Hey guys. I'm sorry if there is an official thread for this. I did a forum search, but the only thread I found involving organization of trade binders was a year old and I didn't want to get an infraction for necroing.
Anyway, I'm looking for some advice on how I should organize my trade binder. Before, I had some of my best cards from M10 through Shards up front, then I had Zendikar Rares and WWk Rares organized roughly by value, but the binder started to become very disorganized as I would trade cards, take other cards out for decks and acquire new cards.
I've finally started the task of reorganizing the T2 section of my binder. I figured I would put all of the best/most played/valuable T2 cards up front and then put the rares I don't care about in the back. Now, in the past, if I had, say, 4x Day of Judgment, I would just put them all into the same card page slot. However, this becomes a problem when you have a whole page full of playsets. The pages stretch out, they tear, the cards get warped and damaged from the constant pulling out and reinserting that people do when they are checking to see how many copies you have for trade. I thought that a better solution would be to lay out my pages something like this:
Day of Judgment | Day of Judgment | Day of Judgment
Day of Judgment | Maelstrom Pulse | Maelstrom Pulse
Maelstrom Pulse | Goblin Guide | Eye of Ugin
And so on. The problem with this system is that when I obtain another copy of any cards, I have to do a crap load of reorganizing or insert the card somewhere else in the binder, meaning playsets get mixed up and spread out.
What do you guys do? Do you just shove every copy of the same card in the same card page slot? Do you spread them out? What do you do when you get extras then? I'm just trying to find an easier way to lay out my binder so that I can flip through and instantly see how many copies of what I have and so that others can as well to help speed up deck building and trading.
I just do it by color, colorless, white, blue, black, red, green, gold, hybrid, artifact, land. To save space I do it front and back.
That's how I have my non-T2/casual deck cards sorted, but since I mainly trade my T2 stuff, I wanted to have my best cards up front. What do you do with playsets and the like? Do you just stuff them all in the same pocket or do you lay them out? Most people around here just stuff all of their copies of the same card in one slot on a page and that's what I've always done, but I've noticed that after a while it begins to damage the cards, stretches out the binder pages so that cards fly out when someone turns the page, and breaks the pages (especially if you've got four cards in the front and four in the back). But laying out playsets instead of grouping them means constant reorganizing and more binder space used up, so I'm unsure about what to do.
I've found using a fat pack box for my standard stuff is fairly efficient. Most recent set up front, mythics of each set at the front of each set. Then at the end of each set putting foil common and uncommons. The curve of the foils make it easy to see the separation between sets.
I've seen many people do what you are saying... white rares, all one card per slot, blue rares, black rares, ect.... or by set and by color.
The most important thing is that there is a logical system that you can easily navigate to a card that someone asks for or that you need.
I keep one card per slot (double sided), but try to keep some single in between multiples, so that getting another copy just means moving some random card to the end of the color, not doing a whole lot of reorganising. Unless it's multicolored, in which case I get very annoyed, because my own peculiar little quirk is that the multicolor section has to be sorted by color order. so WU comes before WUB comes before WB, etc...all the way down the line. So I hate multicolored rares. =D
I keep two binders. One for cards worth ~5 or less, and one for cards worth ~6 or more.
Both are sorted by color, but I don't worry about keeping copies of specific cards next to each other. I keep an empty/mostly empty page between each section to cover overflow from trades so that I don't have to keep moving stuff in the back.
Day of Judgment | Day of Judgment | Day of Judgment
Day of Judgment | Maelstrom Pulse | Maelstrom Pulse
Maelstrom Pulse | Goblin Guide | Eye of Ugin
And so on. The problem with this system is that when I obtain another copy of any cards, I have to do a crap load of reorganizing or insert the card somewhere else in the binder, meaning playsets get mixed up and spread out.
A friend of mine organizes like so:
Ob Nixilis | Ob Nixilis | Ob Nixilis
Ob Nixilis | EMPTY | Sorin Markov
Sorin Markov| Sorin Markov| Sorin Markov
He says so if he gets an additional copy of Ob Nixilis or Sorin (for example) he has one space to place it as the extra without having to reogranize. You can also just but a 1-of rare in there too. Moving a 1 of isn't nearly as tedious..
i've got this giant 3 inch binder thats divided up by standard and everything else, everything else is the stuff thats worth more than 2 dollars only. i also only do the 1 card per slot (double sided) thing, and everything is broken up by color, but not by set.
then theres two other binders i never take anywhere that are stuffed with the crappy rares.
I don't have a huge number of rares, so I just keep every single one that's not in a deck or I'm unwilling to trade in a small 3-ring binder. It's organized by WUBRG, Hybrid, Multicolor, Artifacts, Lands.
How do people get these amazing trade binders anyway? I see these people at fnm with binders worth atleast 2 thousand dollars and i'm wondering.. HOW?! I can never imagine getting that much. Does anybody have any tips for me? I only started when zendikar was first released. I've bought 2 boxes of worldwake and zendikar/1 fat pack and drafted 5 times. I still don't have anything good.
That seems like an entirely different discussion...
On topic, I've long ago ditched binders in favor of stacks. When I'm carrying trade fodder it's either in a Dragon Shield sleeve box or in one of the clear hard plastic card containers that SCG keeps sending me ;). It doesn't protect as well as a binder does but it's a lot handier and actually fits in one of those Ultra-pro Magic purses.
How do people get these amazing trade binders anyway? I see these people at fnm with binders worth atleast 2 thousand dollars and i'm wondering.. HOW?! I can never imagine getting that much. Does anybody have any tips for me? I only started when zendikar was first released. I've bought 2 boxes of worldwake and zendikar/1 fat pack and drafted 5 times. I still don't have anything good.
It's definitely knowing how to trade well. I've been playing since about 2003 and my trade binder is well, embarrassing, because I don't know how to trade. Plus when I was younger I had this thing where I couldn't let go of good cards (for example, a Pernicious Deed even though I wasn't using it).
As for my trade binder's organization, I have it organized by planeswalkers first (I don't know why, I just figured it would be cool) then by WUBRG. I do put multiple copies of the same card in the same slot, but it becomes troublesome when I have five or so copies. I'm going to have to re-organize it again sometime.
The T2 stuff is sorted by color for each set, but the extended, legacy, vintage stuff is just tossed in there in no order.
Also, this is the best bag ever freaking made. It's got a binder built into it and a place to hold my decks. I don't have to carry around a backpack with a box for my decks and a big ass binder.
I organized my binder to be eye catching for the most part.
p.1: Money Cards (Jace 2.0, other PW...etc)
p.2-5: Rare Lands (cause everyone is always looking for them)
p.5->: Pretty much group my cards as 4 ofs if I have them and any highlight cards (my beta sinkhole) go in the center slot of whatever page they are on.)
last pages: foils, foils, foils
The big question when putting together your trade binder is how is it easiest for you to get around it. Is it by organizing by color/set/rarity or do you even look at your binder (I know I don't) cause if you don't then your goal should be to make it easy for your fellow players to find your goodies.
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the user formerly known as isopsycho86
DCI Judge L2 - Minneapolis
Thanks to Megabug/Sgt Chubbz and Kracked Graphics for the Sig Legacy RUBFaithless Dredge
That's how I have my non-T2/casual deck cards sorted, but since I mainly trade my T2 stuff, I wanted to have my best cards up front. What do you do with playsets and the like? Do you just stuff them all in the same pocket or do you lay them out? Most people around here just stuff all of their copies of the same card in one slot on a page and that's what I've always done, but I've noticed that after a while it begins to damage the cards, stretches out the binder pages so that cards fly out when someone turns the page, and breaks the pages (especially if you've got four cards in the front and four in the back). But laying out playsets instead of grouping them means constant reorganizing and more binder space used up, so I'm unsure about what to do.
I just put them all in the same sleeve, wastes space to spread them all out. Six cards per sleeve (total front and back) is about the max without stretching the sheet to bad so I've ever had a problem with it. I just don't put playsets back to back.
I've tried many systems, reorganized the whole caboodle as my collection has grown.
I've played and collected for 15 years, and have most of my best cards all sleeved up in over 40 decks in deckboxes.
My 9-card-page binder system is a separate binder for each color and one for land, artifact and multicolor (I know this is only relevant if you have thousands of rares), most current set in the front, working back in time as you go deeper in the binder. Then all non-rare foils of that color together in the back.
I also have one of those smaller 4-card-page books that that is not really sorted, but just has cards I consider hot tradeables. This is the binder I actually bring around with me to FNMs and such....
Oh, and I only put one card per slot back to back (two cards total), so I can see how many of a card I have by looking instead of having to slide out the stack and count...
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The Steamflogged
Human Rigger Rebels
Resisting The Tyranny of the Anti-Contraptionists. Viva L'Assemblage!
Modern-- Fish; Jund; Burn; Affinity; Mill Legacy--UGBFood Chain; UFish; UBRG Delver Commander--UB Sygg, River Cutthroat; W Isamaru, H.O.K.WRG Naya grouphug Enchantress 60 Card Singleton -- WB value drain UN- -- W Weenie (Wordmail on Knight of the Hokey Pokey is good beats)
I just do Color(Gold-Colorless-white-blue-green-red-black-land)>Rarity(Mythic-Rare-Uncommon-Common)>Foil
ps i put all my valueble cards in sleeves and then put them into the page
4 cards per slot 1 card per slot if its sleeved
I have multiple binders: 1 for money cards, 3 for "all other rares". Each binder is sorted by color, then by casting cost. Money binder is one-card-per-slot-per-side, usually with perfect fits inside. Other binders are "How many of these can I cram in there without damaging them?".
I don't currently differentiate much between the normal binders and standard: if I did more trading with standard in mind, I'd keep that in a 5th binder, organized by block then by CC. That way, as it rotates, I could just move each page to the correct place in the non-standard binders.
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Anyway, I'm looking for some advice on how I should organize my trade binder. Before, I had some of my best cards from M10 through Shards up front, then I had Zendikar Rares and WWk Rares organized roughly by value, but the binder started to become very disorganized as I would trade cards, take other cards out for decks and acquire new cards.
I've finally started the task of reorganizing the T2 section of my binder. I figured I would put all of the best/most played/valuable T2 cards up front and then put the rares I don't care about in the back. Now, in the past, if I had, say, 4x Day of Judgment, I would just put them all into the same card page slot. However, this becomes a problem when you have a whole page full of playsets. The pages stretch out, they tear, the cards get warped and damaged from the constant pulling out and reinserting that people do when they are checking to see how many copies you have for trade. I thought that a better solution would be to lay out my pages something like this:
Day of Judgment | Day of Judgment | Day of Judgment
Day of Judgment | Maelstrom Pulse | Maelstrom Pulse
Maelstrom Pulse | Goblin Guide | Eye of Ugin
And so on. The problem with this system is that when I obtain another copy of any cards, I have to do a crap load of reorganizing or insert the card somewhere else in the binder, meaning playsets get mixed up and spread out.
What do you guys do? Do you just shove every copy of the same card in the same card page slot? Do you spread them out? What do you do when you get extras then? I'm just trying to find an easier way to lay out my binder so that I can flip through and instantly see how many copies of what I have and so that others can as well to help speed up deck building and trading.
Trades
Pucatrade with me!
(Signature courtesy of Argetlam of Hakai Studios
That's how I have my non-T2/casual deck cards sorted, but since I mainly trade my T2 stuff, I wanted to have my best cards up front. What do you do with playsets and the like? Do you just stuff them all in the same pocket or do you lay them out? Most people around here just stuff all of their copies of the same card in one slot on a page and that's what I've always done, but I've noticed that after a while it begins to damage the cards, stretches out the binder pages so that cards fly out when someone turns the page, and breaks the pages (especially if you've got four cards in the front and four in the back). But laying out playsets instead of grouping them means constant reorganizing and more binder space used up, so I'm unsure about what to do.
Trades
Pucatrade with me!
(Signature courtesy of Argetlam of Hakai Studios
I've seen many people do what you are saying... white rares, all one card per slot, blue rares, black rares, ect.... or by set and by color.
The most important thing is that there is a logical system that you can easily navigate to a card that someone asks for or that you need.
WWWWWUUUUUBBBBBRRRRRGGGGG
Both are sorted by color, but I don't worry about keeping copies of specific cards next to each other. I keep an empty/mostly empty page between each section to cover overflow from trades so that I don't have to keep moving stuff in the back.
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A friend of mine organizes like so:
Ob Nixilis | Ob Nixilis | Ob Nixilis
Ob Nixilis | EMPTY | Sorin Markov
Sorin Markov| Sorin Markov| Sorin Markov
He says so if he gets an additional copy of Ob Nixilis or Sorin (for example) he has one space to place it as the extra without having to reogranize. You can also just but a 1-of rare in there too. Moving a 1 of isn't nearly as tedious..
then theres two other binders i never take anywhere that are stuffed with the crappy rares.
The candles burn out for you; I am free.
On topic, I've long ago ditched binders in favor of stacks. When I'm carrying trade fodder it's either in a Dragon Shield sleeve box or in one of the clear hard plastic card containers that SCG keeps sending me ;). It doesn't protect as well as a binder does but it's a lot handier and actually fits in one of those Ultra-pro Magic purses.
It's definitely knowing how to trade well. I've been playing since about 2003 and my trade binder is well, embarrassing, because I don't know how to trade. Plus when I was younger I had this thing where I couldn't let go of good cards (for example, a Pernicious Deed even though I wasn't using it).
As for my trade binder's organization, I have it organized by planeswalkers first (I don't know why, I just figured it would be cool) then by WUBRG. I do put multiple copies of the same card in the same slot, but it becomes troublesome when I have five or so copies. I'm going to have to re-organize it again sometime.
Front->Back
Shards, Conflux, ARB, M10, Zen, WWK
Extended Stuff
Legacy, Vintage stuff.
The T2 stuff is sorted by color for each set, but the extended, legacy, vintage stuff is just tossed in there in no order.
Also, this is the best bag ever freaking made. It's got a binder built into it and a place to hold my decks. I don't have to carry around a backpack with a box for my decks and a big ass binder.
http://battlefoam.com/catalog.php?item=153&catid=77&ret=catalog.php%3Fcategory%3D77
p.1: Money Cards (Jace 2.0, other PW...etc)
p.2-5: Rare Lands (cause everyone is always looking for them)
p.5->: Pretty much group my cards as 4 ofs if I have them and any highlight cards (my beta sinkhole) go in the center slot of whatever page they are on.)
last pages: foils, foils, foils
The big question when putting together your trade binder is how is it easiest for you to get around it. Is it by organizing by color/set/rarity or do you even look at your binder (I know I don't) cause if you don't then your goal should be to make it easy for your fellow players to find your goodies.
DCI Judge L2 - Minneapolis
Thanks to Megabug/Sgt Chubbz and Kracked Graphics for the Sig
Legacy
RUBFaithless Dredge
I just put them all in the same sleeve, wastes space to spread them all out. Six cards per sleeve (total front and back) is about the max without stretching the sheet to bad so I've ever had a problem with it. I just don't put playsets back to back.
I've played and collected for 15 years, and have most of my best cards all sleeved up in over 40 decks in deckboxes.
My 9-card-page binder system is a separate binder for each color and one for land, artifact and multicolor (I know this is only relevant if you have thousands of rares), most current set in the front, working back in time as you go deeper in the binder. Then all non-rare foils of that color together in the back.
I also have one of those smaller 4-card-page books that that is not really sorted, but just has cards I consider hot tradeables. This is the binder I actually bring around with me to FNMs and such....
Oh, and I only put one card per slot back to back (two cards total), so I can see how many of a card I have by looking instead of having to slide out the stack and count...
The Steamflogged
Human Rigger Rebels
Resisting The Tyranny of the Anti-Contraptionists.
Viva L'Assemblage!
Legacy--UGBFood Chain; UFish; UBRG Delver
Commander--UB Sygg, River Cutthroat; W Isamaru, H.O.K.WRG Naya grouphug Enchantress
60 Card Singleton -- WB value drain
UN- -- W Weenie (Wordmail on Knight of the Hokey Pokey is good beats)
ps i put all my valueble cards in sleeves and then put them into the page
4 cards per slot 1 card per slot if its sleeved
I don't currently differentiate much between the normal binders and standard: if I did more trading with standard in mind, I'd keep that in a 5th binder, organized by block then by CC. That way, as it rotates, I could just move each page to the correct place in the non-standard binders.