Hey Andy. People REALLY have no idea of the amount of time and effort that went into that collection. I went through several different methods of organizing and many different containers of cards before I landed on this setup. My collection spans Alpha to the very latest sets. I can literally build like 70% of the competitive decks which existed from 1993 to 2015 with just what I already own. For the other decks, a small portion of money would allow me to build the decks I cannot build. And with all that I can literally go from decklist to assembled deck in like 5 min because I know exactly what cards I own and where they are. Dan (Open Boosters) and Rudy are good friends of mine but they focus on collections (largely Dan) and investment (largely Rudy). I'm the guy in that squad that focuses on playing and building decks. But each of us at least dabbles in the other areas. I have a decent supply of sealed boxes for investment... but truth be told... those are "invested" for the purpose of buying future cards for the playing-collection. NOT for profit lol!
Hi Francis, thanks for the comment and I'm glad to hear my passion comes through. Oh yeah I absolutely love my cards and playing games with them. It's really really hard for me to attend events in person just due to family/work constraints so when playing games over video chat started I was able to dive right back into something I loved so much.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer Family and work is the reason that I can't get into this kind of things too so watching some MTG RUclipsrs is the way of me to enjoy MTG
As a collector and player I have the same problem. I like old school cards (which are not to expensive) and play Standard or now Pioneer. Also I like certain sets. So I can feel you - happy some of us figured it all out :D
It took over a decade to really work out a good system. The only "pain" now happens when I buy a bunch of new cards. Because they must be organized, then digitally added to the collection, then filed away. So yeah, that's a process for sure... However it's literally spending 2 hours at the start to avoid 10 hours of lost time later. Or simply giving up and never touching those cards again because you cannot find anything. If I wanted to I could easily be playing in 4+ different formats, constantly building and editing decks however spending minimal time shuffling through cards to find them.
Hey edwin.. glad you push thru in re-uploading this video.. a while ago i saw this in my notif but video was removed or somthing. Good video as always. Its been a while since you uploaded a video. Anyway. I wanna share how my mtg organize.. I mainly play edh modern and a little pioneer. 1. All rares that are staples and expensive usually 10usd and above are on my binder. Each rares are group by colors.. 1 binder for artifact.. 1 binder for black and so forth. 2. All unc and com. Are in my little shelves or drawer.. i arranged it first by expansion then in that expansion by color and per color i alphabetized it. It takes a lot time initially but as you finish and moving forward it was easier for me. I did this so when im looking for a certain cards i will be able to know what expansion was it and i could find it easy..
Binders for $10 cards works great until you have too many of those for your binder. While your collection remains smaller, go for it! But if you stick with MTG (which I'm sure you will) and as your cards age (which we know they will) you WILL find yourself at some point with too many $10+ cards for a binder. Organizing by set works great when you have an extremely limited scope of format you play. Like if you only play Standard... great! But here is what that method misses... Does your collection REALLY need 50 copies of Disenchant? Well it was printed in set after set. So you organize by set and have more copies then you need... OR you thin down to 4... but which ones to pick? You run into a problem that way where you need those 4 copies and how have 30 different sets to thumb-through because you cannot remember which edition you kept. Either you waste money (keeping ones you don't need) or you waste time (having to remember which edition you kept.) I ran into that problem and the conclusion was... just put them all together in one major collection. Now instead of keeping 50 copies of Disenchant, those extra 46 copies were traded into other cards I didn't previously own... EXPANDING my actual collection and when I need my Disenchants... I know RIGHT where they are.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer great suggestion. Ill re-adjust my unc. And com. Into what you just recommended. So i can minimize multiple copies of the same card. Ill just keep the original print or the oldest print i have and trade or sell the rest. With regards to binders of the rare.. yeah indeed as time goes by and my mtg collection grow so as my binder.. currently i have 7 binders of 4 pockets.. ive been thinkin if i would just place it in a rectangular box or would still continue to put in the binder.. The advantage that i get with binders is pleasant in the eyes due to the organization of the cards. Plus i get to see quickly the cards that i need.. On the other hand if i removed it from my binder and put it in a box..it would be space saving, more cards to be put it per color.. but i wouldnt be able to trackdown which ones i lack in terms of completing it by 4 copies (4 copies for those modern staples and some legacy 93 94 pieces) some cards of mine doesnt need 4 copies though, since i use only 1 for edh...
lol thanks dude. I've been busy with crazy-world stuff and my free time switched over to playing with people online (via skype and whereby) rather than making videos.
I keep it simple. I have a 4 x 3 binder as my play binder with high end stuff. Then a 2 x 2 trade binder. I use a pro box and put that in my pocket. Alot easier carrying a 2 x 2 trade small binder because you dont need to carry a backpack.
Hey Edwin, awesome video. Are you still using this method of organizing today? I'm curious as to what BCW cardboard boxes your using for a perfect fit in the Malm? Appreciate it!
Hello Justin, Yeah I'm still doing this method of organizing! I've never found a BCW box to perfectly fit in the Malm drawers, but I did work out some solutions. One is that I used single row boxes which is handy because instead of dealing with the drawer and the back cards being deep in there... you can just remove a single row and work with it. Another thing is I bought some 4 row boxes and when they showed up flat, ready to be made... I just measured and re-drew lines onto them so I would cut/fold them into perfect size boxes. That took a lot more effort but it worked. Something important to note, one of my friends got an updated Ikea Malm drawer... and they made it like 35% shorter... meaning the drawers were not as tall and deep. That really ruined the value, because the drawers need to be tall in order to reach cards in the back when it's pulled out.
Thanks Edwin for the detailed response, and the heads up on the new Malm dims. I actually have an older Malm set so it'll definitely come in handly if I decide to go this route of storing my collection. Appreciate it!
Good to see Edwin. I am in the middle of organising my collection, which is probably a similar size to yours. However my problem is that I do play different formats and need access to lots of different things.
This is awesome! I've been thinking about getting a malm dresser as well. Has it been enough support for the amount of cards in each drawer? Also, do you have it wall mounted?
I don't know of a single card being damaged in my current setup, what is the concern? Those binders have an elastic strap that holds them together. I might not have been pulling it over them for the video but they are there.
Nowadays i know alot of big collectors stay away from straps (1 exception are those nice dragon shield portfolios,, the professor turned me on to those) due to the possiblity of increased pressure on the outer row of cards and a zipper helps protect better against dust and potential liquid spills
Hi! I made this video to show the software I use for collection inventory. ruclips.net/video/uz4oA2fQhno/видео.html I suspect deckbox.com would work better for small collections and decks. But I have not yet found a better tool then MTG Studio for large inventory. Specifically because it actually makes a distinction between stuff like a white border English Chronicles city of brass, and a black border korean city of brass, etc. Those differences matter greatly in price so I want my tool to reflect them.
That's funny, I was thinking the front camera view I look younger, and the side camera view I look older. Amazing what good lighting and setup can do. LOL
I absolutely love this video! Also, great to see you again buddy! The years have been extremely kind to you...jk... Everyone is talking about how good you look so thought I'd throw in a little comment myself! We all know you're only 30 years old!!!! Thank you so very much for another organization video, I really do hope to be as organized as you one day! Thanks for everything E.T.M.E!!!
Recently followed suit with cutting back to 4 only of any 1 card (per set) but have mine organised slightly differently: rares in separate folder, legendary in another, last 4-5 sets in full sets folders with commons & uncommons in bulk boxes but organised by set, colour, alphabetically - sadly I get a little OCD having to do even in WUBRGZXAL order too 😂 love the dresser though! 👍
My big exceptions are Disenchant, Lightning Bolt, Mishra's Factory, Strip Mine, Swords to Plowshares, Counterspell, Cities of Brass, and Chaos Orb. Lots and lots of copies of those since tons of decks need them and I keep 8+ Old School decks ready to go at all times.
I'm curious what you use to keep track of your collection on the PC? There are definitely times I wish I could organize my collection in more than one way at the same time. I sort by set and collectors number, except for foil, mythic, rare and alternate versions which goes in to binders. I scan every card with Delver Lens which I wish also had a PC-version to sync up to.
I use MTG Studio to keep track of my collection on the PC. If your priority is building decks... - Sorting by set fails because you end up with many copies of the same card printed in different sets. Wasting space and money. - Sorting by collectors number fails because it's a detail that does not matter in the slightest for building decks. - Sorting all foil/mythic/rare into binders fails because these days those are not indicators of value. So you end up with binders filled with trash cards. Binders exist to better protect expensive cards and make them easy to find.
You are a good man. And I know you think things through so when I'm curious is if you thought about the fact that you kind of put all eggs in one basket so you can save it if you needed to. however the flip side of that is all your eggs are in one basket in any criminal watching this video knows exactly what to look for now. I'm curious if you thought that that part through. But anyways that was fun to watch and I hope to see more cool cards I started in 93 revised whatever you're that was. I wish I was I got turned on two or three years earlier
Yes I did think about that. My expensive cards are in one place so I can secure them, and I do. They are extremely well secured and pretty hard to find too. Yeah I started MTG in 1996, pretty close to the start but even then the original print cards were already hard to find and expensive.
When you keep 4 of a card. Do you consider what set or artworkt there is. Like I had plenty of core 20 Shocks but I bought 4 of the M21 shocks because they had "new" artwork. Border also throws me off too. I have ommenspeaker in the Theros boarder and the modern boarder and I treat them seperately because in my mind they are different. Or. When a new version of an old card comes out. You replace the old version with a set.of the new ones? Or skip the new version since you have a set of the old version?
Hey man! I just saw this video on organizing a collection. Yes, I know, only been playing for a year so my collection is growing at the moment and I started to struggle. Thanks for the vid! I also saw your cube on top of the drawer. Do you have a list of that one? Been willing to make a cube, so any inspiration is welcome! Thanks for your tips and channel! Helps me out!
No prob Ryan. Those drawers are the Ikea Malm series, but I think the new versions of that series are not as deep drawers. Ikea downsized them a bit in new models. Here's the real answer though... What's nice about deep drawers is that they are inexpensive and the depth of the drawer allows your hands to reach all the way to the back of the card rows even though the drawer only pulls out 2/3 of the way. A library card catalog type drawer IS IN FACT the best solution if it has the right dimensions... but it turns out they are really expensive and hard to find in any kind of decent price. The reason is because library card catalog drawers pull all the way out which allows access to cards in the back... they are more compact wasting less space, and they have very strong side rails to support the weight of all those cards. If space is limited and you have the 10x budget, yeah totally get or custom make Library card drawers!
I use MTG Studio to track my collection of around 40k cards (almost never more then 4 copies of any card.) I use EchoMTG to track the price values of the most expensive 2000 cards in my collection.
What do you use to sleeve/store play your OS stuff? For example, all my cards live in KMC Hard Inner sleeves at all times and from there can be put in, and pulled out of dragon sleeves as I build and unbuild decks.
Hi James! For inner sleeves I use KMC perfect fits. For outer sleeves i use dragon shields. For storage I made this video :) ruclips.net/video/oZWJa-w2VSA/видео.html
Hey ! Nice vid, quick question : do you keep « useless » cards like 1/5 crab or other common cards, just in case you might need it some day ? Or just competitive cards ? Thanks
oh yeah, I keep up to 4x copies of all cards of the same name which come my way. Meaning even though Dark Ritual was reprinted like 20 times in various sets I only keep my one Beta edition playset. All others got traded/sold/given away. There are many many cards in my collection that I may never use... although it has proven to be GOOD to keep them. Because suddenly 10 years later players make a player-ran format, those cards are needed, and not only do I still have them but they go up in value!
I've been working on building my collected into binders. As I've chosen to play EDH as my format, trying to get all my cards into binders and down to just one copy of each has been hard. The problem is, most of my friends or people around me either play Modern or Standard. I think for me I'm having a hard time figuring out how I wanna sort my collection. I'd like to have everything in a database but it's so hard to find the time to do that.
My method would probably work great for you I think. Because I literally know every card I own, I don't waste money on more then 4 copies of anything (meaning I trade into owning other cards I didn't previously own with extra copies.) Once I have a deck list (usually designed in digital medium) I can physically go to my collection and find the cards within 2-5 min. It works great! The only drawback is the time spent setting it up like this. But... like I said in the video... that happens on the front end. Once for each card going in, then not anymore for that card.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer Edwin the Magic Engineer Thanks, yeah sadly right now I'm dealing with boxes for the bulk and I have folders right now of what I have in Legacy/Vintage folder, then another one for just the white border cards I own. What my system and thought processes were because I'm gonna play mostly EDH now. Is to keep on a copy of every card I do have and sort them into folders. Breaking them down by ages. Age one all the cards before Modren format. Then I broke it down by color, so I have a folder of all my white cards. I have another of my artifacts, lands, multi-color, and split cards. The problem I am having is I don't really have a good program that works for me to input all this data. I've already started sorting so I'd have to go back to the folders. I've also run out of sleeves and I'm at a point now, do I keep going which means I need to buy more 9-pocket sleeves or, do I restart by input everything in as I go so I'm not doing double work. That's my kind of issue is I wanna be able to build decks and test without having to put decks together.
oh wow! Somebody who remembers me from lightsaber development days! I do still have those videos. I just got so angry at the toxic community I completely removed myself from it. I deleted the videos from RUclips but I probably still have copies on a hard drive. I did keep some level of contact with some of the more prominant saber smiths. But I have not spoken to them in years.
@@lilmoris1 I should have been more clear, I didn't get hate over the videos. There was a whole thing that happened outside of the videos within the community. You might remember that there was kinda like 2 warring factions of builders. People who liked the single-LED Luxeon sabers, and people who liked the LED-stuffed Hyperdyne sabers. There was a war over which one is brighter. I finally got my hands on a real Hyperdyne on loan from Novastar (Matthew Carrudo). I did some actual scientific testing on it and PROVED that it was indeed MUCH brighter then the Luxeon sabers. I was much more a member of the Luxeon community, so they did not like me ending that fight with them losing. Then I started a home saber repair business. People sent me their broken sabers, I would repair the electronic boards and send them back. It was taking off and working great. The guy who owned Hyperdyne Sabers had an actual patent on the essence of lightsaber props. He was going around the internet nuking sales of other people's lightsaber replicas and pissing them off. Me being an actual engineer and knowing that my reputation mattered professionally, I didn't want to violate a patent. Even if it was mostly bullshit he even had it. So I contacted the owner of Hyperdyne Sabers and struck a legal deal allowing me to make and sell sabers by paying him royalties from my own profits. Of course I was open about that, so when I told the community they went ape shit. Saying I was paying blood money and attacking me personally. It pissed me off so bad I just sold it all, took down my videos and moved on. I was working directly with Erv Plecter, Novastar, Madcow, Alex Buckner (Ultrasabers), Tim TCSS, all of them. So I WAS in the inner circle but the community was not ok with my actions trying to avoid a patent lawsuit. That's what happened.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer That I didn't know, I'm 24 so I used to watch your videos as a kiddo, I do remember you tested which one was brighter but I never was that much into saber brands and stuff. Still if you ever feel like uploading them again that would be awesome! Childhood memories man!
Lol thx amigo, realised after watching the first one ;) Nicely done & helpful as usual :) lets hope the full lockdown ends soon so we can all get back to playing paper. I love your drawers, were they purpose made, or are they off the shelf units that have been adapted? As i'm interested in something like that.
These drawers were just a dresser from Ikea. It was called the Malm series. I realized a few things about the dresser setup which needed to be there to be functional. - They needed to have hefty drawer rollers to support the weight. - The drawers either need to extend ALL the way out (which puts immense load on the drawer rollers...) Or they needed to come out 70% of the way and be very tall drawers so you could still reach back to the cards in the back of boxes. - I didn't want to spend $2000 making custom drawers. So I really really did look around for a while eventually landing on this. I might someday actually build that custom drawer setup with super heavy duty drawer rollers... but until then this works.
Hi Edwin! I'l saw this same video 10hrs ago, then when I was about to watch it again - it seem that it disappeared. What happened? I feel like the matrix showed a glitch in the system. Lol. Keep making videos and stay safe! More power!
Hi Ben, I'm sorry for the confusion. This was totally my fault, not a glitch. I uploaded the video without double checking it. After it went live and I was reviewing the video I realized the last 5 min got completely cut off. It was an editing mistake I didn't catch. So I had to take it down, re-compile the video, upload, and transfer all the text/links to the new copy. I finished last night but I didn't want to send it live at midnight. So I waited until this morning. I'm sorry for the confusion but thanks so much for caring enough to check!
No unfortunately, they are too short. That would have been nice though. I actually just went ahead and bought 5000 count boxes and then cut/modified them as I was building them (lots of effort) to make them short enough to fit.
hello from Russia! You have a great collection and I see you organized it really cool. But how do you manage with foreighn cards ? In Russia it is impossible to collect only russian cards. You can avoid french, deutch and all moonspeaks but english... no no. Impossible. I try to collect only russian cards in modern sets but all older cards and bulk buys from ebay = mostly in english. Kiryllic is not Latin, for example card with name #Fireball# in russian is #Огненный шар# so a-z order cant be used... so l still sort by sets but when you have 10000+ collection it becomes difficult to build decks and use cards for games :( You are a happy man cause you can sort your collection in a-z order and dont have to use russian cards in your collection :) Good luck to you. +1 LIKE !
Sorry I did not reply earlier, RUclips apparently did not notify me about several questions being asked on this video. I do in fact have cards written in different languages. What I do is organize them based on the English name of the card. So first I figure out the English translation, then I look for other copies of that card (sometimes with different art/language) and I try to keep all similar copies near each other. As you might imagine, I prefer original print cards and usually prefer English so the cards are readable and also so the artwork helps even my opponent recognize the card during gameplay. I don't have a lot of Russian cards, but I DO in fact have a lot of Italian, German, Korean, and Japanese cards. Again though, usually they still have original artwork and I wanted them because the cheaper English ones with original art are Alpha/Beta and very Expensive. A couple great examples is Birds of Paradise and Lightning Bolt. I have FBB versions of those.
Hey Wayne, It was just a dresser from Ikea. The Malm series. And I have cardboard card dividers in it. I actually spent a LOT of time trying to answer the question of drawers. I came to a realization. Either you custom design them which is $$ or you buy something like what I have. Custom designed drawers would have VERY sturdy rails that pull out ALL the way. you can't access cards in the back of the drawer if the drawers are thin (just above card height) and don't pull out all the way. Deeper drawers solve this by giving you room to reach cards in the back even though they did not come out all the way. 10,000 cards in a drawer is a LOT of weight. And pulling out all the way puts HUGE strain on the rails. Only a custom setup could be built with those amazing rails. You're just not gonna find that in a pre-built product that's also the right height for cards. That's what I found. So maybe someday I will drop the cash and custom build my drawers... but not for now.
No, I use MTGStudio to track the entire MTG collection, and EchoMTG to price track the 2000 most expensive cards. Actually I have a whole video about it if you look for it in my Channel.
Hey Edwin how will oldschool deal with the banned cards regarding political correctness? Cards such as Invoke Prejudice, Crusade and Stone-Throwing Devils. Or is oldschool not concerned with Wizards sanctioned events?
There are discussions/arguments going on right now on that very topic. There is no uniform direction for the whole community. EDIT: I should note that WoTC does not have very many sanctioned Old School events. They are pretty rare.
Interesting question I have thought about myself. There was nothing pushing me to pick either way specifically and I wanted to try something different. I believe that's how Japanese is read, down and then right to left.
Of course that completely depends on what cards you are selling. Some cards are EXTREMELY expensive. Most cards are not worth the effort to even bother selling. Your first and best step is to find somebody local whom knows the game well and can review your small collection.
I really need to organize my cards by set and color/type, otherwise my brain just scrambles when looking for cards, LOL. I have an incredible memory index of cards, like some kind of idiot-savant of MTG(emphasis on the idiot part).
No, that is a video for a players collection, not for value collectors. The drawers are an actual method for organizing my collection around the purpose of building decks. I have no more then 4 copies of almost all cards I own. Yet with nearly 50k cards I can discover if I have the cards, and build any deck within like 15 minutes. THAT is the point of the system and why it's set up like that.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer He the next generation I'm sure he'd like anything someone like you Rudy or Daniel would donAte him even if it's just a collaboration vid
Well, that is certainly the best dresser to ever exist. Love this!!
Hey Andy. People REALLY have no idea of the amount of time and effort that went into that collection. I went through several different methods of organizing and many different containers of cards before I landed on this setup.
My collection spans Alpha to the very latest sets. I can literally build like 70% of the competitive decks which existed from 1993 to 2015 with just what I already own. For the other decks, a small portion of money would allow me to build the decks I cannot build. And with all that I can literally go from decklist to assembled deck in like 5 min because I know exactly what cards I own and where they are.
Dan (Open Boosters) and Rudy are good friends of mine but they focus on collections (largely Dan) and investment (largely Rudy). I'm the guy in that squad that focuses on playing and building decks. But each of us at least dabbles in the other areas. I have a decent supply of sealed boxes for investment... but truth be told... those are "invested" for the purpose of buying future cards for the playing-collection. NOT for profit lol!
Thank you sir for taking the time to respond back to me. I will check that out. Big fan of the videos keep them coming.
I am not even collecting cards or anything but the way that you manage them? Reflects the love that you have for the game and that is respectable.
Hi Francis, thanks for the comment and I'm glad to hear my passion comes through. Oh yeah I absolutely love my cards and playing games with them. It's really really hard for me to attend events in person just due to family/work constraints so when playing games over video chat started I was able to dive right back into something I loved so much.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer Family and work is the reason that I can't get into this kind of things too so watching some MTG RUclipsrs is the way of me to enjoy MTG
As a collector and player I have the same problem. I like old school cards (which are not to expensive) and play Standard or now Pioneer. Also I like certain sets. So I can feel you - happy some of us figured it all out :D
It took over a decade to really work out a good system. The only "pain" now happens when I buy a bunch of new cards. Because they must be organized, then digitally added to the collection, then filed away. So yeah, that's a process for sure...
However it's literally spending 2 hours at the start to avoid 10 hours of lost time later. Or simply giving up and never touching those cards again because you cannot find anything.
If I wanted to I could easily be playing in 4+ different formats, constantly building and editing decks however spending minimal time shuffling through cards to find them.
Started magic a few months ago and already have amassed a few bins, saving this for a year from now when I have enough cards to fill a dresser
I like that you start with Artifacts and Black, putting the good stuff in the beginning.
lol yep
Hey edwin.. glad you push thru in re-uploading this video.. a while ago i saw this in my notif but video was removed or somthing.
Good video as always. Its been a while since you uploaded a video.
Anyway. I wanna share how my mtg organize..
I mainly play edh modern and a little pioneer.
1. All rares that are staples and expensive usually 10usd and above are on my binder. Each rares are group by colors.. 1 binder for artifact.. 1 binder for black and so forth.
2. All unc and com. Are in my little shelves or drawer.. i arranged it first by expansion then in that expansion by color and per color i alphabetized it. It takes a lot time initially but as you finish and moving forward it was easier for me. I did this so when im looking for a certain cards i will be able to know what expansion was it and i could find it easy..
Binders for $10 cards works great until you have too many of those for your binder. While your collection remains smaller, go for it! But if you stick with MTG (which I'm sure you will) and as your cards age (which we know they will) you WILL find yourself at some point with too many $10+ cards for a binder.
Organizing by set works great when you have an extremely limited scope of format you play. Like if you only play Standard... great! But here is what that method misses...
Does your collection REALLY need 50 copies of Disenchant? Well it was printed in set after set. So you organize by set and have more copies then you need... OR you thin down to 4... but which ones to pick? You run into a problem that way where you need those 4 copies and how have 30 different sets to thumb-through because you cannot remember which edition you kept. Either you waste money (keeping ones you don't need) or you waste time (having to remember which edition you kept.)
I ran into that problem and the conclusion was... just put them all together in one major collection. Now instead of keeping 50 copies of Disenchant, those extra 46 copies were traded into other cards I didn't previously own... EXPANDING my actual collection and when I need my Disenchants... I know RIGHT where they are.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer great suggestion. Ill re-adjust my unc. And com. Into what you just recommended. So i can minimize multiple copies of the same card. Ill just keep the original print or the oldest print i have and trade or sell the rest.
With regards to binders of the rare.. yeah indeed as time goes by and my mtg collection grow so as my binder.. currently i have 7 binders of 4 pockets.. ive been thinkin if i would just place it in a rectangular box or would still continue to put in the binder..
The advantage that i get with binders is pleasant in the eyes due to the organization of the cards. Plus i get to see quickly the cards that i need..
On the other hand if i removed it from my binder and put it in a box..it would be space saving, more cards to be put it per color.. but i wouldnt be able to trackdown which ones i lack in terms of completing it by 4 copies (4 copies for those modern staples and some legacy 93 94 pieces) some cards of mine doesnt need 4 copies though, since i use only 1 for edh...
Neat organized drawer! I'll surely take inspiration from this for mine!
Awesome, let me know how it turns out.
It's great to see you again. It's been too long.
lol thanks dude. I've been busy with crazy-world stuff and my free time switched over to playing with people online (via skype and whereby) rather than making videos.
Love me some old school magic
I keep it simple. I have a 4 x 3 binder as my play binder with high end stuff. Then a 2 x 2 trade binder. I use a pro box and put that in my pocket. Alot easier carrying a 2 x 2 trade small binder because you dont need to carry a backpack.
That works great when the collection, trade, and deck count is small. I completely agree.
Later... it completely failed me as the collection grew.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer I'm just worried about theft when it comes to carrying that much in trading cards. That's a lot of stuff you carry.
Hey Edwin, awesome video. Are you still using this method of organizing today? I'm curious as to what BCW cardboard boxes your using for a perfect fit in the Malm? Appreciate it!
Hello Justin, Yeah I'm still doing this method of organizing!
I've never found a BCW box to perfectly fit in the Malm drawers, but I did work out some solutions. One is that I used single row boxes which is handy because instead of dealing with the drawer and the back cards being deep in there... you can just remove a single row and work with it.
Another thing is I bought some 4 row boxes and when they showed up flat, ready to be made... I just measured and re-drew lines onto them so I would cut/fold them into perfect size boxes. That took a lot more effort but it worked.
Something important to note, one of my friends got an updated Ikea Malm drawer... and they made it like 35% shorter... meaning the drawers were not as tall and deep. That really ruined the value, because the drawers need to be tall in order to reach cards in the back when it's pulled out.
Thanks Edwin for the detailed response, and the heads up on the new Malm dims. I actually have an older Malm set so it'll definitely come in handly if I decide to go this route of storing my collection. Appreciate it!
Good to see Edwin. I am in the middle of organising my collection, which is probably a similar size to yours. However my problem is that I do play different formats and need access to lots of different things.
Why is that a problem? I play in pretty much all formats using my collection method.
i WANT THIS. i have something to look and work forward to!
Wow, I wish I could hire this guy to organize my cards.
Wow, ty for the tips. It actually helps. Great vid.
The only thing that is more complicated than sorting magic cards is sorting a massive LEGO collection.
Both kinds of videos intrigue me.
Holy shit this is amazing. Seriously Epic!
You have a great organize collection 👍
This is awesome! I've been thinking about getting a malm dresser as well. Has it been enough support for the amount of cards in each drawer? Also, do you have it wall mounted?
Nice setup! I just recently started collecting again. Where did you find the Velcro deck box case that you have?
I think you need a better binder for your expensive cards. Something less floppy and with a zipper.
I don't know of a single card being damaged in my current setup, what is the concern? Those binders have an elastic strap that holds them together. I might not have been pulling it over them for the video but they are there.
Nowadays i know alot of big collectors stay away from straps (1 exception are those nice dragon shield portfolios,, the professor turned me on to those) due to the possiblity of increased pressure on the outer row of cards and a zipper helps protect better against dust and potential liquid spills
I use the BCW card house for all my cards. What do you think of the website deckbox.com? What was the program that you use? Really great video.
Hi! I made this video to show the software I use for collection inventory.
ruclips.net/video/uz4oA2fQhno/видео.html
I suspect deckbox.com would work better for small collections and decks. But I have not yet found a better tool then MTG Studio for large inventory. Specifically because it actually makes a distinction between stuff like a white border English Chronicles city of brass, and a black border korean city of brass, etc. Those differences matter greatly in price so I want my tool to reflect them.
You look 10 years younger!
That's funny, I was thinking the front camera view I look younger, and the side camera view I look older. Amazing what good lighting and setup can do. LOL
Nice vid. Man that opening and ending sound is deafening lol
Hey Edwin, do you have a link to somewhere I could buy one of these deckboxes? (@9:48) It looks awesome!
I absolutely love this video! Also, great to see you again buddy! The years have been extremely kind to you...jk... Everyone is talking about how good you look so thought I'd throw in a little comment myself! We all know you're only 30 years old!!!! Thank you so very much for another organization video, I really do hope to be as organized as you one day! Thanks for everything E.T.M.E!!!
lol what a nice comment, thanks for that. I'm actually 44 but I'm glad to hear I don't look it.
Recently followed suit with cutting back to 4 only of any 1 card (per set) but have mine organised slightly differently: rares in separate folder, legendary in another, last 4-5 sets in full sets folders with commons & uncommons in bulk boxes but organised by set, colour, alphabetically - sadly I get a little OCD having to do even in WUBRGZXAL order too 😂 love the dresser though! 👍
Nice video, i also do the 4 cards thing with the exception of staples like sol rings etc.
My big exceptions are Disenchant, Lightning Bolt, Mishra's Factory, Strip Mine, Swords to Plowshares, Counterspell, Cities of Brass, and Chaos Orb. Lots and lots of copies of those since tons of decks need them and I keep 8+ Old School decks ready to go at all times.
I'm curious what you use to keep track of your collection on the PC?
There are definitely times I wish I could organize my collection in more than one way at the same time.
I sort by set and collectors number, except for foil, mythic, rare and alternate versions which goes in to binders.
I scan every card with Delver Lens which I wish also had a PC-version to sync up to.
I use MTG Studio to keep track of my collection on the PC.
If your priority is building decks...
- Sorting by set fails because you end up with many copies of the same card printed in different sets. Wasting space and money.
- Sorting by collectors number fails because it's a detail that does not matter in the slightest for building decks.
- Sorting all foil/mythic/rare into binders fails because these days those are not indicators of value. So you end up with binders filled with trash cards. Binders exist to better protect expensive cards and make them easy to find.
Damn this is extreme!
It's how I roll, nerdy and overly thought out lol
You are a good man. And I know you think things through so when I'm curious is if you thought about the fact that you kind of put all eggs in one basket so you can save it if you needed to. however the flip side of that is all your eggs are in one basket in any criminal watching this video knows exactly what to look for now. I'm curious if you thought that that part through. But anyways that was fun to watch and I hope to see more cool cards I started in 93 revised whatever you're that was. I wish I was I got turned on two or three years earlier
Yes I did think about that. My expensive cards are in one place so I can secure them, and I do. They are extremely well secured and pretty hard to find too.
Yeah I started MTG in 1996, pretty close to the start but even then the original print cards were already hard to find and expensive.
When you keep 4 of a card. Do you consider what set or artworkt there is. Like I had plenty of core 20 Shocks but I bought 4 of the M21 shocks because they had "new" artwork.
Border also throws me off too. I have ommenspeaker in the Theros boarder and the modern boarder and I treat them seperately because in my mind they are different.
Or. When a new version of an old card comes out. You replace the old version with a set.of the new ones? Or skip the new version since you have a set of the old version?
Hey man!
I just saw this video on organizing a collection. Yes, I know, only been playing for a year so my collection is growing at the moment and I started to struggle. Thanks for the vid!
I also saw your cube on top of the drawer. Do you have a list of that one? Been willing to make a cube, so any inspiration is welcome!
Thanks for your tips and channel! Helps me out!
Nice video -- incredible collection! Where did you get that organizing tray you showed with 25 slots?
I also would like to know
It's the BCW Card Sorting Tray :)
www.bcwsupplies.com/card-sorting-tray
What software or websites do you use to keep track and organize your mtg collection ?
Sorry if this is a repeat question but what kind of drawers are those. My wife thinks a library card catalog would be best but I like this setup more
No prob Ryan. Those drawers are the Ikea Malm series, but I think the new versions of that series are not as deep drawers. Ikea downsized them a bit in new models.
Here's the real answer though... What's nice about deep drawers is that they are inexpensive and the depth of the drawer allows your hands to reach all the way to the back of the card rows even though the drawer only pulls out 2/3 of the way.
A library card catalog type drawer IS IN FACT the best solution if it has the right dimensions... but it turns out they are really expensive and hard to find in any kind of decent price. The reason is because library card catalog drawers pull all the way out which allows access to cards in the back... they are more compact wasting less space, and they have very strong side rails to support the weight of all those cards.
If space is limited and you have the 10x budget, yeah totally get or custom make Library card drawers!
Would you recomend magic workstation or mtg studio?
I use MTG Studio to track my collection of around 40k cards (almost never more then 4 copies of any card.)
I use EchoMTG to track the price values of the most expensive 2000 cards in my collection.
What do you use to sleeve/store play your OS stuff? For example, all my cards live in KMC Hard Inner sleeves at all times and from there can be put in, and pulled out of dragon sleeves as I build and unbuild decks.
Hi James! For inner sleeves I use KMC perfect fits. For outer sleeves i use dragon shields.
For storage I made this video :)
ruclips.net/video/oZWJa-w2VSA/видео.html
Are your multicolor broken out by color combo, or just straight A-Z
Hey ! Nice vid, quick question : do you keep « useless » cards like 1/5 crab or other common cards, just in case you might need it some day ? Or just competitive cards ? Thanks
oh yeah, I keep up to 4x copies of all cards of the same name which come my way. Meaning even though Dark Ritual was reprinted like 20 times in various sets I only keep my one Beta edition playset. All others got traded/sold/given away. There are many many cards in my collection that I may never use... although it has proven to be GOOD to keep them. Because suddenly 10 years later players make a player-ran format, those cards are needed, and not only do I still have them but they go up in value!
I've been working on building my collected into binders. As I've chosen to play EDH as my format, trying to get all my cards into binders and down to just one copy of each has been hard. The problem is, most of my friends or people around me either play Modern or Standard. I think for me I'm having a hard time figuring out how I wanna sort my collection. I'd like to have everything in a database but it's so hard to find the time to do that.
My method would probably work great for you I think. Because I literally know every card I own, I don't waste money on more then 4 copies of anything (meaning I trade into owning other cards I didn't previously own with extra copies.) Once I have a deck list (usually designed in digital medium) I can physically go to my collection and find the cards within 2-5 min. It works great!
The only drawback is the time spent setting it up like this. But... like I said in the video... that happens on the front end. Once for each card going in, then not anymore for that card.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer Edwin the Magic Engineer Thanks, yeah sadly right now I'm dealing with boxes for the bulk and I have folders right now of what I have in Legacy/Vintage folder, then another one for just the white border cards I own.
What my system and thought processes were because I'm gonna play mostly EDH now. Is to keep on a copy of every card I do have and sort them into folders. Breaking them down by ages. Age one all the cards before Modren format. Then I broke it down by color, so I have a folder of all my white cards. I have another of my artifacts, lands, multi-color, and split cards.
The problem I am having is I don't really have a good program that works for me to input all this data. I've already started sorting so I'd have to go back to the folders. I've also run out of sleeves and I'm at a point now, do I keep going which means I need to buy more 9-pocket sleeves or, do I restart by input everything in as I go so I'm not doing double work. That's my kind of issue is I wanna be able to build decks and test without having to put decks together.
What ever happened to old those lightsaber videos of yours? Used to watch them when I was younger. You should re-upload them! They're cool
oh wow! Somebody who remembers me from lightsaber development days!
I do still have those videos. I just got so angry at the toxic community I completely removed myself from it. I deleted the videos from RUclips but I probably still have copies on a hard drive.
I did keep some level of contact with some of the more prominant saber smiths. But I have not spoken to them in years.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer You should re-upload them! They're great! Sorry to hear that you got hate for those videos, I always enjoyed them
@@lilmoris1 I should have been more clear, I didn't get hate over the videos. There was a whole thing that happened outside of the videos within the community. You might remember that there was kinda like 2 warring factions of builders. People who liked the single-LED Luxeon sabers, and people who liked the LED-stuffed Hyperdyne sabers. There was a war over which one is brighter.
I finally got my hands on a real Hyperdyne on loan from Novastar (Matthew Carrudo). I did some actual scientific testing on it and PROVED that it was indeed MUCH brighter then the Luxeon sabers. I was much more a member of the Luxeon community, so they did not like me ending that fight with them losing.
Then I started a home saber repair business. People sent me their broken sabers, I would repair the electronic boards and send them back. It was taking off and working great. The guy who owned Hyperdyne Sabers had an actual patent on the essence of lightsaber props. He was going around the internet nuking sales of other people's lightsaber replicas and pissing them off.
Me being an actual engineer and knowing that my reputation mattered professionally, I didn't want to violate a patent. Even if it was mostly bullshit he even had it. So I contacted the owner of Hyperdyne Sabers and struck a legal deal allowing me to make and sell sabers by paying him royalties from my own profits. Of course I was open about that, so when I told the community they went ape shit. Saying I was paying blood money and attacking me personally.
It pissed me off so bad I just sold it all, took down my videos and moved on. I was working directly with Erv Plecter, Novastar, Madcow, Alex Buckner (Ultrasabers), Tim TCSS, all of them. So I WAS in the inner circle but the community was not ok with my actions trying to avoid a patent lawsuit.
That's what happened.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer That I didn't know, I'm 24 so I used to watch your videos as a kiddo, I do remember you tested which one was brighter but I never was that much into saber brands and stuff. Still if you ever feel like uploading them again that would be awesome! Childhood memories man!
Thanks for sharing.
Hi I'm just wondering How did you make your Proxy cards
Lol thx amigo, realised after watching the first one ;) Nicely done & helpful as usual :) lets hope the full lockdown ends soon so we can all get back to playing paper. I love your drawers, were they purpose made, or are they off the shelf units that have been adapted? As i'm interested in something like that.
These drawers were just a dresser from Ikea. It was called the Malm series. I realized a few things about the dresser setup which needed to be there to be functional.
- They needed to have hefty drawer rollers to support the weight.
- The drawers either need to extend ALL the way out (which puts immense load on the drawer rollers...) Or they needed to come out 70% of the way and be very tall drawers so you could still reach back to the cards in the back of boxes.
- I didn't want to spend $2000 making custom drawers.
So I really really did look around for a while eventually landing on this. I might someday actually build that custom drawer setup with super heavy duty drawer rollers... but until then this works.
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer Brilliant. I will check out Ikea when they re-open :) Especially liked the coloured mana symbols you made, great idea!
Hi Edwin! I'l saw this same video 10hrs ago, then when I was about to watch it again - it seem that it disappeared. What happened? I feel like the matrix showed a glitch in the system. Lol. Keep making videos and stay safe! More power!
Hi Ben, I'm sorry for the confusion. This was totally my fault, not a glitch. I uploaded the video without double checking it. After it went live and I was reviewing the video I realized the last 5 min got completely cut off. It was an editing mistake I didn't catch.
So I had to take it down, re-compile the video, upload, and transfer all the text/links to the new copy. I finished last night but I didn't want to send it live at midnight. So I waited until this morning. I'm sorry for the confusion but thanks so much for caring enough to check!
Where'd you get the dividers? They're really awesome and would love to grab a set.
I made them on my 3D printer
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer ahh, I figured that was going to be the case. Great work, and thanks for the quick reply!
Will those drawers fit the 5000 count boxes?
No unfortunately, they are too short. That would have been nice though. I actually just went ahead and bought 5000 count boxes and then cut/modified them as I was building them (lots of effort) to make them short enough to fit.
Edwin the Magic Engineer Thank you! I do like those drawers
how do you determine whats in your cube? I'm looking to set up my collection for draft purposes.
Use your favorite Fat Pack box for your trade. Otherwise good.
LOL Noted. thanks for the feedback :)
hello from Russia! You have a great collection and I see you organized it really cool. But how do you manage with foreighn cards ? In Russia it is impossible to collect only russian cards. You can avoid french, deutch and all moonspeaks but english... no no. Impossible. I try to collect only russian cards in modern sets but all older cards and bulk buys from ebay = mostly in english. Kiryllic is not Latin, for example card with name #Fireball# in russian is #Огненный шар# so a-z order cant be used... so l still sort by sets but when you have 10000+ collection it becomes difficult to build decks and use cards for games :( You are a happy man cause you can sort your collection in a-z order and dont have to use russian cards in your collection :) Good luck to you. +1 LIKE !
Sorry I did not reply earlier, RUclips apparently did not notify me about several questions being asked on this video.
I do in fact have cards written in different languages. What I do is organize them based on the English name of the card. So first I figure out the English translation, then I look for other copies of that card (sometimes with different art/language) and I try to keep all similar copies near each other. As you might imagine, I prefer original print cards and usually prefer English so the cards are readable and also so the artwork helps even my opponent recognize the card during gameplay.
I don't have a lot of Russian cards, but I DO in fact have a lot of Italian, German, Korean, and Japanese cards. Again though, usually they still have original artwork and I wanted them because the cheaper English ones with original art are Alpha/Beta and very Expensive. A couple great examples is Birds of Paradise and Lightning Bolt. I have FBB versions of those.
Do you organize all uncommon and common cards in the drawers also?
That drawer unit is awesome where did u get it or did you design yourself??
Hey Wayne, It was just a dresser from Ikea. The Malm series. And I have cardboard card dividers in it.
I actually spent a LOT of time trying to answer the question of drawers. I came to a realization. Either you custom design them which is $$ or you buy something like what I have.
Custom designed drawers would have VERY sturdy rails that pull out ALL the way. you can't access cards in the back of the drawer if the drawers are thin (just above card height) and don't pull out all the way. Deeper drawers solve this by giving you room to reach cards in the back even though they did not come out all the way.
10,000 cards in a drawer is a LOT of weight. And pulling out all the way puts HUGE strain on the rails. Only a custom setup could be built with those amazing rails. You're just not gonna find that in a pre-built product that's also the right height for cards. That's what I found.
So maybe someday I will drop the cash and custom build my drawers... but not for now.
Would love a link to the collection software you use.
I made a whole video about them!
ruclips.net/video/uz4oA2fQhno/видео.html
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer Thanks a ton. I totally missed it. Love the content man. Very straightforward and easy to understand.
Man I miss playing cube in person lol
Show us the vintage deck!
It's similar to this one. Minor changes since then.
ruclips.net/video/K_MFoOO8Qs4/видео.html
Do you use Excell to catalog you collection?
No, I use MTGStudio to track the entire MTG collection, and EchoMTG to price track the 2000 most expensive cards.
Actually I have a whole video about it if you look for it in my Channel.
how do you sort your lands?
Hey Edwin how will oldschool deal with the banned cards regarding political correctness? Cards such as Invoke Prejudice, Crusade and Stone-Throwing Devils. Or is oldschool not concerned with Wizards sanctioned events?
There are discussions/arguments going on right now on that very topic. There is no uniform direction for the whole community.
EDIT: I should note that WoTC does not have very many sanctioned Old School events. They are pretty rare.
Observation and question. Your cards are organized right to left, backwards of every organizational system I can think of. Why? Are you left handed?
Interesting question I have thought about myself. There was nothing pushing me to pick either way specifically and I wanted to try something different. I believe that's how Japanese is read, down and then right to left.
Hey I’m looking to sell my cards I have 610 cards how much money would that get me?
Of course that completely depends on what cards you are selling. Some cards are EXTREMELY expensive. Most cards are not worth the effort to even bother selling.
Your first and best step is to find somebody local whom knows the game well and can review your small collection.
Wow!
Référencement
I really need to organize my cards by set and color/type, otherwise my brain just scrambles when looking for cards, LOL. I have an incredible memory index of cards, like some kind of idiot-savant of MTG(emphasis on the idiot part).
It's interesting how much the memory ability is triggered when the topic is exciting to us.
Me who puts 1 dollar cards in binders 0_0
Note that this video is not intended for collectors. These tips are not tips, this is just a dumb video showing off his drawers...
No, that is a video for a players collection, not for value collectors. The drawers are an actual method for organizing my collection around the purpose of building decks.
I have no more then 4 copies of almost all cards I own. Yet with nearly 50k cards I can discover if I have the cards, and build any deck within like 15 minutes. THAT is the point of the system and why it's set up like that.
Quit oldschool thas blasfamy :D
lol
Send the kid from young mage RUclips channel some free cards. His dad played since beta he is next generation give him props
does he have any interest in Old School?
@@EdwintheMagicEngineer He the next generation I'm sure he'd like anything someone like you Rudy or Daniel would donAte him even if it's just a collaboration vid
I have to make a joke about OCD. That's all that was the joke