A Rather Large Project

Welcome back to a Gathering of Magic the Gathering! Today I'd like to talk about, and get ideas on, the topic of sorting and cataloguing cards. It's something that I think most collectors do no matter the size of their collection, and I think we could get some good discussions going about how everybody organizes their cards.



Does your card collection look something like this?



As far as sorting goes, I think the long white boxes you can buy at most hobby shops are a MTG enthusiasts best friend. They usually only cost around a dollar and each one can hold hundreds of cards, making them the best way to store your cards without spending a ton. I've been using the white boxes for years now and I can't think of a better way to store and sort my cards. I'm kind of OCD when it comes to my cards, so I tend to go a bit overboard on my sorting of them. Each color (Green, White, Red, Black, Blue & Gold) gets it's own box, or set of boxes. After I've sorted them by color, each color is also sorted out into the types of card. (Creature, Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, etc.) Once I've finished that, it's time to sort each type of card into rarity. (Mythic Rare, Rare, Uncommon, Common.) You're going to laugh, but when I've done that, I sort each of those groups once more, this time alphabetically. Artifacts get a similar treatment, but instead of sorting by Creature, Instant, etc., they are sorted by Artifact, Artifact - Creature, & Artifact - Equipment. Lands are sorted in much the same way. (Yes, Lands get their own box(es)). I know, it's a bit extravagant, but it's how I work.

Recently, I've been buying the Fat Pack for each set that is released. Aside from getting 8-9 booster packs, the Fat Packs come with a custom card box for that particular set, which has made me think that maybe I'd like to sort my newer cards differently. Instead of all my cards being in one big group, I've thought that maybe it'd be cool to have the new sets organized into a box just for that set. Instead of my super complicated way of sorting the cards, I could just use the Card-pedia that comes with each Fat Pack to sort each set into the numerical order they appear in in the set. It's just an idea right now, but it's one that I kind of like. I'll have to give it a try and see if I like it.

My collection of cards has gotten big enough that I have many, many of those white boxes full of cards. For the longest time I had them in stacks on my old computer desk, but that wasn't really the best way to organize them, plus the desk took up a lot of space and I was really only using it for storage purposes. On a whim one day I cleaned off the desk, tore it apart, and threw it away and began searching for a cabinet of some kind that I could use to store my cards. It only took an hour or two and I found a solid wood armoire at the D.I. (Utah's version of Goodwill.) I bought it and began figuring out the best way to store my cards in it. I didn't realize how nice it was going to be for that purpose. It has drawers for the boxes as well as a large cabinet for the other random boxes. It has plenty of space for all of my cards. If you have a lot of cards and boxes like I do, I highly recommend getting something similar to it to store them in.

That all works well and good for my non-deck cards, but I needed a way to keep my decks in a safe place, but in such a way that they were easy to haul around to places. The deck boxes I usually use don't fit in the white boxes, so I had to find another way. Now, don't judge too harshly, but I had seen a few episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh, and had seen that one of the characters keeps his cards in a briefcase. I loved this idea, so I started looking for a decent briefcase. I was lucky enough to find one (again, at the D.I.) and it works perfectly. I can fit all of my custom built decks as well as most of the pre-built decks I own. The briefcase has a dual lock, so I don't have to worry about my decks falling out when I carry it around. Again, if you need a way to transport a lot of decks around to tournaments or what-have-you, I recommend a briefcase.



Or even this?



Now, on to the topic of cataloguing. I've been meaning to make an official catalogue of all my cards for some time now, but with how large my collection is, the task is rather daunting. I need to buckle down and actually do it though. I've talked to a few people about how they catalogue their cards, and most of them use Microsoft Excel. I use Excel to create my deck lists, so I know it would work well for a full catalogue. The only problem at this point is actually sitting down and creating the list. It's going to be time consuming for sure. Now I just have to decide how I want to catalogue them. Should I do it by set? That seems like it would be the easiest. I think I'll go with that.

What about all of you? How do you organize, sort, and catalogue your cards? Are you a fan of the white boxes? Are you as OCD about your cards as I am? Let us know in the comments. (Just an FYI: feel free to comment about your card habits even if you collect a different game.)