My Magic the Gathering Storage and Organizing System
Like many Magic players, storage is a near-constant issue for me. However, since I’m more interested in using the cards than collecting them, simply shoving them into a box isn’t going to work for me. I’ve made a card catalogue of sorts, nothing too in depth or fancy, just to make things easier for me.
I used the BCW Card House system. My card collection is about 15,000 cards and growing, so I used two Card Houses. Each Card House holds twelve 800 ct. Boxes. You can select from the 1-Piece 800 ct. Box (the lid is attached to the base), or the 2-Piece 800 ct. Box (the lid is removable). The 800 ct. Boxes actually hold about 1,140 Magic cards, as MTG cards are thinner than baseball cards and those boxes were named after the number of standard baseball cards they hold. If you buy a Card House, don’t get confused, you can get those with the twelve 800-ct. Boxes included, or you can buy the House and Boxes separately. For boxes that are not full of cards, I use Monster Pads, which act like bookends to keep the cards still and upright. I used these Horizontal Card Dividers when categories were needed inside a box. The tabs on these dividers fold down so they fit under the lid when closed.
I have cards divided by general type, in this case by color, and if it’s a permanent or not. This saves time when I work on new decks, since I can focus on specific card types to help fill specific needs. You may notice that Multi-color and Colorless aren’t divided this way. Simply put, I don’t have enough of either to make separating them by type important, but if that changes, I can update as needed.
Of course, I break my own system too. Legendary creatures are in their own box, since I’m more or less exclusively a Commander player, and having easy access makes deck building easier. Rares are in their own box as a matter of convenience when trying to arrange trades. The Foils box isn’t so much for deckbuilding, but rather to help straighten certain foils – Commander Legends anyone?
This is the system I use, and find most helpful. As my stockpile of cards continues to grow, I’m sure I’ll make some basic refinements, such as dividing cards by specific type instead of having general categories. Some form of rough alphabetic ordering would also help; it would be annoying to have a dozen Shocks spread across 3 boxes.
View this Pokémon collector’s storage and organizing system.