Collecting, Organizing, and Storing Collectible Games

ahhh, collecting . . . it's fun.  image from here

Collectible card games (CCGs) are near and dear to my heart (see reasons why here and here).  One endearing feature is the 'living' aspect of these games- new cards get released several times a year, delivering an ever-changing experience and ever-expanding options.  With this benefit, though, comes several challenges.  Collecting, organizing, and storing your cards can become a time-consuming endeavor; this post offers options for efficiently handling your collection.  As someone who has spent hundreds of hours sorting cards, you'd be wise to heed my advice.

Collecting
A CCG can produce so many cards it can be hard to know how to start collecting.  What's the best approach?  Well, it depends on your finances and level of interest.  Each choice requires differing amounts of money and storage, and gives differing levels of deck building options (what I call 'flexibility').  Here are the most common angles:

Collect everything
The goal here is to collect every card ever released.  It's the most expensive by far, takes the most storage, but gives the greatest amount of flexibility.  With this option, you can create any deck ever made.  This is recommended for only the die-hard fan with few other hobbies or financial obligations.

Collect only certain expansions
Perhaps you love a game but don't have the time or money to exhaustively collect it.  You may then want to focus on certain expansions that suit your fancy and ignore others.  I do this with Magic: The Gathering.  I'll buy an expansion if the theme or card mechanics interest me, and (maybe) buy a lot of it.  Then, I'll ignore the next few releases to save for the next expansion of interest.  The result is fairly flexible- I can make a wide variety of decks- but within the bounds of a given expansion.

Collect only certain quantities 
Some prefer to buy a certain quantity of each expansion and be content with what you get.  For example, buy one booster box of each Magic: The Gathering expansion and that's it.  It's a predictable expense, cheaper than the first two options, and fun to see what you can do with the limited collection.  The downside: you might not get the cards you really want, and your deck construction options might be more limited.

Collect only certain cards
If you care only about building a certain kind of deck, you can ignore the blind buy concept completely and purchase single cards.  Doing so is the most cost-efficient and least wasteful but gives you the least flexibility, too, if you ever want to 'change things up': even minor adjustments can require frequent purchases.

The options in summary: the more you collect, the more storage you'll require and money you'll spend, but the more flexibility you'll have when it comes to building a deck.  The above go from most (money/cards/storage/flexibility) to least.


Organizing
Once you have a collection, it behooves you to organize it.  If you don't, finding specific cards can be a nightmare (trust me).  There are different ways to organize your collection.  Using Magic as an example, you can sort by:
- color
- expansion
- card type (land, creature, etc.)
- and more
I'm starting to prefer organizing by expansion, but whatever you choose, be consistent.  It's the only way to facilitate relatively rapid card retrieval.

this method is ill-advised . . . image from here

Storing
Once cards are organized, you'll need to store them.  The primary storage methods are binders and card boxes.

binders or boxes . . . which to choose?  image from here

Binders:
I've used binders before because they're easy to flip through to view/locate cards.  Unfortunately, they take up lots of space, you'll need a lot of them for a sizable collection, and it takes a lot of time to put cards in (or retrieve cards from) the binders.

binders have their benefits but take up a lot of room. . . image from here

Card boxes:
I've gravitated toward card boxes over the years.  It's a much more compact storage solution, which matters (remember, collections can accumulate fast).  The downside: it can take a while to find the cards you like, and there's no fast way to flip through things.

a nicely-organized collection in boxes, sorted by expansion.  image from here

Conclusion
CCGs are a blast, but don't let your cards own you: stay in control through systematic approaches to collecting, organizing, and storing.  You'll spend less time managing and more time playing.