By color? By set? By set, then color? In boxes? In binders?
Have about 50'000 mtg cards and is going to sort them. Was thinking about one of each in binder from Arabian Nights - Newest set. Then the rest in the same order (set - color) in boxes. With premium cards in binders. How do you sort your cards=
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I have two binders. One for my $3 and up cards that I take to FNMs with me. I have my old binder that has all $2-3 cards in it that I don't lug around, and then I keep a separate pile of unsorted bulk rares.
The way I sort commons/uncommons is to first organize them by set. Then I put them all in those huge boxes with the columns that you would typically put cards in. I sort all cards by numbers, if the set has a numbering scheme (alphabetically and by color). I think this started with Exodus. Since I started playing in Revised, I have all the sets before, so what I do is a purely alphabetical sort on all sets before Exodus. This keeps my cards VERY nicely sorted and I can jump immediately to whatever card I need for a deck or whatever. The only problem is, this takes a long time to sort, and I mean a long time, and the motivation isn't always there, especially since with every new set I buy two boxes. Usually I will have a huge stack of cards on the desk, and then one night get sick of seeing them there and spend a couple hours filtering them into the boxes.
Good luck.
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Oh, and also by 'playable.' I take out all of the cards I would want to put in decks, and the rares. I take all the other cards and 'try' to keep them in order by set an color (incase I want to find a card I did not think I would want, happens)
I take all of the rares, and take the ones out I would want to keep and put them with the playable commons and uncommons, put the 'extra' rares in a 'crap' and 'good' binder.
Then I take the playable cards and sort them by color and by formate.
Each set gets a page...ordered chronologically
Sep by color: wubrg + artifacts + multi + lands
Sep by creature/non-creature
Order each page (roughly) by casting cost low -> high
Sometime around Kamigawa it got to the point where I had to separate pre/post-8th cards into separate sets of binders.
So, that's 4 binders per color (pre/post-8th creatures/spells), 2 for artifacts (pre/post-8th), one BIG 5" one for nonbasics & multi.
A lot of work to set up initially, sure, but now I know exactly where everything is. And now when a new set comes out, it takes about 20 minutes to put them all away.
I use one of those cardboard 5000 count storage boxes for all the cards that I play with regularly, or that I want to be able to get easily. Within that box cards are sorted by set and then by collector number, which amounts to sorting by color and then alphabetizing. I call it my "awesome box". All my staples are in there.
I also keep a binder for each block. In the binders I keep four of every card (or however many I have if it's less than four), again sorted by collector number. A 4" binder comes pretty close to holding an entire block.
I used to keep all of my rares in a couple big binders and everything else in boxes, but I got tired of digging through separate places to find cards. I also got tired of digging past garbage like Skullmane Baku and Zephyr Spirit to find my good commons and uncommons in those boxes, although I did want to keep a playset of them just as a collectible.
So my big box is for storage and my binders are more of an archive. That system works pretty well for me. If you have a large number of cards, just mixing them all together and sorting by color would make it impossible to ever find anything.
I keep my cards in boxes, first sorted by rarity. Money cards are put in sleeves. Next I sort by color WUBRG, multi, artifact, land. Then by set in alphabetical order. I used to separate the colors by creatures, enchantments, instants, and sorceries and then by set, but I found that made it more complicated than it needed to be, especially once I sold a lot of my cards to a kid that was just getting into magic and whittled my collection down considerably.
I have a friend who once tried to separate creatures by creature type, but problems came for creatures with multiple types and oracle updates. Another friend had a complicated way of sorting that involved "putting cards that seem to go together in piles and maybe will make a deck out of it."
I sort by Set and then collectors number, taking the rares out for a binder.
Since I sort by number they are in color and then alphabetical order, but timeshifted cards are their separate colors (since that's the order sets are in)
I'm resorting my 25k collection right now, mostly to integrate some small collections and get recent sets into the boxes, as well as fixing up some of the issues brought up from my roommate and I constantly grabbing and moving cards around.
Pretty much, I'm going pre-Mirage as one clump, then blocks through Masques, then sets. Each section is sorted by color, then rarity (after Stronghold, I don't know rarities well in old sets). I've found that's enough so that cards are accessible within a minute in most cases. It's also too much work to sort alphabetically from my experiences; my collection was at one point, but the upkeep time was just not worth it.
I separate my commons and uncommons by format legality, then colour (T2 n everything else)
I separate my rares by value, if a card is hot and sort of sought after they go in my smaller binder which I carry around when I go into the shop
Cheaper rare stay home unless someone specifically asked for something.
I have every set in a binder. 1 binder per block... trying to have a playset of every playable card, but at least have 1 of each card...
commons i have more then 4x i have in a box ready to give away, uncommons that i have more then 4x are sorted by color -> set -> alphabet ready to trade away to people who need some of them...
Everything is sorted is sorted by set, then collector's number. If the set had no collector's number, everything is sorted alphabetically by colour and all the bulk rares and bulk foils are pulled out into separate boxes.
Currently, I am in the process of trying to catalog every card I own in Excel checklists so I can keep track of everything.
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color, then cost, then rarity. binders, I only store the actually competitive ones, the rest go to boxes and then are sold either in bulk or they go to trade binders
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Sort by Set, then by Color. Within the colors I sort each by rarity (so all the Rares are in front, then uncommon, then common) and alphabetized.
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I sort my cards by rarity and set. I keep all commons in a large 3200 card boxes sorted by colour and by set. I penny sleeve each uncommon and keep them in fat pack boxes that I have and sort them by set, colour and alpha, I use the fatpack dividers to separate sets. The rares I either place in my trade binder right away or I sleeve them and place them in my Staples box. (like Mega_D's awesome box). Foils I keep in another small trade binder. I also keep all my mana, tokens and rules cards in another fat pack box too.
I will place really good uncommons and commons sleeved in the Staples box too. My rule is only to keep a playset of each card in the Staples box. I have an overflow Staples box too, that I take with me for trading purposes too. Jankey rares I keep in a pile/deckbox as people are always playing Black Jack with jankey rares as the ante at my card store.
Oh yes and I have "deck ideas box" so if I come across cards I'm thinking to place in a deck I'm making up, I sleeve them and keep the in a fat pack box.
This seems like a lot of work, but I sort them right from the pack after I buy a box or come back from a draft so it really doesn't take long at all.
I just started this whole system with PC. I still have 9th and TS to do too. I have bunch of pre-urza's block cards from back in the day I haven't decided what to do with yet.
First by card condition, then by color. The cards that are all grungy go in one box, the cards that I've had for a while, but that I'm the first owner go in another box, then all the newest cards I have go into separate color boxes (one for all newest red, newest white).
i have my stuff sorted by set/collector # in binders - each standard set gets its own binder, blocks pre-standard get two binders (one for the main set, one for the small sets). but that's just the stuff "in circulation" - i have a ton of boxes of bulk commons and uncommons that, one day, i will go through, if only to figure out how i will get rid of them all.
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First rule of sorting: Don't make your system specific enough that you won't follow it.
For me that means rares are by color in one box (binder for the good rares/exeptional uncommons), commons/uncommons have a box per color sorted by mana cost (foils/foreign cards at the forefront). Considering how often I break stuff out to build/tweak decks, anything more detailed would just degenerate.
3 5,000-card boxes for jank, stacks of good commons/uncommons on my deck, and binders for the rares. Things do occasionally get messy, but not too difficult to clean up every once in awhile.
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Lurking since Guildpact. Procrastinating for...
Current Decks
Expensive trades are completely separate, and will be in a binder if I ever get one. After that my cards are sorted this way.
Rares/Non-rare -> Color -> CMC -> # of symbols in mana cost -> Name
Color has separations for all the 2 color combinations, artifacts, and lands, but 3+ color multicolor cards are all put together. I also remove the cards I could never see myself playing in any deck and throw them in a pile that I never really sort. That pile is good for building decks to give away and teach people with, but not much else. My system makes it really easy to find any card you can think of quickly and it doesn't even take that long to sort them.
I've considered sorting based on playability, set, and format legality after rarity too, but it just seemed not worth the hassel.
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Have about 50'000 mtg cards and is going to sort them. Was thinking about one of each in binder from Arabian Nights - Newest set. Then the rest in the same order (set - color) in boxes. With premium cards in binders. How do you sort your cards=
:symw:Death and Taxes:symw:
Elder Dragon Highlander:
:5mana:Karn, Silver Golem:5mana:
Multiplayer:
:symw::symr:W/R random goodness:symr::symw:
Or by color and formate. T1+legacy, extended and T2. Which ever the most resent formate its legal in.
The way I sort commons/uncommons is to first organize them by set. Then I put them all in those huge boxes with the columns that you would typically put cards in. I sort all cards by numbers, if the set has a numbering scheme (alphabetically and by color). I think this started with Exodus. Since I started playing in Revised, I have all the sets before, so what I do is a purely alphabetical sort on all sets before Exodus. This keeps my cards VERY nicely sorted and I can jump immediately to whatever card I need for a deck or whatever. The only problem is, this takes a long time to sort, and I mean a long time, and the motivation isn't always there, especially since with every new set I buy two boxes. Usually I will have a huge stack of cards on the desk, and then one night get sick of seeing them there and spend a couple hours filtering them into the boxes.
Good luck.
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I take all of the rares, and take the ones out I would want to keep and put them with the playable commons and uncommons, put the 'extra' rares in a 'crap' and 'good' binder.
Then I take the playable cards and sort them by color and by formate.
Each set gets a page...ordered chronologically
Sep by color: wubrg + artifacts + multi + lands
Sep by creature/non-creature
Order each page (roughly) by casting cost low -> high
Sometime around Kamigawa it got to the point where I had to separate pre/post-8th cards into separate sets of binders.
So, that's 4 binders per color (pre/post-8th creatures/spells), 2 for artifacts (pre/post-8th), one BIG 5" one for nonbasics & multi.
A lot of work to set up initially, sure, but now I know exactly where everything is. And now when a new set comes out, it takes about 20 minutes to put them all away.
I have a lot of cards.
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I also keep a binder for each block. In the binders I keep four of every card (or however many I have if it's less than four), again sorted by collector number. A 4" binder comes pretty close to holding an entire block.
I used to keep all of my rares in a couple big binders and everything else in boxes, but I got tired of digging through separate places to find cards. I also got tired of digging past garbage like Skullmane Baku and Zephyr Spirit to find my good commons and uncommons in those boxes, although I did want to keep a playset of them just as a collectible.
So my big box is for storage and my binders are more of an archive. That system works pretty well for me. If you have a large number of cards, just mixing them all together and sorting by color would make it impossible to ever find anything.
I have a friend who once tried to separate creatures by creature type, but problems came for creatures with multiple types and oracle updates. Another friend had a complicated way of sorting that involved "putting cards that seem to go together in piles and maybe will make a deck out of it."
My Sale Thread // My Trade Thread
Collecting: Homonculus Tokens (they're so cute!) and Murderous Redcap
Since I sort by number they are in color and then alphabetical order, but timeshifted cards are their separate colors (since that's the order sets are in)
Pretty much, I'm going pre-Mirage as one clump, then blocks through Masques, then sets. Each section is sorted by color, then rarity (after Stronghold, I don't know rarities well in old sets). I've found that's enough so that cards are accessible within a minute in most cases. It's also too much work to sort alphabetically from my experiences; my collection was at one point, but the upkeep time was just not worth it.
静
:symw:Death and Taxes:symw:
Elder Dragon Highlander:
:5mana:Karn, Silver Golem:5mana:
Multiplayer:
:symw::symr:W/R random goodness:symr::symw:
I separate my rares by value, if a card is hot and sort of sought after they go in my smaller binder which I carry around when I go into the shop
Cheaper rare stay home unless someone specifically asked for something.
commons i have more then 4x i have in a box ready to give away, uncommons that i have more then 4x are sorted by color -> set -> alphabet ready to trade away to people who need some of them...
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Legacy:
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Shardless BUG (retired)
UW Stoneblade (retired)
Maveric (retired)
Thopters (retired)
Dark Horizons (retired)
Dreadstill (retired)
Armageddon Staxx (retired)
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Currently, I am in the process of trying to catalog every card I own in Excel checklists so I can keep track of everything.
Thanks to a_passer_bye for an incredible signature banner!
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I will place really good uncommons and commons sleeved in the Staples box too. My rule is only to keep a playset of each card in the Staples box. I have an overflow Staples box too, that I take with me for trading purposes too. Jankey rares I keep in a pile/deckbox as people are always playing Black Jack with jankey rares as the ante at my card store.
Oh yes and I have "deck ideas box" so if I come across cards I'm thinking to place in a deck I'm making up, I sleeve them and keep the in a fat pack box.
This seems like a lot of work, but I sort them right from the pack after I buy a box or come back from a draft so it really doesn't take long at all.
I just started this whole system with PC. I still have 9th and TS to do too. I have bunch of pre-urza's block cards from back in the day I haven't decided what to do with yet.
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And if I've offended you, I'm sorry, but maybe you need to be offended. But here's my apology and one more thing...
For me that means rares are by color in one box (binder for the good rares/exeptional uncommons), commons/uncommons have a box per color sorted by mana cost (foils/foreign cards at the forefront). Considering how often I break stuff out to build/tweak decks, anything more detailed would just degenerate.
1 Binder per set and within the binder per number.
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Rares/Non-rare -> Color -> CMC -> # of symbols in mana cost -> Name
Color has separations for all the 2 color combinations, artifacts, and lands, but 3+ color multicolor cards are all put together. I also remove the cards I could never see myself playing in any deck and throw them in a pile that I never really sort. That pile is good for building decks to give away and teach people with, but not much else. My system makes it really easy to find any card you can think of quickly and it doesn't even take that long to sort them.
I've considered sorting based on playability, set, and format legality after rarity too, but it just seemed not worth the hassel.