I've been playing magic casually for about 10 years and have collected quite few. Not like an entire wall or rooms worth but certainly enough to fill most of a closet shelf. In the past I've been keeping them in fat pack boxes but it's starting to get a bit silly to look through with each colour having 2-4 fat packs and a bunch of cards still just lying around.
It's not pretty but it would work (though I may need two, I'm not sure). I like that I can just pick up the whole "house" and bring it to a buddies if I wanted to.
I was wondering what other options are out there, maybe something that looks more durable than simple cardboard. Maybe something nicer looking?
I have my collection of several tens of thousands of cards in more than a dozen binders, with the card sorted by block and edition, arrayed in chronological order, on a shelf (Cores sets are seperate). I keep a playset of a given card in the binders and another playset (if I have that many copies) of a common in a card board box, if it doesn't have a reprint in another set I own. Though, that means, that I have several playsets of the same card in various binders from reprints (I have like a dozen playsets of Naturalize, for example), it doesn't bloat the collection overly much. I treat uncommons similarly, though full playsets are less frequent, and if I don't have enough copies, I try to put older cards into the newest binder. Same with rares. I have an additional binder for all the cards that I aquired and don't fit the binders (like only a couple cards bought for specific decks from an edition I didn't invest in overly much).
With the old 3-sets-per-block setup, some binders got quite full and hardly fit all the cards. The newer 2-sets-per-block structure was very nice. I'll have to see, how I'll proceed, now that blocks are essentially gone.
If I want to find a card, I usually consult gatherer, so I keep the sorting within the sets in order of the collector's numbers. Mostly. When building a deck, gatherer finds me the cards I want, and I can easily find them in my collection through block, set and color this way. If a playset of a card is already gone, I can easily check my spares. and if those are in use, too, already, well, I either need to buy more or use someting else, or free them from the decks. But two playsets of any given card have been enough for my deck building purposes so far. The rest is trading material of give aways to newbies.
Nice man, it sounds like your collection is very large. Comparatively mine is...medium sized? My collection may be too awkward to organize similarly. There are some blocks I only have a handful of cards for, like a fat packs worth or even just a few singles. Others I bought a box of and split it with a buddy. I think what I need is just a big ass box for each colour, something roughly 3-4x the size of a fat pack.
I have all my rares spread across 2 binders. One rather thick one at this point and the other smaller one I don't care about.
I'm also not sure I want to put in that much effort into sorting em all into sets. Good on you bro, that sounds like a nightmare. I really just want to dump all my black cards together and call it a day. Maaaaybe separate them by common and uncommon or by card type but that's about it
I have all cards from Revised up to now (and a little bit of older sets as well), so my collection is ginormous. I just use one wall with binders organized by block/set. For commons, I use card house boxes, also organized by block/set. Sadly, I think this is the best way to organize when you get this big of a collection.
In the past I would use shoeboxes or those old fancy premium boxes like they release during Visions I think and just separate by color and rarity. After a while it starts to get hard to keep track which cards you have and how many do you have and the problem can get worse if you lend/borrow cards as well. Also, no more moving your collection anywhere for me. An acquaintance uses a couple 5000 storage boxes to move his collection of playable cards.
I've been collecting on and off since 1996 and moved and catalogues about 3000+ cards from binders into a BCW 5000 card Monster Box. I'm working on the last two binders that holds some of my oldest cards.
I am not at all happy with binders since the majority of my white border cards have been ruined from, what I strongly suspect, the vinyl from the binder. I stored them in enclosed cabinets continuously from about 2000 until 2010 or so. The cards stored in long boxes largely escaped damage. I will absolutely not recommend them to any collector ever again.
With that said, the 5000 card monster box, with 3000 cards is buckling under its own weight whenever I pick it up. Once I finish with the binders, I'll move these cards into single row boxes, specifically the 1500 card boxes.
I like the 4000 card Monster boxes, but BCW seems to have made multiple sizes and I can't seem to get them in consistent sizes. I have three such boxes, all different size. Two are full of cards, the last are unopened packs. All three will be replaced once I get around to them for various reasons.
Both the 1500 card boxes and the smaller iteration of the 4000 card box fit into an IKEA cabinet I own which is nice. Blankt or whatever the heck they call it. It's exactly 15" deep and each "cubby" holds 12 long boxes I think.
Whatever paper box you choose, buy them in bulk and all at once.
I'm also not sure I want to put in that much effort into sorting em all into sets. Good on you bro, that sounds like a nightmare.
Well, I anticipated the issue right in the beginning and started ordering the cards in a similar (less refined) fashion right away. So I never had to bring order into the whole collection at once, just the newest cards. I only have a reasonably managable task at hand every few months. Finding reprints in the newest set isn't hard either with gatherer. But it would indeed be a daunting task to tackle if I had to implement a whole new system now.
Strange spamming evil nightmare thingy aside from previous post, I'm actually in the same boat. I've got a wooden collectors chest that has slots for cards that I was using originally to build up a frontier cube, but that quickly fell apart when my time was getting eaten up by work, exercise, and life in general. I went to buying as many boxes as possible to toss cards into as my last ditch effort to keep loose cards from flying around.
Long story short, I think organizing cards has two major facets to it: Keeping things easy to find, and keeping things relevant to what you're playing. Right now once rotation hits we're losing 4 whole sets that compose the power block of an era (Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, and Hour of Devastation). Anyone playing standard and keeping a standard bungalow box is going to have to mothball a lot of that collection come september. Not to mention if the box is just "Standard cards", it could look like mine when BFZ -> EMN rotated, where cards from Kaladesh were mixed up with cards from those past two sets. Heck, I came back when Dragons and Origins were in, so I had stuff mixed up all over the place for a good month and a half.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Pretty much 4x of every card, after all the years of collecting best way I have found is 3” and 4” D ring binders, do not bookend them, lay flat on shelving. I have walls of shelves with binders, stack 2 high max. Organized by block. Extra commons/uncommons go into 5000 count boxes organized by color.
So far this is the best thing I have seen.
https://www.bcwsupplies.com/card-house-with-12-802ct-boxes
It's not pretty but it would work (though I may need two, I'm not sure). I like that I can just pick up the whole "house" and bring it to a buddies if I wanted to.
I was wondering what other options are out there, maybe something that looks more durable than simple cardboard. Maybe something nicer looking?
What do you guys do?
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)
With the old 3-sets-per-block setup, some binders got quite full and hardly fit all the cards. The newer 2-sets-per-block structure was very nice. I'll have to see, how I'll proceed, now that blocks are essentially gone.
If I want to find a card, I usually consult gatherer, so I keep the sorting within the sets in order of the collector's numbers. Mostly. When building a deck, gatherer finds me the cards I want, and I can easily find them in my collection through block, set and color this way. If a playset of a card is already gone, I can easily check my spares. and if those are in use, too, already, well, I either need to buy more or use someting else, or free them from the decks. But two playsets of any given card have been enough for my deck building purposes so far. The rest is trading material of give aways to newbies.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
I have all my rares spread across 2 binders. One rather thick one at this point and the other smaller one I don't care about.
I'm also not sure I want to put in that much effort into sorting em all into sets. Good on you bro, that sounds like a nightmare. I really just want to dump all my black cards together and call it a day. Maaaaybe separate them by common and uncommon or by card type but that's about it
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)
In the past I would use shoeboxes or those old fancy premium boxes like they release during Visions I think and just separate by color and rarity. After a while it starts to get hard to keep track which cards you have and how many do you have and the problem can get worse if you lend/borrow cards as well. Also, no more moving your collection anywhere for me. An acquaintance uses a couple 5000 storage boxes to move his collection of playable cards.
I am not at all happy with binders since the majority of my white border cards have been ruined from, what I strongly suspect, the vinyl from the binder. I stored them in enclosed cabinets continuously from about 2000 until 2010 or so. The cards stored in long boxes largely escaped damage. I will absolutely not recommend them to any collector ever again.
With that said, the 5000 card monster box, with 3000 cards is buckling under its own weight whenever I pick it up. Once I finish with the binders, I'll move these cards into single row boxes, specifically the 1500 card boxes.
I like the 4000 card Monster boxes, but BCW seems to have made multiple sizes and I can't seem to get them in consistent sizes. I have three such boxes, all different size. Two are full of cards, the last are unopened packs. All three will be replaced once I get around to them for various reasons.
Both the 1500 card boxes and the smaller iteration of the 4000 card box fit into an IKEA cabinet I own which is nice. Blankt or whatever the heck they call it. It's exactly 15" deep and each "cubby" holds 12 long boxes I think.
Whatever paper box you choose, buy them in bulk and all at once.
Well, I anticipated the issue right in the beginning and started ordering the cards in a similar (less refined) fashion right away. So I never had to bring order into the whole collection at once, just the newest cards. I only have a reasonably managable task at hand every few months. Finding reprints in the newest set isn't hard either with gatherer. But it would indeed be a daunting task to tackle if I had to implement a whole new system now.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Long story short, I think organizing cards has two major facets to it: Keeping things easy to find, and keeping things relevant to what you're playing. Right now once rotation hits we're losing 4 whole sets that compose the power block of an era (Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, and Hour of Devastation). Anyone playing standard and keeping a standard bungalow box is going to have to mothball a lot of that collection come september. Not to mention if the box is just "Standard cards", it could look like mine when BFZ -> EMN rotated, where cards from Kaladesh were mixed up with cards from those past two sets. Heck, I came back when Dragons and Origins were in, so I had stuff mixed up all over the place for a good month and a half.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!