I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that trading is one of my favorite aspects of Magic: The Gathering. That thrill you get when you finally find the last card that you needed for a deck, or that amazing alter or misprint that you scoop up for a great deal. Maybe it’s just a trade that you feel you did well on, or one that you lost some value, but “traded up” into a more expensive card. Whatever the scenario, if you’re not presenting your traders in the best possible way, you may be losing out on opportunities!
Today we’re going to look at part 2 of a 2-part series on how to organize your cards and we’ll focus on your trade binder and how to optimize it.
You can read Part 1 here: THE BULK.
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Those of you who know me, know that I have a fairly sizable magic card collection. I don’t have the room in my bag or binders to bring ALL of my rares and tradables with me wherever I go, so I have to rely on organizing my collection and choosing what I think is most relevant to haul around with me.
The first thing that I do is to take out all of the “jank” rares. You KNOW there are cards in your binder that no one will ever want unless they’re trying to complete sets… these can be removed if you don’t have the space to carry them. If you have the space in your binder, there is no reason to leave them behind though! Just bear in mind that most “jank” rares are only worth $0.25 - $1.00, and that’s being generous. Stores buy bulk rares at around $0.15 as an example, so it may or may not be worth it to you to lug them around. HOWEVER, I found that most of these rares CAN be TRADED for around $1, so while they are worthless, they also have the highest potential to offer you gains. An interesting juxtapose that you’ll have to decide for yourself!
I use a system that I call the “4 binder system”, but what I would suggest for most of you is simply to use a 2 or 3 binder system to organize your traders. Let’s be like M.C. Hammer and break it, break it, break it down!
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| Stop. Hammer time! (Loxodon Warhammer, that is!) |
BINDER 1: STANDARD RARES
In this binder you put your standard rares, organized by color. I usually put them in color order of Black, Blue, Green, Red, White, Multi, Artifact, Land because that’s alphabetical. This first binder is the one that I normally give out when I’m trading, as it’s what most people are interested in. If my trading partner does not find what they want in it, I present them with binder 2. Sometimes I’ll just give them binder 1 & 2 at the same time and tell them that one binder is standard stuff and the other binder is…
BINDER 2: NON-STANDARD RARES
Everything that is no longer playable in standard goes in here. Lots of good Commander (EDH) cards and last blocks all-stars really shine in a binder like this, as it exposes people to a lot of cards that they may not have known existed. I like to ask what kind of deck my partner is trying to build, then offer suggestions of cards they may be unfamiliar with for that deck.
If you don’t have a lot of traders, you can combine both binder 1 & 2 into 1 big binder. I would suggest that you use a divider between your Standard / Non-Standard sections though, as it will help you stay organized and will again offer that separation between the formats. Each “section” should still be color organized however!
BINDER 3: THE “GOOD STUFF”
Too many times I’d be looking for a few crappy rares and have people pulling out REALLY expensive cards that they saw in my binder that they have NO hope of being able to trade for (No, your 5x $1 cards do NOT equal my 1x $20 card, sorry…). As a result, I created the “good stuff” binder. A binder that I don’t even pull out to offer the traders within unless there was a card on the table that I was REALLY looking for! Having that Liliana of the Veil in your regular binder is going to make people home in on it, and ignore other possible traders they could be interested in because they want that one expensive card really badly when they only have “jank” for trade themselves. This 3rd binder is where you put those cards that you either really don’t want to trade, or that are VERY valuable. Obviously if you’re trying to get a high value card, you would offer this binder to be looked through, but if you’re trying to get a Splinterfright or something menial, there is no reason to even pull this binder out of your bag as everything within it will be worth far more than what you’re looking for.
My rules on this binder are basically if it’s worth a lot of money or I don’t really want to trade it, the card goes in here. If you take anything out of this article, it’s that THIS should be a binder you create for 2 reasons:
1) You won’t have to say: “That’s not for trade” or “I’m keeping that for a deck” when someone points to something in your binder, as it wouldn’t be in there… it will be in this second binder. That way your primary binder really is “for trade”, and your “non-traders” are set aside.
2) You won’t have every single person who looks through your binders wearing blinders to everything that isn’t a “money card”. Since your “money cards” aren’t in your primary binder, it will allow you to trade low value for low value out of your regular traders, and trade high value for high value out of this “good stuff” binder.
BINDER 4: THE FOILS
I have enough foils to have a separate binder just for them. If you don’t have enough for your own foil binder, just add them to binder 1. You can put them in a separate section, or just mix them into their relevant color.
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I think most of you will end up with 2 binders by the time that you’re done. Your first binder will be a combination of binders 1 & 2 & 4 and your second will be binder 3.
It’s also worth noting that it’s a good investment to get yourself a sturdy, good looking binder to transport your cards. This will not only protect your valuable rares, but will also look classy and elegant when presented to a trade partner which will already give them a little “wow” factor before they even open it. My primary trade binder is leather bound and zips up, for example.
Another important note now is that it’s important to ask your trade partner if they “have any more cards for trade” if you look through their primary binder and find nothing. There are a few people out there who already use a tiered trading system like this one (me), and if BOTH traders have that mythical second binder, there is opportunity to trade solely from between them! So be sure to ask! You may even get a reply like: “I do, but I don’t see anything I’d trade for out of it”, which is a great segue into saying: “Well, I have another binder as well, maybe we’ll both find something in our OTHER binders?” :)
I hope this little series has helped you get organized both at home, and in your trade binders, and I’d love to hear back from you on how the system is working out!
TALKBACK!
How do YOU organize your binder?
How do YOU feel about this multi-binder approach?
Cheers!
Carl Szalich
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