I NEED HELP

[asadoine]

Something awful happened to me ...

I just lost 2 Bargain and 3 Masticore ....

The reason why ???

My Magic collection is a mess ...

Between the decks under construction inside the preconstructed/starter packs, the packs of "maybe that card could be usefull", the boxes of hordes of commons, the decks I play and the trading binders .... well you probably know what I mean.

I moved last WE and the mess became chaos.

Maybe I didnt really loose them ( I hope )and they lurk somewhere within the (app 4000) big card piles..... but I want that to never happen again... I fear the worst

So please guys tell me

HOW DO YOU ORGANISE YOUSERLF to keep the overview ???

Please give me suggestions ....

berto

 

[Mordecai]

I have my very useful cards all in one box. In other boxes, I have my somewhat useful cards, sorted by color. Then, in other boxes still, I have my worthless cards taking up space.

 

[Ura]

Ive got a 2" binder I call the binder of useful stuff. It contains all the major rare, uncommon, and some common cards that I would use in a deck. If I take something out of it I put a little piece of paper in its page pocket to tell me where it is.
Then I have a second binder of just great cards that are fun to play, like my 127 Hurloon Minotaurs! Ok, so they aren't all great, but you get the point.
Everything else just sits in color coded boxes with a piece of plywood on top to serve as a gaming table.

 

[Wizard2000]

You'll think I'm nuts, but here are some rules I go by :

#1 : Never buy booster packs!!! I cannot emphasize this enough!!! Go to eBay and buy 4 sets of what you are looking for. It will cost a nice chunk, but it will be all the cards you will ever need. Once you get them take the time to organize them by card number. Now that the cards are numbered this is a lot easier to do.

#2 : Once you have the sets organized by number put the rares up front in the box, then the uncommons, then the commons. 4 sets will be about 570 cards so a 750 card box will be more than plenty if you can find one. Put little tabs in to separate by rarity.

#3 : when you remove cards for decks make sure you put them back the way you found them.

This is how I stay organized. It is nice when someone can ask me "can I see your 4 powder kegs?" ... I pull out the Destiny box, flip flip flip, and I say "here you go" ... and the guy looks at me like I'm nuts!

 

[theorgg]

Personally, I use the 5-slot boxes that hold ~5000 cards each. divide your cards up into colors, sets and rarity.
Organize the cards in an order you can remember or by practicallity(I do enc. enc. cr., enc land, enc. art., enc. encht, instant, interrupt, mana source, sorcery, legends, 1cc critters, 2cc critters, et cetera...).use some cut-up index cards to divide up sets(sized to fit the case w/ some sticking up) and arrange the uncommons and commons back-to-back. sleve the rares in deck protectors or somthing similar and put them in front of the uncommons.

at least that's what I do...

 

[Zadok001]

First of all, accept that I'm pretty much obsessed with Magic. Thus the following:

I have six 500 card boxes, all of which are pretty much full. These boxes are my current type 2 stuff, one color per box, and one box for artifacts and land (basic and non). Then I have my 'non-type 2' box, which is really an old Intel motherboard box, about three times the size of one of my other boxes, that's full too.

I have my deck box, where I keep decks, as well as commons and uncommons people requested from me. Finally, I have two binders of rares, one is trade bait, the other is my construction/collection binder that I don't really like trading out of.

Phew. I just realized how many cards I have. I'm crazy.

 

[ChasDen]

As I read the above posts, I got a chuckle out of the ways we all keep our cards organized. When I began playing there were 2 major problems.
1. How in the world can I afford to buy all these cards. and
2. How in the world do I keep track of all them.
Now to compound my problem I also sell them. (scratching head wondering what box I put the extra 6th edition common cards in). Now not only do I have to keep track of my cards, I have to keep track of the cards for sale. When we get new cards in, we all sit around the floor and bust open the boosters. We sort into Rare, Uncommon and Common piles. I pair up all the rare cards update the computer and place them in a "For Sale" bin, sorted alphabetically and by color. Kathy sorts out all the uncommon cards the same way and then puts together as many complete sets for that expansion as she can. The remainders are posted to the database and placed in the appropriate "For Sale" bin. The commons are usually all handled by our 3 daughters. A 12 year old and twin 10 year olds. They love to sort them by the "pretty pictures". Once sorted Kathy then puts together as many full common card sets and the rest go into a box. Keeping track of the Store cards is all done on the computer in Microsoft Access and then imported to the website. Keeping track of my personal cards, well lets just say I am not that organized. 2 Years ago I spent a whole week sorting out my cards alphabetically and by color. Each color was also separated into creatures and spells. For about a month that was awesome. But now, HUM "Kathy what did you do with that deck I left on the counter Thursday, I need some of those cards?" "What? How can you not know? KIDS !!!"

 

[Ed Sullivan]

Well, lets see here.

I have mine (essentially) organized by color, set, then alaphbetically -- but that last one isn't much anymore. My friends have a habit of trashing the whole scheme.

Wow, I just realized how many cards I've given away. Example: I have no more lightning bolts (that I can find) and I'm running low on land (most of what is left is black border, I have little revised). Wow, I need more staples... Chuck!

-mike


[Edited by Ed Sullivan (03-05-2000 at 09:33 PM).]

 

[Spiderman]

I was doing pretty much what Ed is doing: sorting by color, then creatures and non-creature spell, and then alphabetically. I also used to divide my collection up into Standard and non-Standard. I was going to put my cards into Access because I was starting to do some trading and needed to keep track of my cards and then... I sort of stopped playing so my cards are now everywhere.

 

[asadoine]

I think one of the big problems I have is that my wife is very tidy oriented and I cant really leave stacks of cards in the open.

For the cards I dont use often its not a pb but when it comes to deck building, well I usually pull out a lot of stuff and then, run by time I must do "emergency clean up" and the usefull cards end up in a box.

I also have in the same binders (1 for T2 and 1 for older cards) the rares I want and dont want to trade. I think that is a mistake and will take out the cards I really never will trade.

I have these cardboard boxes (like probably everybody else) and ended up doing it that way : 1 Box for each edition, sorted by color and common / uncommon. All rares used to end up in the binders, as well as usefull artefacts and lands.

This is how now I decided to sort out (just started yesterday though). For each color / deck archetype use one of the plastic tranparent boxes where I put all utility cards. I started with white where things like crusade, armageddon and other white knights end up, 1 for slivers, 1 for blue control, 1 for dual and pain lands... but I guess they could quickly get overloaded.

By the way, I found the bargains but I am still missing one or two masticores ...

Hopefully they will show up (I will lay some elves in the gangway maybe she will show up, driven by hunger and ping them down, the trap is ready).

Now to my next question ?? How to get rid of all those commons we never need ??

I decided to keep only 4 of each common for each set, sometimes with exeptions (like rancor, soul warden, disenchant and other "staples" of the game.

That should help in clarifiying the whole thing.

But what should I do with the others ? (maybe around 1000 or 1500 cards)

Could it really pay off to organize sets of commons / uncommons ?

I cant bring myself to throw any card away but know they are almost valueless ...

please advise

 

[Mr_Pestilence]

I organize my card in the following order:

Lands
Artifacts
Black
Blue
Green
Red
White
Gold

Within each category, all the cards are organized alphabetically. I know this is a lot work at first, but once you get it done, its easy to maintain. I try to get 4 copies of all cards, and more copies of cards that I may use in more than one deck.

But if I find I have more than 4 of a card I'm not using, I put in a seperate box, according rarity. If its rare, it goes into my trade binder, uncommons go into a box that I carry to large tournament, and commons go into their own box. These cards that not part of my collection are simply sorted by color. They used to alphabetical, but its just not worth doing, especially when potential traders keep screwing them up.
***************

 

[Dune Echo]

HA HA! You all are going to think I'm really anal! Check this out.
I have 6 binders: White, Blue, Black, Red, Green/Gold, Artifact/Non-Basic Land.
I always sort first alphabetically by card type (Enchant Artifact, Enchant Creature, Enchant Enchantment, Enchant Land, Enchantment, Instant, Sorcery, Summon-which needs to be changed to Creature now) and then by casting cost, and then alphabetically within each casting cost. I also have 2 boxes for extra cards which I've run out of card page-space and 2 huge boxes of extra commons (I only keep 5 copies of most cards).

 

[asadoine]

Spderman :

if you stopped playing I am sure I could accomodate your collec somewhere and take good care of it ;o)....

berto

 

[Spiderman]

Well, I keep thinking I'll get back into it. It's more a matter of not enough time right now (when will there ever be?) and my group has disappeared due to various reasons. And as I mentioned to Ferret, I was getting back into Warhammer Fantasy. But I always think there will be a time when I'll start up again.

 

[ChaosPrism]

I only have about 2000 cards, so can anyone send me their crap cards? especially lands. I'd be happy to store them indefintely for you

I'm a very casual player, so nearly all my cards are in decks, Thats about 37 made up decks plus some leftover cards.

 

[Dune Echo]

Hey ChaosPrism! Good to see you! You and I need to start a brainstorming section for new cards here.

 

[Gryphonclaw]

All right, I find it's simplest to sort them as follows.
1 box of decks then:
1. Color, 1 per box.
2. Creature or non-creature
3. White or black bordered, Although this isn't a great system, it kind of works.
4. Often used cards at one end of the section, less often at the other. This is more of a coincidence than anything else, when a card goes back into storage it goes in the 'useful' section, overall they sort themselves out.
5. Several totally mixed piles scattered about. When they get too pervasive I sort 'em and put 'em back in storage.

Sorting by casting cost is also good, but can be difficult to maintain.