Collecting How Do You Organize Your Collection?

I organize by set now, which is something I resisted doing for years because it's unoriginal and sort of boring. However, it was the only practical way I could come up with because new cards come out all the time and doing it any other way would require massive amounts of reshuffling every three months. Originally I had my favorite card of each Pokemon in one binder, then all of the other cards in National Dex order, with all of the cards of the same Pokemon shoved together in one pocket. It became completely unpractical, especially for the Kanto Pokemon that upwards of 20+ cards.

Binder #1: Base - Legendary Collection (including Vending and VS)
Binder #2: Expedition - EX Dragon
Binder #3: EX Magma/Aqua - EX Unseen Forces
Binder #4: EX Delta Species - EX Power Keepers
Binder #5: Diamond and Pearl - Rising Rivals
Binder #6: Supreme Victors - Call of Legends
Binder #7: Black and White - Legendary Treasures
Binder #8: XY - Roaring Skies
Binder #9: All English Black Star promo sets, POP sets, Japanese movie half decks, etc.

Yep, the TCG has so much history now that it takes NINE BINDERS to document each and every set. And these aren't tiny one-inch binders, either. Most of them are three-inchers.
 
I'm more of a collector then TCG player, I'm kinda picky on how I order them and it gets changed around alot...

Binder#1 Kanto
Binder#2 Johto
Binder#3 Hoenn
Binder#4 Sinnoh
Binder#5 Unova
Binder#6 Kalos

Binder#7 Rares-UR divided by alphabetically these are usually never moved around to avoid scuffing
 
From a player's standpoint, I usually sell my bulk so any boosters I get automatically get sorted C/UC/R/ Reverse as well as bad holo cards. My playable trainer cards are in one binder and separated from items, supporters, stadiums, and Special energy. The items are separated into what they do, i.e. Draw cards, energy manipulation, switching, search, so on. Supporters are just organized with each other, same for stadiums and SE. In another binder I have Pokemon, starting with Ultra rares then holos then playable Rares/reverses. Keeps deck building simple.
 
I store my reverse holo, holos and EXs in a Ultra Pro Collector's Album and the rest in Jammers Card Storage 1100 boxes.
 
Personally, I have four separate binders. One big massive one where I keep one card of each Pokemon, so it's kinda like a card Pokedex. Then I have my large binder full of Ex's and FA's, and two small binders where I keep McDonalds promos, FA trainers and personal favorites. All the other ones I keep in tins sorted by generation. So one tin holds all cards of Gen I Pokemon and so on.
 
I have them sorted by sets and inside these by set numbers. I kept 4 cards of each Pokémon since you can't put more than 4 in a deck anyway. I keep my Energy cards (except for one for each type in each set, if that makes sense) in an extra binder, as well as any Trainer card I have more than one of. I sorted the Trainer cards by type (normal Trainers, which includes Items, Supporters, Tools, Stadiums, Fossils, Technical Machines and Special Energy cards in that order and inside these 'categories' I sorted them by what they do, so I can find them easier while building a deck. Hope this helps.
 
I've finally sorted out my plan for my collection. Phases go in order of most commonly accessed to least accessed

Phase 1 - Two side loading binders that have 4 slots to a row to organise meta Trainers and Pokemon. Allows me to know my stock at a glance and keep it organised for competitive play.

Phase 2 - Two 4-ring binders with top loading sleeves in for my meta Trainers and Pokemon for trade - No EXs or FAs however, only regular cards.

Phase 3 - A Rayquaza ETB with EXs and FAs for trades doubled sleeved in top loaders.

Phase 4 - A side loading binder that contains my collections - URs and FAs, SRs, Radiant Collection (Complete), ACE SPEC collection (Complete)

Phase 5 - Complete sets bar URs and FAs. Stored in normal Ultra Pro three ring binders and sleeves.
 
We've only started collecting recently (i.e., really since XY on), and are more players than collectors, so our focus is more on making sure we've got cards easily accessible for making decks. This is what we've now done:

- 1 binder per set (XY, Flashfire, Phantom Forces, etc.)
- 1 side of an UltraPro page per card
- Up to 9 copies of each card in the binder
- Any EX or secret rares get sleeved before going into the binder
- Total UltraPro pages per set therefore is [total number of cards] / 2
- Any more than 9 copies of a card go into storage - at the moment I'm using Elite Trainer boxes
- When building decks where proxies are needed, the >9 cards get used as backing for printed copies

The logic was supposed to go that between me and my son we'd never need more than 8 copies of any given card, however the reality at the moment with Worlds around the corner is we're using more of certain cards like VS Seeker and Lysandre as we've got a couple of decks constructed so might have to get a smaller folder for extra cards that are better than just proxy fodder but don't fit into the binder setup.
 
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