Is this a normal way to sort your cards?
General forum
Posted on Feb. 10, 2015, 7:11 p.m. by rorofat
My friend and I have a shared collection of cards. Recently, he began printing off set lists of every common/uncommon in modern. He then proceeded to sort all of our cards by block, set and color. Then, he alphabetized them and marked down every card we own onto his set sheets. Now, every time I go to get a card, I need to mark it off the sheet, where it is, and make sure that I don't disturb the alphabetized cards. It's even more of a pain when I have to put a new stack of cards INTO the boxes.
Is this normal? XD
It sounds like he doesn't want to lose cards and wants to remain organized. I don't see anything wrong with that. It may be a little eccentric, but there is nothing wrong with keeping your cards organized to me.
February 10, 2015 7:17 p.m.
Playables/staples go in one box. All other shit goes wherever it gets shoved. Random boxes, drawers, wherever.
February 10, 2015 7:17 p.m.
If he wants to do that it is fine, but if you aren't into it tell him he is responsible for maintaining it. Any new cards you aquire just hand to him and he can sort them how he wants. Haha. Removing cards would still be on you, but placement and maintenence would be him.
February 10, 2015 7:18 p.m.
HolyFalcon says... #6
Gonna go order my FRF by card number and see what commons/uncommons I'm missing. Then I'll come back after I've decided if it's useful or not.
February 10, 2015 7:48 p.m.
I guess. I mean, I just kinda have a Standard Binder with the playable cards sorted by Planeswalkers first, then each color has a section, with a sub section of creatures and a sub section of spells. The multi-colored cards come after that, same deal. Creatures and Spells. I don't trade lands so those have their own storage binder at home. My other binder is Modern/Legacy/EDH stuff, and again, same organization.
I don't do alphabetical, or block or set, that would be too much of a pain. And when I trade, I just kinda stick things in close to where they should be, and reorganize em once a month or so.
Commons and Uncommons, unless they are staples, get thrown out. Don't need that clutter everywhere.
February 10, 2015 7:50 p.m.
As a follow up, would you mind explaining what you see as the pro's to sharing cards with someone who isn't family / a long term significant other? I just feel like there aren't really any. If you want to trade something and the other person doesn't, or vice versa, it's a pain. If you want to sell something or vice versa, it's a pain. If you buy something that's worth a lot of money, and you don't have a use for it, and they use it and damage it, what do you do? It just doesn't seem worth it at all.
February 10, 2015 7:52 p.m.
Skalle_the_Reckless says... #9
I feel like using spreadsheets in Excel would work better. Maybe that's just me.
February 10, 2015 8:04 p.m.
I color sort my cards then I put what I have the most of before. so if I have 6 redirects ill put it before the 4 last words. I just filled a 3 inch binder like this and now I just buy a new binder per set and fill it up the same way. Color then most of each. That way if I'm looking for a certain card I'm not looking everywhere for multiple copies. I then also type it all up for here and save it on a word document. Makes it easier to update and see what's missing. Takes me a couple hours to update my binder on tapped out because I have so many rares. Mostly bulk rares but timely process to keep it up which is why I only update the list once a month if that.
February 10, 2015 8:15 p.m.
Staples get sleeved go into their own box. Everything else worth keeping goes into a 4 row box organized by color & type. The crap that doesn't make it gets handed of to friends
February 10, 2015 8:18 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #13
To be fair, that's a very effective system for keeping track of what you own and where you can find it. I'd go out of my way to maintain that system if it were already in place (which is the case for you here).
February 10, 2015 8:30 p.m.
That's actually how I always plan to sort my cards......but then I get started and lose all motivation.
February 10, 2015 8:46 p.m.
Sharing cards is great. I have access to basically all of modern and standard for any deck I want to play at any time basically.
February 10, 2015 8:51 p.m.
if the system is in place its good. but its a pain to maintain. if youre just a standard player idk if its worth it. Myself being an EDH with thousands of cards it would be great to have yet takes hours upon hours upon hours to set up and lots of effort to maintain.
sharing with another person to me just sounds like trouble though.
February 10, 2015 8:55 p.m.
Unforgivn_II says... #17
I just have mine separated by set, then within that, by color, then by rarity (uncommon/common). I only ever keep 4 of my commons/uncommons though. Any extras go into my binder if they have value, and if they don't they get donated to noobs, the LGS, or the garbage. I've never had trouble finding cards once I did this. Also, I'm currently entering my entire inventory into deckbox.org, so that should allow me to only ever have to build decks digitally, then pick out the cards from my collection once the list is complete
February 10, 2015 8:56 p.m.
I just let a friend use cards from my collection.
I used to sort my cards but has become bothersome as of late.
Maybe I should have a look-see into 'em and trash what isn't needed for decks. But then a fit might result.
Hopefully, if I ever do so, I'll get back any of value sometime down the line like before. If not as reprints, then mysteriously. aha
February 10, 2015 9:30 p.m.
I'm with TehCoopeh... I have piles of cards on my bench, waiting to be fully sorted before they are put into boxes.
February 10, 2015 9:33 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #20
I have my separated by color and alphabetized. I don't find the separating by set to be useful since If I am looking for a specific card it is easy enough to just grab the correct box for the corresponding color and section of the alphabet, and when a card is printed in multiple sets it would cause a problem as to where they get sorted to.
February 10, 2015 10:13 p.m.
KnightsBattlecry001 says... #21
I sort my cards by color, then place them with multiple copies first then all one of's last. I don't sort them by set though as that would take a while lol. All my extras end up in fatpackes that are stored on a dresser. My rares I have in a binder. I sort them by color from newer sets to older sets. Multiple copies I don't pack into one slot. Each one gets their own slot. This might explain why I have no room in my binder for more rares I need to go through lol.
February 10, 2015 10:28 p.m.
As a librarian this arouses me.
On the serious note, I think that's a bit too hc for card collection :D Though mine doesn't differ that much. I organize my cards by color, rarity, type and name. In that order. Rares and Mythics are sleeved. But I don't keep any sheets on them.
February 11, 2015 6:18 a.m.
Sounds to hard to keep track of (unless you have your cards listed for sale/trade) but I wish i hade the time, effort and energy to organize my collection as it is I got boxes upon boxes of mixed cards
ThisIsBullshit says... #2
That sounds like a library, not a card collection.
February 10, 2015 7:14 p.m.