I have a shoe box for my unused commons. I have the box that came with anthologies that holds the commons i use. Then I have a Five-Star binder that holds my uncommons. Then I have another binder that holds my rares. All the cards are sorted by color.

 

[Zadok001]

Commons and uncommons in type 2 are seperated by color and sorted into enormous long boxes by set. If they aren't in type 2, they just get piled together in seperate boxes. I keep the REALLY useful non-Type 2 commons and uncommons in a seperate section of the Type 2 long boxes. Wheeee!

Then my rares are seperated into two binders; one small binder contains my 'junk' that I'll trade off very easily, the other is my 'construction' binder that I use for larger trades and constructing decks. My Greater Goods, for example, are permanently attached to the big binder, while my Eastern Paladins are in the small one.

Beyond that, I have my deckbox. At the moment, that contains one deck, Invasion rares I have for trading purposes, and copies of commons and uncommons I need more of (so I can keep track), as well as higher valued Invasion uncommons.

Such fun... I need to be more organized in my 'non-type 2' piles. Finding a Fyndhorn Elf is an excercise in frustration...

 

[Hawaiian mage]

I have all my cards plastered to my wall for decoration...

 

[Hetemti]

The Two Main Boxes:

WTE|OHR
--------------
R|B | G|B
E |L | R|L
D|U | N|K

One box for Creatures, one box for non-creatures.
The Other slot is Arifacts/Gold in one box, Lands in the other.

Then...

...there is The Monolith...

An eighteen drawer case in which I put excess cards, since I limit the two main boxes to 4 copies per card, and only cards that at least have a 1% chance of ever being used.

 

[Apollo]

All my rares that I don't use are in a binder, sorted by color. Everything else that I don't use is sorted by color, and stuffed in boxes under my bed.

 

[Copious Wrath]

Officially, I have a five row box, sorted by color, then alphabetically.

Unofficially, the cards are scattered to the four winds. Makes it hard to find a single card on short notice, but at least there's plenty of room for the whole collection.

 

[Volradon]

I have my comoons by collor, the cool rares are in a binder, box of uncomons, and a trade binder by collor with rares, uncomons, and old comons i dont need

 

[Namielus]

I have a slightly uncanny method for storing card (I'm not kidding at all, ask Zadok if you don't believe).

I have all my cards in piles all over my room, most of them are just random cards, deconstructed decks and so forth. I just remeber what is in them.

And I have a rare binder like everyone else.

Very spooky if you ask Zadok.

 

[Spiderman]

Mine are sorted (technically) by color, subsorted by creature and non-creature.

Rath cycle is still in its display booster box though (still sorted by above method).

Also had Standard and non-Standard when Rath was Standard divided as above.

One trade binder when MirviLite was Standard

 

[ErinPuff]

Six large piles of cards on my table (I've been meaning to put them in boxes.. they're taking up homework space and they tend to fall over), one for each color (including basic lands) and one for artifacts, multicolor, and nonbasic lands (I'm also going to separate artifacts and multicolor.. I used to only have maybe 5 multicolor, but now I have a lot more because of Invasion).. and then I have my binder of cards that don't deserve to take up space in boxes (crappy rares, crappier uncommons, worthless commons)

 

[Mundungu]

I tended not to be very organised with stuff put into boxes more or less by expansion.
I tried different methods and at the beginning had 4 of each cards (if possible) in binders of the respective color (yes even commons).

Then I had to move, leaving most of my collection behind (around destiny), selected only the mostly used commons/ uncommons but all the rares and took them with me (the rest is still waiting there ..)

Then around destiny it was the above mentioned method of boxes by expansion. Then I lost 2 masticores. Swearing that it would never happen again, and having less and less time to play and construct decks (ahh the joys of having a 50 hrs/week job and being married) I took the following initiatives, sorting methods and rules :

1) keep no more of 6 copies of each common / uncommon that will probably NOT see play. Keep plenty of copies of the GOOD commons (e.g. llanowar elves, rancor etc ...)
2) regularily (once ever quarter at least) check the ordonance.

Binders :
I try to complete each set and put them into binders by block. E.g Saga, legacy and destiny together. 1 card of each if possible.
I use those binders when I do deck building.
I have 1 trade binder with crappy and good rares, good uncommons.
And 1 binder for the stuff I DONT WANT TO TRADE unless .. In there you find the dual lands, moxes, etc, with 3 or 4 copies max of each. (no I dont have any 3 copies of the original moxes ... )

Boxes :
The white - carton like boxes are used with 1 for each expansion. They stay clean and tidy as I only remove the cards I will take to put into a deck after looking for them in the respective binders.
I keep 1 box for the "need to be sorted out cards" when I make my quarterly clean up.


Theme boxes :
I have 1 of those small transparent boxes for each color, land and artefact. In there go the cards that usually jump in and out of decks, like wall of blossom, armaggedons, soul warden etc.

When the boxes become full it is time to do some srting out.

"Starter" boxes for sealed play (I think you know what I mean, those packs with 75 cards and lands). In those I do have decks under construction and "themes" like blue control (all my counters and stuff), WW (disenchant) elves (all the elves that make it out of the boxes), slivers etc....

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, Deck boxes.
individual boxes for the archetypes, WW and suicide black.
1 anthology box with the "current" decks.

BTW the trading binder is organised as follow :

first 2 pages : the real good stuff (living death, fork etc...)
Then current type 2
lands/artefact/WUBRG
Then the rest
lands/artefacts/WUBRG.

The best advice is to try to find a method that works for YOU, where you can find the crads that you need quickly, and put them back.

Separate the stuff that u dont want to trade from the stuff you want to trade or in a stupid moment you will trade what you didnt want to trade.

Keep the "precious stuff" in those small plastic boxes or binders.

Enjoy yourselves ...

BTW, honestly, how many cards to you think you have ???

I guess I must have around 8000 .... DDDDUUUUUHHHH
way too many

 

[ErinPuff]

Update:

I finally squeezed all my cards (except the ones in decks, and the Unglued, Portal, and those gold-bordered ones with the stupid backs that suck..) into two of those box things..

One has all the spells, sorted by color
The other has basic lands sorted by type, non-basic lands, artifacts, and multicolored cards

 

[dw51688]

I sort mine by set, color, then rarity, the type. Although it gets messed up whenever I am deck building.

 

[Spiderman]

I know what you mean, dw, when I was building decks I'd pull out all possible cards and then never put back the ones I didn't use... it got VERY messy after a while.

 

[Gerode]

I have a few of those 100-card plastic boxes I put unsorted cards in, from either booster packs or deck building/changing. Whenever I'm very bored I just file my cards back in order. I do it often enough that sorting the cards isn't a daunting task.

 

[Thrash Golem]

i have a binder with all my rares.. and cards before legends.. and foils.. and last-ditch efforts

and a box with all my uncommons

and a shelf full of commons

and a box for decks.

 

[Baskil]

I have a *large* collection... like @30,000 cards. Here's what I have done:

A rares in binders, one Type II, one Extended, one 'Other'.

All uncommons and commons seperated by color, then by set. Put them in boxes (Acid-free 3,000 count plastic boxes) and sort them alpabetically by set.

When a new set comes out, I make a box for that set, and alphabetize and sort the cards.

It's a time consuming process- I've probably spent 100 hours sorting. However, it saves me the trouble of going "I know I have four lackeys..."

 

[Mikeymike]

Box 1 is a 5000, 5 row with the junk commons of each color that sits tucked away under my bed.

Box 2 is a 5000, 5 row. For each colored row a little over half is dedicated to my uncommons while the other half (facing the opposite direction) is my useful commons and potential theme deck commons.

Box 3 is a 2000, 2 row. Row 1 is all my artifacts, Row 2 is split between my Gold cards and non-rare non-basic lands.

I have a box of all basic lands (never loose track of those lands) and a box of junk rares which will never trade away.

I have a trade binder which I'm going to have to replace soon with a larger D-ring.

I also have a binder of my non-tradable Rares and Uncommons (Force of Wills, Parralax Waves, etc.)

It would be much easier to handle if I didn't keep buying these damn Magic cards.