Collections: What do you collect? How do you organize?
General forum
Posted on July 27, 2015, 6:53 p.m. by ducttapedeckbox
Most Magic collectors have something they fancy. Whether it be foils, a particular artist, or a particular genre of cards, there's something for everyone. I've been trying to collect a somewhat obscure card - Ascended Lawmage
- because I enjoy the foiling. However, as you can imagine, a junk foil uncommon is pretty hard to find. Now that my constructed decks are nearing completion and my "wants" list is disappearing, I've decided to start a collection of a type of card that closely resembles my playstyle: counter magic.
Before I embark on this massive project, I have a few questions that I'd like input on, most of which involve collection of different cards:
- Do you collect anything? If so, what?
- What motivated you to collect this card(s)?
- How many of each card do you collect? Only one of each? Three to fit in a typical binder? Four to have the playset?
- How do you organize this collection? By set? Color and alphabetical order? How hard is it to add new cards to your collection?
- What initial parameters should I set for myself? Only instants? Only blue?
I'd love to hear some stores and/or recommendations!
WovenNebula says... #3
I'm not much of a collector when it comes to particular cards, although I do like certain arts over others.
In a way I collect modern decks, I have probably 20 or so complete decks.
How I organize cards is with the bulk of boxes and boxes it's just sorted by color. On the other hand in the binders its separated by decks, then colors of decks within each deck area in the binder. Everything is spread out in the 9x9 sleeves and no card has cards behind it, maybe to better protect it or ocd who knows lol.
July 27, 2015 7:08 p.m.
I started shortly after RTR. I really liked the art. After I acquired 2 pack foils, I decided I should finish the plsyset. I still had 2-3 normal ones, and everyone else just grabbed them from duel decks and gave them to me.
I currently have 63 of them.
4 pack foil, 2 Chinese, 37 normal and 20 duel deck. I trade for them all the time, and everyone in my LGS knows to look out for them for me. I would love to find more foreign ones, especially Russian. Even better, foil Russian.
July 27, 2015 7:18 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #5
Thanks for the input and stories so far everyone. Well played, GA.
I think I'm going to start with playsets of each standard-legal (Theros-ORI) and then work backwards.
I have yet to set boundaries and decide how to keep track of the collection or organize it. Any advice there?
July 27, 2015 7:22 p.m.
I personally hate bulk, and keep my entire nmagic collection to a holiday box and 2 binders (one for trade, one with my non-deck collection in it). The holiday box holds my decks, amd my binder contains things like my unused fetches, my playsets of staples (Deathrite Shaman, Spell Pierce, etc), and also a few random cards that I'm interested in either building around or are relevant alternatives I can use in EDH.
My advice is collect what is relevant to your budget first, then what is relevant to formats second. I personally would never hold on to a plsyset of Stymied Hopes, as I think it's just bad. But Disdainful Stroke and Stubborn Denial I can get behind, seeing as they are actually playable.
July 27, 2015 7:38 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #7
I'm not really looking at this as a value-collection. I have my playsets of relevant Standard and Modern counter magic, and now I'm looking at trading for bulk-ish things. I know some people that collect certain cards for their art (even if they're a garbage), and I think this is more related to that than collecting for value.
I think it would be neat to have even the crappy counter magic as long as it's not a collection of solely crappy counter magic.
July 27, 2015 7:43 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #8
At the moment, I have about 1100 copies, +/- 25. After the ban, I figured that i'd start collecting them because they'd be super cheap with everyone offloading them, and now I have more copies than pretty much any store or seller online. I keep them in my first trade binder, some terrible school three ring that I picked up at walmart and the ultra pro cheapo binder pages. I've got 2 per slot, 9 slots per page, and who knows how many pages. Only have 4 foils though, which is a bit unfortunate...
But yeah, I still pick them up when I can, but it's becoming a bit more difficult.
July 27, 2015 7:47 p.m.
Do you collect anything? If so, what?
I collect art, music, clothes, jewelry, and books. There isn't one particular card that I collect but I do have a number of EDH decks.
How do you organize this collection? By set? Color and alphabetical order?
I have a binder of rares and a binder that is half uncommons and half commons. I have decks organized into boxes: "fair" decks, multi-player decks, decks that need help, a box of pseudo-edh (duel commander, pdh, tiny leaders), and individual boxes for modern / legacy / vintage.
How hard is it to add new cards to your collection?
Adding cards is extremely easy but tracking small changes over time is cumbersome.
What initial parameters should I set for myself? Only instants? Only blue?
I won't go over a certain dollar amount for individual cards. I just run proxies until they become affordable (or if they are allowed).
July 27, 2015 7:55 p.m.
WovenNebula says... #10
@ThatJunkMage I have 8 copies of Treasure Cruise I can trade you lol. Non foils tho, but I do have a friend who has a foil I may convince him to trade.
July 27, 2015 7:57 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #11
Damn, ThatJunkMage... Did you collect Make a Wish at some point? Or was that another user?
I think I've been a little unclear when I say "collection." By collection, in this thread, I was referring to collecting counter magic. Not my overall collection. That is so organized that it's almost disgusting.
July 27, 2015 8:01 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #12
I value them at 10 cents trade value, so if there's a dollar rare you're looking for, let's see what happens! :P
No, TC is my only real collection. I did collect Doom Blade and have like 150, but that dream was crushed when it was reprinted in M14.
So what you're saying is that you want like, one of each counterspell in the game or whatever? I know someone who does this with Demons, and he just has them in the back of his trade binder. I think he's got one of every demon ever printed, and pays a hefty premium to the first one that can get him whatever new demon is printed in a new set.
July 27, 2015 8:08 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #13
Hmm, someone does collect Make a Wish... I thought....
Exactly. I'll probably start with the Standard legal ones, expand to Modern legal, then anything. Any advice for doing so? :)
EDIT: I might do a playset of each, seeing as 90% of them are crappy commons/uncommons/bulk rares.
July 27, 2015 8:09 p.m. Edited.
I collect Force of Will judge foils...So far I'm at a whopping zero, but I feel the collecting could pick up any day now.
July 27, 2015 8:32 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #16
That's why I'm only doing Standard and then Modern ;)
Let's see if I even get to Legacy.
July 27, 2015 8:43 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #17
After I finished my legacy and modern Jund deck(s), I moved on to collecting stuff for the most brutal and non-budget Nekusar EDH deck, (still a work in progress, I won't stop until I have Timetwister in there.)
The problem I came across was that when I was looking through people's binders, I had nothing I was looking for, and people want shit from mine, so instead of screwing myself out of a good trade, I decided to go exclusively after promos. I collect FNM promos, textless player rewards, judge promos... you name it. If it is a promo, I want at least one copy. If I can get the promo in a foreign language, I will snap them up.
As far as why I collected those cards? I don't know. It started out as me trading for some Terminates for my Jund deck. Nobody had any laying around. Except one guy. He had 3x textless ones. I was all like "whaaaat?" and traded some junk for them. Then I was hooked. I went to the LGS later on with some Extra Liliana OTV's and some extra ABUR duals (mostly Plateaus) and traded them in for a bunch of promo cards. Luckily, they keep a box behind the counter with nothing but promo cards. I snatched a set of every one I could get.
When I place cards in my binder, at first it looks like a hodgepodge of crap with some really kickass shit smashed in between some decent stuff...
HOWEVER, I noticed that after the first three pages of looking through a binder, if people don't see "good shit" within the first three pages, they sort of blindly thumb through the rest. So I have the front however many pages filled with promos of all kinds, then to the "lands" section, then to the "foreign" section, then "Foils". Then after that, its just non foil "peasant" cards, (you know FoW, Intuition, stuff like that.
July 27, 2015 8:56 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #18
"Peasant cards"
I want to be a part of the group that considers FoW a peasant card.
July 27, 2015 9:08 p.m.
Izanagi_Deus says... #19
At one point I had over 150 copies of Camel. Just the amusement factor when people would open the binder and just keep flipping past page after page of them.
July 27, 2015 9:55 p.m.
I'm trying to get a set of every print of Dark Ritual and Counterspell. I like them.
July 27, 2015 10:06 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #21
I'm in a similar position, gnarlicide. At least with respect to the idea - my Modern and Standard decks are done, and my EDH (Nekusar, actually) is as close to done as it's going to get until I get some big trade fodder to get the rest.
Do you keep the sets of promos together? Promos were my initial idea to collect, but counter magic seemed more appealing due to my playstyle. Since this'll end up being something to show off, I want to make sure it looks cool. I have one of the Four binders as my main binder, but I don't want to clog it up with a bunch of bulk counters.
July 27, 2015 11:28 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #22
With you on that, ThisIsBullshit. I don't even have the fodder for a Damnation.
July 27, 2015 11:29 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #23
Shit, I don't have the fodder for a goddamn Griselbrand right now (fuck you Legacy why did I decide to build this BS)
July 27, 2015 11:33 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox- now that you mention it, i do remember someone saying he collected Make a Wish but i don't remember who either :/
July 27, 2015 11:41 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #25
Aha thank you, tempest! I knew someone did collect them!
July 27, 2015 11:48 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #26
After a few minutes of searching, it's Jay who collects Make a Wish.
You're welcome :)
July 27, 2015 11:54 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #27
Aha it is! Thanks ThisIsBullshit!
I knew it was someone I traded with semi-recently...
July 28, 2015 12:03 a.m.
gnarlicide says... #28
Lol, I say peasant cards in the sense that they are just regular print. No foil, no promo versions. I forgot that some swanky shit has only seen 1 printing.
July 28, 2015 12:21 a.m.
O hey I collect Make a Wish. I have a big ol stack. Playset signed, dunno how many foil, 1 foil signed. I cut up about 15 at one point cuz I make 3D alters. I might use some foils for some foil peels. (Foil peel alters are easy as fuck and look dope btw so try it)
I keep them in a stack lol. 3D in a thick plastic case.
July 28, 2015 3:03 a.m.
i wanna see pictures of foil peel alters and 3D :D They sound pretty cool
July 28, 2015 3:11 a.m.
I can totally show you some time but it's like 3am here and I need to sleep haha. I made some rad peels over the weekend though I gotta say. A dude at my LGS was trading them off me for $5 value which is pretty nice for foil bulk + basic and glue. I had some I wasn't using just chilling in my binder and got some good shit for them.
July 28, 2015 3:17 a.m.
1) Do you collect anything? If so, what?
I don't have anything in particular that I look for when collecting. I just collect the cards in a general sense, looking for cards that inspire a combination or a deck.
What motivated you to collect this card(s)?
Just an overall enjoyment of the game, I guess
How many of each card do you collect? Only one of each? Three to fit in a typical binder? Four to have the playset?
Depends on the card and how many decks I've constructed that use that card. I recently found myself purchasing more Soul Wardens and Dark Rituals to accomodate the decks I was building. I didn't want to deconstruct my older decks to build my newer decks.
How do you organize this collection? By set? Color and alphabetical order? How hard is it to add new cards to your collection?
LOL, my friends think I've OCD'ed too much on how I organize my collection. First, my cards are grouped by color. Then each color is divided into Summon, Enchant Creature, Enchantments, Instants, Intterupts, Sorcerys, and Lands. Then its alphabetical. Duplicates are grouped by what set they are from.
What initial parameters should I set for myself? Only instants? Only blue?
I'm not sure I understand what you're asking here?
July 29, 2015 9:27 a.m.
I used to collect Treasure Cruise, but traded them all to somebody who had an even bigger Treasure Cruise collection. However, somebody at my LGS has a binder full of Mountain Goat.
GlistenerAgent says... #2
I collect experience. 24 hours of it each day, if I can.
I'm out. :)
July 27, 2015 6:55 p.m.