How do you organise your cards in your boxes?
General forum
Posted on Aug. 23, 2015, 1:51 p.m. by Chandrian
The question is pretty simple... it's so easy to accumulate so many cards in MtG, those cards have different colors, rarities, legalities, you play different formats...
So how to keep it organised?
Do you separate standard-legal cards from the rest?Do you split by rarity?
I'm very interested in how you guys do it!
Junk rares go into a fat pack, rares $+5 get double sleeved and put into 600 card count box. Junk Commoms/uncommons get tossed in a plastic box or and the ones that i may use go into 4 row box seperated by color & type.
August 23, 2015 1:58 p.m. Edited.
ducttapedeckbox says... #5
I have a FOUR binder for my decent trades and a three-ringed binder with all of my bulk rares and semi-playable / desirable C/U. I take these when I go to store (it's amazing to find cube-builders who want bulk rares).
My FOUR binder is organized with Standard stuff in the front, and then modern/eternal in color order. My bulk rare binder is organized in color order, with semi-playable C/U at the front.
I then have a four-row card box with all of true bulk C/U. It's organized by set, then number order (yes, I got bored last summer). Once it's organised, it's easy to maintain as long as you don't buy cases at a time.
August 23, 2015 2:04 p.m.
AwesomeName says... #6
I keep cards I don't care about in piles on the floor of my room. My good cards I keep sleeved in a fat pack box because I don't even have a binder :P
August 23, 2015 2:04 p.m. Edited.
I've got all my cards in those big cardboard boxes with the 3 columns. I've got them all separated by color, in order by set from oldest to newest and alphabetized within each set. I do this for all my non-rare and inexpensive commons and uncommons. For the expensive commons, and expensive uncommons, and all my rares, I have those in a binder sorted by color.
August 23, 2015 2:24 p.m.
What FAMOUSWATERMELON said. Just cuz I'm lazy though - I would do it by sorting out the unplayables and burning them - the rest get sorted by color, rarity, & price (if you care about value).
August 23, 2015 2:27 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #9
Binder is first standard legal, then non standard legal, in color order (artifact, land, hybrid, white, blue, black, red, green, gold). I use the removable pages so that it's easier to order, but I don't have that many cards to not put all my rares in it. I also have playable U/Cs in the binder, but all the jank U/Cs I have in a box to use for proxying.
August 23, 2015 2:29 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #10
I don't play or trade anymore, so any organization is purely for ease of finding cards to sell.
I keep my valuable cards in a single binder (or in a magnetic flip-top box if they're in hard cases). The bulk rares and foils are in a small box. I have a couple large boxes of commons and uncommons, and a few more boxes with sealed product.
Back when I actually played, I had one Standard trade binder, one non-Standard binder with low-significance cards, and one non-Standard binder with significant cards (e.g., staples, highly valuable cards, etc.).
My binders are all organized with tabbed dividers for card color, then colorless, artifact, multicolored, and land. Cards in each section are arranged alphabetically.
August 23, 2015 2:33 p.m.
I have 2 binders for rares. One is general rares, front section Standard back section non-standard, organized in WUBRG. My other binder has promos and cards which I value more highly than their actual price for whatever reason.
Oh, I guess 3 technically. I have a small 1-card-per-page Pokemon binder with things that are NOT for trade.
Bulk is sorted into 3 holiday boxes and a dozen or so fat pack boxes. 3 fat packs have playable Commons/Uncommons in no order, the rest is bulk.
August 23, 2015 4:20 p.m.
I do playable commons/uncommons and bulk rares in a 3 ring binder for trade. Then I have a "Good" binder with my highly tradable plus collector stuff. All the rest I put in 800 count card boxes by set.
August 23, 2015 5:20 p.m.
Triforce-Finder says... #13
The big storage is sorted by card type, then by color, then CMC, then saturation (
before 
), then by name.
Sorting by color in my case means sorted by the number of colors, then their relation and finally their position on the wheel: first monocolored, then the allies, enemies, shards, wedges, four-colored and finally prismatic stuff, each category in WUBRG order.
Then I've got a bunch of stacks that are half-assembled decks I'm completing bit by bit, stored in two fat packs with dividers. Those also hold a few assorted cards I want to build a deck with in the future. Another two fat packs hold the double-sleeved good stuff that is too valuable to be stored in a big box.
I usually don't trade away my cards, so I don't bother about maintaining a binder.
August 23, 2015 5:53 p.m. Edited.
My girlfriend has hers meticulously sorted by colour, type, CMC and name and then alphabetised. Then the,whole thing is databases. That's a bit much more me. I prefer the "pile in the box lid" technique.
I have a few of the 4000 card boxes that are sorted by colour (common/uncommon). I am slowly going through and pulling out modern/commander staples which will then go into a holiday gift box (or two). As for rates, junk and value alike all go into a single binder. Its one of those expandable ones and I bought a 100 pack of ultra pro side loader 9 pocket things. I'm using about 60 of them I think (there's like 1300 cards). I haven't really sorted them into trades and not trades yet (a lot of stuff is up for trade if you can offer a good enough deal) so its great to see the look on somebody's face when then ask to see the folder and I grab it. But I dont normally being it with me. Too heavy.
August 23, 2015 6:08 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #16
All rares in binder, even the $0.25 ones. Standard separate from the rest, and each color divided in two. One section creatures, the other side none creatures for each color. Oh, and alphabetically sorted as well.
From the looks of my trade binder, you wouldn't think I was as organized...
August 23, 2015 6:47 p.m.
At one point, I had about 16 binders, 2 for rares and valuable cards, and the rest were up-to-5-of each card (4 for constructed, 1 for EDH). Once I hit that many binders, I became dick of the amount of chaff I had, and got rid of it. I now have 1 small trade binder, 1 large binder for collection cards, and one holiday deck box with holds my decks, tokens, and extra sleeves for draft/new decks. I have no intention to ever hold onto that large of a collection ever again.
August 23, 2015 6:56 p.m.
Most of my cards are in decks. I have 4 deck boxes: alternate format, "fair" edh, multiplayer edh, and under construction/needs help edh.
My 60 card decks are in mostly humorous deck boxes.
What's left is in 2 binders. Because edh, pdh, and tiny leaders are the formats I mostly play, the loose cards are ordered by rarity>color. I have a small rares binder and a large c>u binder. The commons are sorted by theme like "blue unblockable" or "white fog" all kept in single pockets.
All of it is organized to the point where I can modify decks with ease. However, the prospect of building anything restricted by set or block instead of rarity is overwhelming - I might as well have all of it in random piles on the floor! Sometimes I even make an oops with illegal cards temporarily sneaking into a modern deck like Impulse or Memory Lapse. I kind of have to watch that with this organization strategy.
I also have decorated my stuff with a dragon stencil I made.
August 23, 2015 7:05 p.m.
IvoryFrost says... #20
I tried guys, I really did try to organize by set, colour and number but...
at some point you say fuck it, throw everything in a big box and shove it under your bed....
August 23, 2015 7:16 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #21
Commons, uncommons, and lands go in a big flat 4-row box. Uncommons are sorted by set, then color and CMC, commons are sorted by color and CMC. Lands are sorted into basics and non-basics, then sorted into color(s) produced.
My mythics/rares go in a binder with playable C/U, arranged with foils in front then by color.
August 23, 2015 9:22 p.m. Edited.
Triforce-Finder says... #22
Oh, right, the decks... Most of my decks stay assembled. I'm keeping those in dragon shield four-compartment boxes.
I know that feel... What I forgot to mention is that at least one of my other fat pack boxes is filled to the brim with cards that need to get sorted in properly.
NoPantsParade says... #2
put the janky commons and uncommons in a big box. Put the good commons and uncommons in booster boxes. Put the playable commons/uncommon modern and stuff cards in my binder with the rares in some stupid way.
August 23, 2015 1:52 p.m.