Storage and Sorting

[JediCheese]

So, I've always been interested in various card sorting and storage methods. I'm including links for those who need pictures and/or a place to buy them.

Obviously, the easiest and cheapest method is a bunch of 5000 card boxes. A single storage box will hold about 2.5 Cases worth of commons. A very good deal for cheap storage!

On the other hand, the downside is that the storage box is hideous to try to find cards in. Additionally, it only has 5 rows, there are 5 colors in magic + artifacts + lands + gold. So, getting the most out of them is a pain in the ass when trying to sort cards into it.



The next option is the 800 card box. I have found this is ideal for uncommons. You get a ton of uncommons, but can easily sort them by color. It's sometimes a pain to find the card you want but if you keep each block in a different box and sort by color, it's relatively easy to find what you want.



The problem is that any EDH player ends up with a ton of odds and ends. Where do you put your funky random stuff that gets acquired and is used in EDH (various utility creatures, all the strange uncommon/common lands, ect)? I think the best solution is a Card Storage House. Yes, it's expensive but you can easily buy one and then store two blocks worth of odds and ends in a separate 800 card box. If you collection is small, you could even use it to store your uncommon collection.



My final two suggestions aren't even really storage of cards, but storage of packs and sorting equipment.

On the storage of packs, there is but one solution: Six Slot Acrylic Card Dispenser. Obviously, when you want to not just crack packs but instead want to save them to draft later, this is the way to go. A simple, yet elegant way to flaunt your collection of packs. ;D I have no clue where to buy them online, I talked to Ben at Misty and Jim at Netherworld.



With the sorting equipment, the only realistic solution I've found thus far is The Card Tray™ Card Sorting System. It's useful if you want to easily sort your collection yet don't want to just have it in random piles on the table (say if you need to do a ton of sorting and will need to stop intermittently). Plus for people with lives, it's easy to temporarily move your sorting project to another location if you need use of the table on which the sorting is taking place.

[John Galli]

Chris this is actually really interesting, nice thread dude.

Originally I used the 5000 card boxes, but I found them difficult to deal with as you mentioned, so ultimately I just kept a bunch of 800 card boxes which were easier to move around or take with me if needed.

It would be really cool to have one of those Arcylic Dispensers for packs, sure makes drafting easy and ready-to-go.

There was a good article on collections and sorting, that's semi-related you might want to check out-

magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10194

[Travis Lannoye]

Damn, Chris, did you take a job with this BCW company or something? So many shameless plugs!

I actually tackled this problem recently with all of the bulk crap that I hang onto (for no apparent reason).
- I realized that I needed an easy way to be able to find any random common/uncommon card from any set, whether it be for Standard, EDH, Modern, or whatever.
- The first thing that was important was the color or colors of the card. When someone says "I need this card", the first thing I think about is what color it is. So, I made a separate box for each color (mine were all the 5-row boxes, but your results may vary).
- Next, I would want to know what kind of card it is (creature, enchantment, instant, sorcery, etc). So, I separated them all out by card type and put a couple of penny sleeves in between each pile as dividers.
- Finally, I sorted them all alphabetically by name.

Things I didn't do:
- Sort by edition. At first, I tried doing it this way, but then I realized that cards like Rampant Growth and Lightning Bolt and Mana Leak are printed in multiple different sets, and trying to track down a full playset from three different versions is silly. When you cast a Lightning Bolt in a tournament, it doesn't really matter if it's a Beta or a textless foil from Player Rewards or if it's a white-border version.
- Sort different multi-colored cards by their color combination. Gold cards are gold cards, whether they have hybrid mana symbols like Oona, or multiple color symbols like Wrexial, or both like Slave of Bolas.
- Sort by commonality. Believe it or not, some cards (like Loxodon Warhammer) actually change rarity depending on what set they are printed in. If I'm looking for a certain card, it doesn't matter whether that card is common or rare. What matters is the name, the color, and the type of spell it is.

A few other small notes on how I sort things:
- I don't really have a system in place for rares or foils yet. Right now, they are pretty well UNsorted.
- Non-basic lands get their own separate box. I almost never trade or get rid of my lands, since they are eternally worthwhile to own. If I did sort them, it would probably just be alphabetically, since there are no land types or colors to sort by.
- Super expensive staple lands like fetches, duals, shocks, Wastelands, and anything else over $20 would likely get a hard sleeve or two.
- Basic lands just go in a box and get sorted by color. At some point I may get bored and sort by edition or picture or something mundane like that, but for now it's just color.

A few other notes on the different products:
- The 5000 count boxes work very well for me, but I could understand how they might be hard to sort through. The best way to avoid this is to setup them up correctly from the beginning. If you just toss a bunch of random unsorted cards in there, you can't reasonably expect to go back and find what you need very quickly.
- That card tray thing is pretty sweet. I actually spilled a beer on a small pile of cards that I had set aside for a trade this week, and if I had one of those tray things, I might have avoided that. I could also see that being useful for sorting things alphabetically.

[abeckett]

I primarily use the 2-row boxes for most sorting now. They hold more than the 800-ct boxes, but don't get as heavy as the 4/5-row boxes that hold a billion cards.

As for sorting, I keep the main collection pretty trim so it's easy to keep it organized. I have sections for each block with cards sorted alphabetically. Again, easy to do because they only cards that go in there are playble ones.

All the bulk is in boxes with cards organized by block/core set. Too many cards to bother with going by A few of those are 3-rows. Sometimes it's a pain to see if I have a copy of an obscure card, but that rarely comes into play.

[John Galli]

Here's what you do:

1.) Go to the grocery store, buy a pinata

2.) Open the bottom, fill it up with bulk commons

3.) Go to a dealer, tell him to buy it for $50 and that there are some solid rares inside.

FELIZ COMPLEANOS

That card tray thing is pretty sweet. I actually spilled a beer on a small pile of cards that I had set aside for a trade this week