How Do Card Game Stores Organize and Ship Their Cards?
Many game shops specialize in selling singles of Magic the Gathering, Pokémon, and other cards. Whether they sell to customers in the shop, or sell the cards online and ship them, organization is key to managing a large card collection. Below is the storage and shipping system used by Pandemonium Games and Hobbies of Detroit, and Level Up Games and Comics of Atlanta.
Pandemonium Games and Hobbies
6033 Middle Belt Rd., Garden City MI 48135
We take a lot of steps at Pandemonium Games & Hobbies to sort and store our singles to ensure efficient and accurate pulling. The mass majority of our bulk singles are stored in BCW 800 Count 2 Piece Storage Boxes and are organized first by color then alphabetically. These two qualifiers ensure that every team member can easily locate any Magic card. Our reprints are stored in chronological order in these BCW boxes. We have trained our entire team to evaluate card condition while they are pulling singles. All of our BCW 800 Count 2 Piece Storage Boxes are stored on sturdy metal racks, again first by color then alphabetically.
Our above bulk singles have a special label in our point of sales system to indicate they are stored in our “Pauper” section. In this smaller section the singles are only sorted alphabetically. In this section we store cards in plastic slider cases with a DYMO printed price label, and put those alphabetically into BCW 5,000 Count Super Monster Storage Boxes.
Our more expensive cards are put in display cases, again first by color then alphabetically. Cards in display cases are stored in the top half of the same slider boxes we used earlier. Each clam shell in the display cases will have a DYMO printed price label.
We ship small orders of cards in inverted BCW Inner Sleeves which are then placed inside a penny sleeve. The whole thing is then attached to a toploader with two pieces of Scotch tape. That whole thing is placed inside an BCW Resealable Team Bag. Finally the order and a printed order sheet are placed in a bubble mailer that has a DYMO printed address label.
Level Up Games and Comics
2131 Pleasant Hill Rd, Suite 129, Duluth, GA 30656
At Level Up Games & Comics we use a wide array of supplies to sort, store, and ship our singles inventory. We sort our cards by set and alphabetize using a sorting tray, and then line the cards up by condition, with best condition towards the front of each set and then progressing backwards. The cards are stored in 3200 count Monster Storage Boxes and the cards are separated by Tall Card Dividers. The Tall Dividers are labeled by each set and then we use Regular Card Dividers for each letter (some stores list each specific card on a divider). We display more expensive and valuable cards in Magnetic Card Holders.
We ship cards by using three parts; a soft sleeve to hold a few cards that are inserted into a 3×4 Toploader and then placed into a Resealable Team Bag to prevent water intrusion. All of this is then wrapped by a shipping list and placed into a pull and stick security envelope with the appropriate postage.