Thread: How do you keep your cards?

I got some Pokemon cards for the first time the other day (it was the pack with a promo Latias plus three boosters) and I thought they were so cool that I decided I'd have to get more. I proceeded to order two starter decks and six booster packs all at once. They haven't arrived yet, but I took to thinking, how the heck am I going to store all these cards?

I image someone who plays the game would favor deck boxes while a collector might favor those plastic binder pocket sheet things.

My question for you is, how do you keep your cards? Also, are they grouped or ordered in any particular way? Do special cards get special treatment in terms of storage/display?

I personally like keeping sets together, except for holos. Binders are amazing here. You can get prebound ones with some great artwork at places like Target or comic book/card shops or you can buy your own binder and fill it with as many pocket sleeves as you wish. I run a mix of the two for all my cards.

Most holos and promos I keep in their own unique binder since these get accessed the most for trading. In it, I group the holos by elements (in no particular order). Where I can, I sleeve the holos for extra protection so they don't get scratched sliding in and out of the pouches. The promos get a section a bit further down in numerical order.

As for the others, I keep sets in the 9-tile binder sleeves in numerical order. I save space by placing them front and back so I essentially run 18 types of cards a page. If I'm running multiple sets in a binder, I usually have a divider between sections sometimes as simple as a piece of paper to having a page full of only energy.

I do have sets in the little 4 pocket books too since those have some pretty neat art on the front and they're great for toting around.

I don't buy cards too often so I will have a lot of gaps, but at least it's manageable. People who buy booster boxes will almost always have a surplus on a card in excess of 12 or more. Putting these in the pocket sleeves will probably burst them, so they probably just keep them in boxes. I don't really keep cards in boxes like that.

So yeah, best thing to do if you want to start collecting is get a binder set up with pocket sleeves. You can order them in any which way you choose at first, but you'll develop a system sooner or later and you can expand from there.

That's very interesting, I definitely like your idea of getting individual sleeves for special cards so they don't get continually rubbed as they are slid in and out of their binder pockets.

I have a binder where I keep all of my rare cards in sets, not types. I put cards such as my legendarys, promos, really good cards, ect.
I put all of my common and regular cards in these tins I get (I need some new ones). I organize these by type because I use them a lot. Then, so they dont get mixed up (very annoying) I make sure there is rubber bands around them. Trainers I put in one big stack and energies you can organize or, if you have enough, put in separate piles.
Also, a tip about starter decks, once your experienced enough you should take those apart.... handmade ones by an experienced person are always better!

Im not as big on the cards as I used to be but for my deck I have a old Zapdos deck case. As for my other cards I have a big box I keep in my room I keep the cards in. As for my Ancient Mew card I keep it beside my TV in a protective clear case. I have a few Mewtwo cards on my TV stand with the Ancient Mew card.

I don't.

I have a box type thing that holds all of the Japanese cards I got from a girl. And that is it.

I keep them organized by set, and in binders, leaving gaps for all of the cards I don't have. If you use binders dont put more then 2 cards in a pocket, it will stretch and ruin them

Here's how I organize...
1. Holos from older sets are either in large binders or sleeved and in deckboxes.
2. Newer holos are in a medium-sized binder.
3. EXs are in a medium-sized binder.
4. Decks are sleeved and in deckboxes.
5. Lv.Xs, *s, secrets, rare promos, Primes, Legends, etc. are in a small binder that is easy to look through and easy to transport.
6. All unplayable rares are unsleeved in deckboxes.
7. All unplayable commons/uncommons are unsleeved in cardboard boxes.
8. All playable commons/uncommons, as well as T/S/S, are unsleeved in deckboxes.

Anything I'm missing?

I keep all my cards in tons of binders, in sleeves :3

But the rare ones I keep in individual sleeves in a stack........

I keep my old gen 1 cards in white card boxes, once upon a time they were stored by type... and they still might be.

My current cards, which I have a lot less of, I keep in a larger decorative box, with my teams kept in those TCG tins.

Oh, but I do keep my teams in sleeves, as to not mess them up.

I gave up on trying to collect the cards and just enjoy playing with them. ^_^

I don't have tons of cards, but I keep the ones I do have in a binder with sleeves.

i keep most of my 1990's-early 2000's cards in a old red 1980ish G.I. Joe lunchbox, and would keep the rares/holos/promos/ones i liked in a pink and silver Rapidash tin box.

Since i've bought some more a few months ago, i now also keep the normals in the bottom of the Feraligatr/Johto starters tin and keep the coolest card on top in a elevated divider to show the picture in the little window on the box. The rest of the rares, ect. go just underneath that, but above the normals.

I also keep a few special cards in a small Gyarados/Raichu deck box.

I just stash all the common cards(energy, trainers, ect) in a giant shoebox and keep the rare ones in these little books that came with the Zatch Bell! TCG at my local dollar store.

1 binder for unplayable
1 binder for playable
1 minibinder for ultra rare/of-value-to-me cards