In my last article's comment section, reader Abram asked the above question, and I want to use this as the jumping-off point for today's piece. Let's answer Abram's question in a round-about manner, by talking about how and when to organize your cards.

First, we need to do some evaluation of what our time is worth. It takes a significant amount of time to organize cards. Anyone who's played Magic for more than, oh, 53 seconds, can agree with that. How long it takes is a product of how well they're already sorted, how deep your sorting algorithm goes and how quickly you can parse the cards with your mind/hands. For me, I've been sorting cards for years. I know most every card, know every set symbol, have the rarities of cards memorized, and so forth. If you're not a freak with every card in the last 15 years committed to memory (be glad, first of all), consider not doing full, perfect sorting.

Keep in mind this is for collectors, players, and other individuals. A retail store has other considerations that fall beyond the scope of my subject here at ManaNation, but their concerns are largely the same.

Anyway, I suggest that you pick a level of sorting that matches up with your needs as a player. What format(s) do you play? If you only play Standard, why not go through your older cards, filter out the non-bulk, and put the rest in a 5000 count box and mail it to a dealer who can waste their time sorting and selling it. There comes a time when getting a little extra value just isn't worth your time!

If you play Legacy, then you may have your work cut out for you. The irritating part about Legacy is that obscure cards often rise to stardom out of nowhere. If you keep your rares sorted well, you can make sure most of these are easily accessible, but what about the random Uncommon from Tempest that becomes sideboard tech? You don't want to have bulked that off. Thus, if you are a Legacy player, consider making a project of sorting more in-depth. As far as how to do the sorting and how to keep them organized, you have a few options that come down to necessity, space, and personal preference.

Space is a major consideration for players living in urban settings or in college dormitories. Portability is also a major factor. I've found that most of my college players who come to the shop enjoy having their commons and uncommons sorted in long boxes, with playsets of cards in penny sleeves. You can use 5000 count or 1000 count long boxes, but that will depend on the set of cards you're sorting. A 5000 count box is great for storing an entire block of cards, but a 1000 count is far more portable if you plan to bring your cards to events or you are transient (like in a dorm).

Binders are another way to store your playsets of commons and uncommons. The drawback is that you add a lot of weight and size to your collection by using 9-pocket binders, but you gain portability. You also get a visual display of your collection, which is very nice when combined with my next tip. When you pull a playset out of a binder, there's a visible hole in the book where the card should be. The drawback is that it's hard to tell precisely how many of a card are left in the binder, and when you stuff 4 cards into a pocket and stretch it out, you risk under-filled pockets jettisoning loose cards. Not fun stuff.

Let's go through and quickly recap the options:

Storage

• Binder
• Box

Depth of Sorting

• Standard
• Extended
• Legacy

Handling of Bulk

• Extras sorted in with playsets
• Extras filtered into bulk/trade
• Extras unfiltered/unsorted

Sorting Order

• Set/Rarity/Color/Alphabetical
• Set/Color/Rarity/Alphabetical
• Set/Rarity/Alphabetical/Color
• Set/Alphabetical
• Rarity/Set/Color/Alpha
• [There are clearly others but these are the ones I have mostly seen]

The Sorting Order seems meticulous, but I assure you that it's very important. In my shop, I separate out rares and "power uncommons" at the highest level. Thus, my first level of sorting is actually Rarity. Power Uncommons are uncommons that might as well be rares. Think Path to Exile, Vampire Nighthawk, Bloodbraid Elf, Wall of Omens, etc. $2 or more is the general rule of thumb for defining a Power Uncommon.

I really suggest Set/Alpha, with a top level Rare division, as your sorting method if you build your decks on MTGO, Workstation, or using Gatherer, as it's the easiest indexing system to use when you know precisely what you want. Having rares, mythics and power uncommons in their own binder or box makes it easier to bring your most relevant stock to tournaments for trading and selling, since you really don't want to haul your entire playset of Standard with you! I also like the top level Rare division because I can break the rule of "no more than a playset" by justifying it as trade stock. I can also keep a section of the box or binder reserved for the mid-tier uncommons (think Goblin Ruinblaster, Sprouting Thrinax, etc) of which I have a surplus. That way, I can get value out of them in a trade without having to dig for them. This method is very precise and allows you to quickly account for the location of everything you own, all while providing an effortlessly streamlined workflow when you need to split the collection and go to an event.

As far as the final decision between boxes and binders, you really want to base that on the quantity of stock you have. I have a 4-row long box filled with rares from Standard alone, and I had them in binders. The quantity of cards, including the fact that I had multiple playsets of many, was the deciding factor. I do something a little differently though, since I'm a retail store. I have a "set binder" with every rare in alpha order, divided by set. This acts as my retail display, since i have a binder for each set that I keep in the display case, but it also doubles as my restock warning since I'm not large enough to conduct live inventory yet. When the card is out of the binder, I know I have no more left. By only keeping one copy in a binder, and the rest in a box (preferably in individual penny sleeves)I reduce the chance of a big theft hurting me. It's much harder to steal a loaded 4-row box than it is to make off with a comparatively small binder. If someone steals my set binder, it sucks. If someone steals a giant box of rares, I'm probably dead.

To sleeve or not to sleeve. That is the question! Whether tis nobler to allow your cards to scuff in the name of sloth or....ah screw it. I was never good with Shakespeare anyway. I'm talking about penny sleeves here, not sleeving your deck (which is really not even optional anymore). Many players have asked my opinion on the matter, and here it is: sleeve. You should change how you sleeve based on how you're sorting, but since I like to keep multiple playsets of stuff on hand, I like to sleeve commons and uncommons four to a sleeve, and rares/mythics/power uncommons (these are all in the "rare box") in single sleeves. The reason is because I most often trade or sell commons in playsets and rares in non-playset quantities. It takes longer to inventory rares when I have to slide them out of a sleeve, but I still want them protected. It also lets me just give players their cards as they are, instead of sleeving them at the time of sale.

To close out this week, I want to give you a rundown of how I sort my cards from top to bottom. This is some real nerd stuff, but optimizing workflow is one of the biggest challenges facing those of us with more cardboard than time. We're going to assume that my entire stock of cards is 100% randomized, and I have no idea what I own. I talk a lot about how to lay out your piles, and this may seem pedantic to some. It matters a whole lot. When you are repeating a motion 100,000 times, shaving a few milliseconds off each iteration really adds up quickly. Trust me on this one, I'm not this obsessive unless I need to be.

Step 1 - Filter

Filtering is the process of filtering out "crap" cards from relevant ones. I only keep my cards sorted and indexed if they are Shards of Alara or later, because that is where the bulk of my collection is. I will make four piles - Older Bulk, Older Non-Bulk, New Rare, New Non-Rare. You can use these piles with any variable for "older" you like. I'd suggest capping Older as "before Lorwyn" since you can easily just factor in Standard and Extended into that sorting method. I find that 4 piles arranged in a 2x2 grid with about 2 inches of space between the piles makes for the fastest sorting. When you're sorting 6 digits of cards, the littlest things start to matter. This way, your piles can grow big and messy without screwing up your sorting rhythm. I suggest slightly unfocusing your eyes very slightly so your brain "reacts" to a card rather than processing it. This will double your sorting time, no joke. It takes practice and a distraction like music or TV, or even a conversation with another player, will help this "reactive sorting" process.

Step 2 - Block Sort

Set aside the stuff you specified as "older" and sort your "newer" piles into block. Again, a grid layout will work really well here, as you have the shortest distance between any two piles this way. If you're doing Lorwyn, Shards, Zendikar and Core Set, you can still use a 2x2 grid! Lorwyn and Shadowmoor were one block, remember!

Step 3 - Apply Your Algorithm

Now you have piles of half-sorted cards. Just go down the chart and apply the next level of sorting! This will almost always be "set", so use a 2x2 grid for LRW/SHM, 2-3 piles for Core Set, and a triangle shape for the 3-set blocks. For reprints (old or new) just assign them a pile based on their most recent printing. If you are sorting the older sets, just use a placeholder card or printed proxy and keep the cards with their newer bretheren. For example, if you are sorting Stronghold, slip a placeholder for Mana Leak in the "M" section and keep your Mana Leaks in your M11 stuff. This makes it much easier on everyone! The same basic process works for rarity too, so just apply that whereever in the algorithm you've placed it.

Step 4 - Alphabetizing

For some reason, this is the part that sucks. You can do Alpha a bunch of ways, but I have one way that works flawlessly for me. Go to Gatherer and set your filters to match your sorting algorithm. Set the output format to Visual Spoiler, and press Print. You'll get a 3x3 grid on paper in the precise order you need. Quickly look at the cards on the page, and start going through your stack and placing the cards on the page in the appropriate spot. You'll very quickly burn through 9 cards at a time. From there, you can put them in a binder or a box, however you like. Be careful, because sometimes Gatherer shows cards from older printings erroneously. This usually happens when a card was printed at a different rarity, like Act of Treason going from Uncommon to Common in M11. It will show up in both sorts, so just be wary if this happens. If you notice this, just add the card's name in the cardname field and choose "Not" as the modifier. Thus, it will not show you Act of Treason in M11 Uncommons if you ask it to show cards NOT named Act of Treason! A pain, but easily solved.

Once you've got your cards sorted as you need to, sleeve/binder them as you please. I don't like to keep more than a playset in a binder page or in a penny sleeve, since it stretches out the sleeve and also makes inventory more difficult. I have also found that if you want an easy way to mark a complete playset in a binder or sleeve, turn the bottom card of the set backwards. That way, you'll see the face of the card from both sides of the page or sleeve and know it's a full set. If you break the set, that's the first card you should pull out! Little hacks like this seem pointless at first, but when you implement them into your daily magical routine, you'll see some free time and energy appear seemingly out of nowhere. Remember, no matter how big your collection is, you should still treat it as a business, with profit margins, workflows, strategies and so on. I've been a big proponent of Life-Hacks (as these sorts of things are called) for a long time, so if you'd like to see more writing on the subject, please let me know in the comments. Thanks as always for your time and attention this week, and I'll talk to you soon.