Useful Tips for Organizing Your TCG Cards

Useful Tips for Organizing Your TCG Cards

If you’re into trading card games, you already know the thrill of finding that perfect card to include in your deck or collection. You know the glorious fun of sifting through thousands of cards at the shop until you find that one that takes your strategy to the next level. You’re probably also aware of the challenge that storing your trading cards can become. Cards are delicate things, sensitive to both light and moisture, plus most storage methods don’t organize them well enough for you to be able to find what you’re looking for within your collection quickly (it can sometimes take hours to find that one card within boxes of cards).

The following will break down some useful tips for storing and organizing your trading card game cards. The goal is to protect the cards and keep them from taking up too much space while simultaneously keeping things accessible.

Think About Moisture

Trading cards are made out of thick paper. Yes, some of them have gloss coatings, but they’re still incredibly susceptible to water damage. Because of this, you want to store them somewhere that isn’t too humid (avoid basements, garages, bathrooms, kitchens, or similar areas). The ideal humidity range is somewhere between 30% to 40%. If you don’t have the option of a non-humid storage environment (for instance, if you live in a hot and muggy climate), you might want to look into getting a dehumidifier. As a bonus, dehumidifiers can help reduce symptoms of allergies, asthma and reduce the chances of you getting sick. They also reduce the risk of mold or mildew growing in your home, both of which are toxic.

Think About Light

Trading cards often are covered in truly breathtaking works of art. When we first get the cards, they’re shiny and crisp with rich colors, but over time, UV rays can fade this artwork resulting in dull images. To prevent this, try storing your cards away from windows or in containers with a lid that stops the sun from getting in. Keep in mind that the lightbulbs in your house can also damage the images on your cards.

Fingerprints, Hand Damage, Bends, Cracks, And Rips

Of course, if you’re collecting trading cards, you’re also likely taking them out from time to time and playing games with them. That is, after all, what they’re designed for—but playing with cards brings a risk of them getting damaged with the oil from our skin (no matter how often we wash our hands, our skin produces oil), bends on the corners, cracks, rips, and fingerprints. One of the best solutions to this problem is to store each individual card in its own sleeve. This way, you and your buddies aren’t touching the card itself but only the sleeve. The professionals behind customcardsleeves.com point out that you can even get custom designs and colors to help keep your cards separate from your friends. Sleeves can also help with strategy as we all have that one friend who has memorized that the card that’s slightly faded on the back with a nick in the top left corner is the one you need to perform your best strategy, and so that’s the one they steal from your hand. Sleeves can disguise the back of your cards to keep extremely clever friends at bay.

Sort By Type

Depending on what game you’re playing, you probably have different types of cards. Yes, you’ve got your main deck (or decks) inside individual deck boxes, but you also have a massive bench full of cards you might incorporate depending on your mood, strategy, and opponent.

It might be a good idea to store all the energy/manna cards in one box, binder, or bin, all the low-tier cards in another, and the medium and high-tier in a third. This will allow you to make quick alterations to your deck without having to sort through eight thousand fire energy cards to find that one monster you need to beat your cousin whenever he comes over (but you don’t typically use facing other opponents).

Within these three or four binders or boxes, you might want to sort additionally by element or type so that you can find exactly what you need for whatever deck you’re using. No one likes holding up the gang because they can’t find the final piece for their perfect new strategy.

The above tips should help you organize and safely store your trading card game cards. It’s a great idea to ensure that whatever method you use (binder, box, or bin), you keep things labeled, and you leave space for new additions.

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Ibuki


Aspiring ninja.

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