keeping track of your collection?

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dry cereal
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Post by dry cereal » Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:06 am

do you ever just chill and look at your bounty?

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Post by Plastered_Dragon » Fri Feb 24, 2006 3:26 am

Sometimes, yes.
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hammr7
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Post by hammr7 » Fri Feb 24, 2006 5:11 am

I would love to just chill and view my collection, but right now its sprawling all over the place in a state of chaotic disorganization. I have to do some serious pruning so I can enjoy what I have, and make back some money so I can buy more stuff. :-/

I finally have my basic sets under control. :-) Every card is individually sleeved and placed in 800 card boxes. Oversized cards and comics are stored in larger sleeves in Comic Book boxes. I keep track of these sets, what I have and what needs upgrading, in a series of excel spreadsheets:

- Alpha to 4th and Alliances,
- Mirage to 6th and Destiny,
- Masque to Onslaught and 7th (I always avoid Type-2 and newer sets)
- Foils
- Oddball sets (6 x 9, Vanguard, Box Toppers, tokens, etc.)

Eventually I'll merge these into an Access database, but for now the spreadsheets are fine.

My problems come in two areas.

One is extra regular cards. I've bought whole collections just to get a few key items, and I've been lazy about sorting and reselling the extras. As a result I have a huge number of extras. Since most of my accumulation is pre-Exodus, theres no easy way to sort by rarity. There is never enough time to organize them, since I don't want to duplicate the effort of my primary collection. I now have most in 5,000 count boxes in my storage unit, some sorted by set, some organized in groups by rarity. I do try to sleeve most rares and key uncommons, but even that isn't consistant. The result is that I can never find what I want. I'm starting to wade through them so I can actually sell or trade them, but its going to take a while.

The other problem is with all the oddball and rarities type items. I'm trying to accumulate everything from uncut sheets, posters, metal counters and empty booster boxes to magazines and promotional materials (t-shirts, play mats, hobby shop displays, etc.). All of these categories are relatively obscure, so it be months between additions to a given category. Every type of item needs a different method of storage. If I stuff everything into big boxes I can never remember where individual things are. I'm still trying to find items I misplaced months ago. And now there are these huge banners. Even when rolled up they take up big round spaces. This part of my collection is growing rapidly, and I haven't found any good way to get a handle on it yet.

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dry cereal
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Post by dry cereal » Fri Feb 24, 2006 7:40 pm

If you get a chance while I'm home in jersey I can come and help you. Also, if you contact celimbredor or whatever his name was, I'm sure he would be THRILLED to help you. I think he gets high off contact with magic cards.

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Post by dgstranz » Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:06 am

I may have around 6000-8000 cards out of which over 1200 rares. I only started to buy/sell/trade/collect these things seriously about a year ago, before that I may have had 2000 cards out of which 200 rares. This is how I organize them:

Two big binders for my collections. That means basic lands, legendary stuff, full sets, misprints, promos, and other particular cards I like. For my collections, the language doesn't matter, although I prefer English or Spanish.

Two binders for the cards I trade. The bigger one is for cheap commons and cheap rares. The smaller one is for more expensive or hotter cards, as well as foils. I will store up to 4 copies of the same card in each slot unless it's an expensive rare or a foil. Both binders are breaking down and are currently in quite a disgusting shape (they would be rated as poor) but the cards are mostly excellent to near mint.

Two shoe boxes for trash commons. If I run out of a particular common in my cheap-card-trading-binder, I will use the boxes for replacements. They're classified by set and collector number, although I admit it's more complicated for post-Mirrodin sets (especially red cards). I also use an Unhinged box for Unhinged cards and a Guildpact box for Ravnica and Guildpact cards, as well as a few 8th Ed. and Kamigawa cards.
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Post by phyconaut » Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:34 am

wow i cannot belive this topic is still going on i was just asking a simple question but it looks like this is a good topic for poeple to see what way's they can store thier colections. i have Binders for my sets and i have a 5,000 count box of unsorted stuff and variouse smaller boxes for specific things.
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l0qii
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Post by l0qii » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:35 pm

I think we should have a contest to see who has the most disorganized collection. Everyone send in photos of their mess :)

The winner will get 10 free long boxes and a Sharpie :P

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Post by mahdishain » Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:21 pm

if i could find a camera i think i could win this. in my living room are two eight foot gaming tables. one is for playing on, after we clear space each friday, the other has mounds of unsorted magic cards that could keep a team of archeologists busy for years. then there is the magic room with two sets of shelves full of miscellaneous boxes of magic cards in varying states of labelling accuracy and a card table, originally placed for sorting but now just another spot to throw cards, overfull and spilling cards to the floor. the rarities are secure in the fire safe but regular cards could be anywhere. even apac lands occassionally show up in the land box at draft time. i spend all week organizing at work, who wants to organize fun.

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Storing Collection

Post by victorcamp » Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:13 pm

Mine's pretty organized, but I have no binders. I've got four shelves above the computer with 250- to 800-count boxes containing the cards; over 55,000!

They're all sorted by edition, then color (artifact, black, green, gold, red, blue, white, splits, hybrids, non-basic lands, misc.), then alphabetized. Most editions fit in one box, but some larger ones, like Revised, have a box for each color. Oldest at the top (I've got to use a chair to get down the Arabian Nights, very small box), down to newest within reach while sitting. Basic Lands have their own series of boxes, also sorted by edition, type, and picture.

Special sets and boxes -- like Battle Royale, Deckmaster, World Champs -- are piled on the floor behind the door, where they get covered in dust and cat hair.

My decks (over 50) are in carrying bags under the dining room table for easy access. They always make friends go "Uff Da" when trying to pick them up; too heavy to grab and run!

I play un-safe Magic: no card condoms allowed.

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Post by dgstranz » Sat Mar 25, 2006 12:33 am

dry cereal wrote:do you ever just chill and look at your bounty?
Quite a lot ;-)
Isn't Uktabi Orangutan cute?

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