How Do YOU Organize Your Trade Binders?
General forum
Posted on Dec. 24, 2013, 8:14 p.m. by GamerKingFaiz
I have a question about your guys' trade binders.
I'm thinking about building one, and I think I'm just going to go with the route of getting a regular 3-ring binder and putting in the Ultra Pro Silver Series Pocket Page Protectors.
The main reason I want this method instead of a "prebuilt" trade binder, is for one I can have the ease of being able to move pages around if I need to, and I can also add more pages if I fill it up rather than having to buy a whole new trade binder.
Now my question for you guys is how do you guys organize your binders? Do you organize rares to uncommons to commons? Do you organize by color? By set?
I'm trying to get ideas of how I want to organize mine.
Epochalyptik says... #3
I use 3-ring binders. Because my trade collection weighs no small amount, I double wrap my binders in duct tape and clear packing tape to prevent the boards from snapping. I also use white tab dividers to separate the sections of my binders. One section each for the five colors, for artifacts, for colorless cards, for multicolored cards, and for lands. Cards in these sections are grouped together and sleeved one per side per pocket so I can instantly see how many of any given card I have and what condition those cards are in..
If any of you have ever traded with someone with a green digicam, tab-divided binder in the MD-DE-NJ-PA area, you've met me.
Protip for those using loose leaf pages: NEVER pack more than two cards into a single pocket. Leave them one per side. Stuffing the pockets wears them out much faster, causes them to split, and makes it easier for other cards to slip out once you start depleting your stocks.
I don't like Ultra-Pro or Monster binders. It's difficult to remove cards from them, which is both good and bad. While it's true that cards will never accidentally fall out of a Monster binder, it's also true that you'll have a hard time getting them out when you want to. Plus, the vinyl material out of which the binders are stamped is rough on the cards. You can easily chip or chafe card borders while stocking your binder.
December 24, 2013 8:42 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #4
Well, I have 3 binders...
I have a "Don't trade this shit" binder. Which contains my personal collection. I have to remind myself to not give stuff out in that one. I have made that mistake a few times. This binder is also completely unorganized. Imagine how long it takes me to make a deck out of those cards!
The second binder is my regular trade binder. I have it organized as such: Lands, Planeswalkers, Multicolored cards, Red cards, Blue cards, White cards, Black cards, Green cards and Tokens. I have to organize it often. This binder gets passed around more than a drunk chick at a frat party.
The third binder is nothing but foils, promos and alternate art cards. I try not to randomly let these ones go. This binder is only brought out for a trade that is slowly going south and the other trader is feigning interest in the trade. Usually, they are all giddy and shit when they see a random foil promo set of Squadron Hawk s, and immediately close a deal. Same rule applies to foil Delver of Secrets Flip . People love foil delvers, lol.
I sometimes have a fat pack box on hand, which contains highly sought after commons and uncommons. Usually right before a tournament, there is always some crazy dude that is willing to do desperate things for a playset of Fanatic of Mogis . I try not to keep commons and uncommons in my binders, just to not gum them up with random crap. Exceptions to this policy are only limited to the "Don't trade this shit" binder.
December 24, 2013 8:45 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #5
Epochalyptik, your binder sounds familiar. I have spent some time in the MD-DC-NOVA area quite a bit, and have seen binders that match your description. The problem is that I also trade and play near Military bases, (which as you probably know in that area, you can't walk 26 feet without seeing something that resembles one) so every G.I. Magic player rocks Digicam binders. Including myself. LOL
December 24, 2013 8:51 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #6
If it had dividers and a couple thousand dollars in Modern/Legacy/EDH staples, it was probably me. I'm a stickler for organization (I bet that's a surprise to everyone). But it doesn't shock me that military players love digicam.
December 24, 2013 8:59 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #7
My entire collection of rares, mythics, and foils can all fit into a 1 inch 3 ring binder...
December 24, 2013 9:23 p.m.
ryuzaki32667 says... #9
I put mine in alphabetical order, so I can compare it to the binder on here when I edit. reason being I'm bad about remembering what I trade away and also makes it easy to find cards when I trade them on here
December 24, 2013 10:04 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #10
Epochalyptik, Lol. I might not have traded with you unless you were at the shop called Dream Wizards, in White Flint, MD.
Truth be told, not only do military players like digicam, but the single joes have nothing but disposable income. So their binders are all filled with thousands of dollars of staples, lol. Contrary to the belief that Soldiers don't get paid much. When they come back from overseas, they blow all their money on new cars and booze. Magic players literally buy up every card that they ever wanted in one fell swoop. A friend of mine recently got his enlistment bonus, and bought two playlets of foil Tarmogoyf s without blinking an eye. Dude tells me, "one set to stock and one set to rock."
December 24, 2013 11:10 p.m.
I'm moving towards three ring binders, but I have the Innistrad Block and Return to Ravinca Blocked sorted into two ultrapro binders sorted by colors essentially. Older stuff sits in a fatpack box at this time. When i'm done re-sorting, it'll be divided by set, and not block, and then by colors.
ChiefBell says... #2
I have a large box of the cards that I want to trade away. The number of cards there is easily in the thousands. These are arranged in alphabetical order - as soon as I decide that I no longer want a card, I put it in the right place in this box. Sounds like a nightmare system but it's easy enough because I basically added all the cards one at a time, slowly. I have a list of all of them on deckbox.org because it can sort by price and give me useful information (like tell me how many thounsands of dollars I've wasted on magic cards!). I sort my list by price and add all the cards worth more than $3 into my binder, which is one of those Intet, the Dreamer ultra pro album things. In the album I arrange by colour and within each colour alphabetically.
December 24, 2013 8:41 p.m.