(Part 3) Reddit mentions: The best collectible trading card cases

Let's start with the big picture. You're going to want somewhere to keep your cards.

For the ones at home, something like this should do just fine. It keeps things mostly organized, is rather inexpensive, and will last. You can make inserts to help subdivide more if needed.

Next, you're going to want something to carry your cards in for the go. Many people just use backpacks or messenger bags, but there are [specialty bags] (http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Zippered-Gaming-Corrugated/dp/B0009F3DQ4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419647218&sr=8-2&keywords=card+carrying+case) that you can purchase as well.

To keep you decks organized and protected while in the bag, [deck boxes] (http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Boxes-Magic-Pokemon-YuGiOh/dp/B00EA9REK6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1419647294&sr=8-3&keywords=deck+box) are the way to go. They make things nice and modular and will protect your cards even if you just have a normal backpack.

For your trades, if you go that route, a [binder] (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Universal-Round-Ring-Economy-Vinyl-View-Binder/24966030) and some [sleeve pages] (http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Pocket-Page-Protectors/dp/B005HIOVOG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419647392&sr=8-1&keywords=card+pages) should do fine.

Finally, your decks. Sleeves! Sleeves! Sleeves! and Sleeves! The cards in your decks are going to see the most use so you're going to want to protect them the best. I've found that [Dragon Shield] (http://www.dragonshield.com/) and [Ultra Pro] (http://www.ultrapro.com/division.php?d=g) sleeves are excellent for their value and use them on several of my decks. Cards in your deck are often your most powerful and you're going to want to keep them in the best shape possible.

Many people, myself included, will argue for getting a [Play Mat] (http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-84314-Grumpy-Play/dp/B00IT5GPZ2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1419647676&sr=8-3&keywords=card+playmat) so that you sleeves won't get torn up as much and will last longer, but it's not absolutely essential.

Oh! I forgot dice! My group have found that dice are the easiest way to keep track of things like life totals, counters, and about everything else you need a number for. Having your own are absolutely essential, there's always someone you can borrow from, but they're a great thing to have around.

edit One thing I want to point out is that everything there can be customized to fit your particular style, so have fun! The way you carry and present your cards says as much about you as the cards themselves!

1. SAS rating is a good place to start, but it doesn't tell you everything. You really need to play a deck to get a good grasp on it's strength and how it plays, and there's a lot of synergies that any rating system will miss. It's a good rough guide though.
   
2. Yes.
   
3. I use a Hoard plus deckboxes to store my main decks, and an Ultimate Guard Arkhive to store the other ones. The Hoard plus boxes are great because they fit 4 decks each, and you can get them pretty cheap on ebay. I use Burger Tokens for my tokens.
   
4. Once you know you like the game, I'd say buy a display (12 decks), and play with each deck at least 5 times to get a feel for it. Once you know what houses/style of deck you want, then you can look on ebay/facebook groups for specific decks that fit your style. I also came from magic, I have ~17 decks that I like, and 10 more that I'm looking to sell.

You will be tempted to buy up big boxes of bulk. I was told I shouldn't, but I did anyway. I figured I could take what I got and make crappy decks, then buy singles to fix them up. While I got some cards that were useful, it was only a fraction of what I got.

Although the decks on this list are all standard legal, they are great for any casual player and are all around $20 each. I really liked this list from Core 2019, too. The M19-only decks are mostly around $10, so they should give you plenty of value.

You can also consider Card Kingdom's Battle Decks. These are non-standard legal decks that are specially made by Card Kingdom with an eye toward balance and casual play. Many of them are out of stock right now, but you should be able to find a few to experiment with.

For non-card purchases, I like these cheap deck boxes for new players to store casual decks (here's a 5-pack instead of the 10-pack). They'll fit nicely inside your bundle box. You might even fit two unsleeved decks in each box. If you want sleeves, KMC is a good value/quality proposition. If you're not too rough, Ultra Pro Matte (not Deck Protector) sleeves are good, too, and a bit cheaper. However, keep in mind the cost of sleeves versus the cost of replacement. I didn't start sleeving my cards until I started building my own decks with cards that had some value to them. Honestly, I'd stick to buying cards until you run out of room in your bundle box and need more storage.

there are two options i would look at although i'll mention my double sided grimlock playmat has fit in all my playmat cases including the monster tubes.

first, the ultimate guard one is super nice and will definitely fit. the only issue i've run into with it is you have to roll the playmat perfectly straight for it to fit properly. here is a link to the one i have: https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guard-Flip´N´Tray-XenoSkin-Black/dp/B01MYNVOP3

the second option is a soft case, this one here is what i have: https://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Waterproof-handbag-correspondence-Yu-gi-oh/dp/B01LVYS8PY

hope these help, i can guarantee the first one will fit any thickness play may as long as the length and width are standard, it has a lot of room for the mat. good luck!

So, here's all the details on how people store Magic cards meant to be played, with links.

The gold standard for the number of Magic cards to store is 75 or 100 double sleeved cards. As long as your container can store this many cards in one section it will be at least useful to the owner. Additionally, no one really likes storing their cards flat like your current box. Cards are much, much easier to retrieve from the container if stored edge on (top or sides exposed as opposed to your front or back, look at the pictures below).

The Boulder deck box by Ultimate guard holds exactly the preferred number of cards, down to sub millimeter tolerance. 100 cards and 75 cards

Ultra pro makes a pretty ubiquitous soft plastic box for 75 cards and 100 cards which does offer a little more wiggle room.

Ultimate guard makes nearly identical boxes. 75 cards, 100 cards.

They call their 75 card boxes 80 card boxes but that's referring to single sleeving and even single sleevers tend to appreciate the extra space for a few ancillary cards like tokens.

Also, we do not double sleeve with penny sleeves but inverted(open end at bottom of card) perfect^1 fit^2 sleeves and with regular^1 sleeves^2 over that.

https://www.tolariancommunitycollege.com/how-to-double-sleeve-your-magic-the-gathering-cards-and-why-mtg/

Being able to hold cards is great but there is also some benefit to being able to hold a whole deck box. The Arkhive is a popular example. It holds snugly 5 x 75 card boulders and 4 x 100 card boulders. It also holds soft plastic boxes but less precisely.

When storing dice they are stored separately from cards. Ultra Pro, Ultimate Guard

Thanks for the fantastic response! I didn't know about that gift box, and in general that link has a great organization about what options there are.

I think my best option as I understand it will be:

Ultimate Guard Deck Box $13:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GIQL5PO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Dragon Shield Matte Sleeves $12:
https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Shield-Sleeves-Matte-Apple/dp/B01J7S0YHE/ref=sr_1_12?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1480187886&sr=1-12&keywords=dragon+shield+sleeves

Kaladesh Boosters $2.50 ea at Walgreens tomorrow:
https://www.walgreens.com/offers/offers.jsp?view=weeklyad#/availablecoupons

Seems like the Walgreens ad pushes the loose pack value pretty high, and I think he'll be excited to have more to open while still leaving me some room to get him the nice storage and protection for his collection.

>Where would you suggest I start?

Start with whatever format you have the most opportunity to play. We could say to start with Standard but if hardly anyone in your area plays, there's not much point in building a deck for it.

Sleeves: I've tried most of the major brands over the years(UltraPro, KMC, UltimateGuard and Dragonshield) and the ones I'm consistently satisfied with are Dragonsheild Matte Black sleeves. They're durable, aren't too initially slippery, don't collect much dirt or grease and shuffle very well. If you're looking to double sleeve your decks the inner sleeves don't really matter but I personally prefer KMC Perfect Hards. They're thicker than the average inner sleeve but help straighten out any warping due to foils or water damage. They also help prevent sleeve corners from getting bent. UltraPro Eclipses are another good sleeve but the anti-glare matte front makes foils really dull which isn't a huge deal if you don't care about foiling decks but as someone who likes to pimp nonrotating cards, it's a dealbreaker for me.

Playmats: Basically anything with a cloth top and rubber bottom. Stitched edges are nice but not required. Some people like solid colors, others like to get custom ones done at InkedGaming.com. I personally have a few fancy ones I bring to events but I keep a cheap beater mat so I can loan it to someone or bring to somewhere dirty without worrying about it getting lost or ruined.

Deckboxes: A lot of people swear by Satin Towers and Boulders but I've been using the magnetic flip tops by UltraPro and the BCW Deck Locker and have had no issues.

As far as storage goes, I keep bulk in a 5000ct white box and everything playable in a card house.

Hmm, not really. Not that meet your specifications anyway. I like to store my decks individually and usually use Dragon Shield's Nesting Deck Boxes of various colors. I keep these in a camera case, specifically This one.

I prefer not to share cards between decks because it limits me from making samey, expensive decks. If it's not worth two copies it only goes in one deck.

Just searching online though I found this. It may work for you, but I haven't tried it myself. Seems like it could hold about 1500-1800 cards single sleeved.

Edit- Some of my friends who've gone off and had kids and thus have better things to spend money on have started using tackle boxes from Home Depot. They seem to fit pretty well, but if I were you I'd pick one out in person, since they certainly weren't designed with your cardboard in mind.

Hey bud, I have an innistrad plane cube for drafting thats pretty sweet. I can go over what I did if it helps at all.

I started with only Innistrad, great Draft environment to use as a base. Then I replaced all of the vanilla creatures or unplayables with another card from DKA, AVR, or SOI that fit the same role but had a relevent ability or stats. (Ex. a 2/2 zombie for 1b that had no abilities was replaced by a 2 mana zombie in the same rarity with more relevent abilities)

Right now the cube is about:
50% INN
20% DKA
10% AVR
20% SOI

Im trying to recreate a draft environment so I manueally create packs and put them in team bags (https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Poly-Team-Bags/dp/B00095NR1K) to have them ready for each draft.

The slits for common, uncommon and rares is (5/3/1)
I keep flip cards seperate, the are split (3/2/1)

When I make packs I shuffle all the commons together, then repeat for uncommons, rares, and Flip cards.
Each pack is 9 Commons,3 uncommon, 1 rare, 1 flip card, and 1 land. The land could be any nonbasic land from any Innistrad set, put in for fixing and utility.

Right now my rares can be from any set and are pretty balanced, nothings unbeatable.

I also keep the flip cards in clear hypermattes while drafting and playing, but I have a checklist for each in a black sleave for proxying in the deck.

It is alot of sleaves and the cube fits a normal 2 row. But if you buy bulk, its not too bad. Heres where I got mine (https://www.amazon.com/KMC-Barrier-PERFECT-packs-Total/dp/B00T3Z72Q8/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1465811659&sr=1-2&keywords=perfect+fits, https://www.amazon.com/KMC-Hyper-Matte-Sleeves-Sheets/dp/B0177K3VU6/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1465811692&sr=1-1&keywords=kmc+hyper+matte+10)

If you have any questions or I wasnt clear just let me know.

Sorry about the formatting in advance!

Hello old timer, go on troll and toad (google it) and type in espeon and look at their selection. Consider a full art espeon (a card where the picture takes up the whole card). There are only 3-4 full sets per whole booster box which is 100$ in booster packs meaning it's better to buy her the card individually.

Get her a full art espeon imo. Maybe look into getting the kmc perfect fit sleeve+ full mat sleeves so she can double sleeve and protect her cards ( I have a lot of worn out cards from when I was younger and I love them for the nostalgia and memories) the sleeve combo is sold on Amazon for 9 bucks, it has both the perfect fit and mat, manufacturer is kmc


https://www.amazon.com/KMC-80-Pack-Pochettes-Barrier-Perfect/dp/B00SSE5T9M/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1479764005&sr=8-8&keywords=kmc+perfect+fit

I'm looking for the Kaalia card sleeves that came in the Ultra-pro Commander Tower Deck box. (as seen here): http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Commander-Tower-Set-Ultrapro/dp/B00PIV6LJK

I'm interested in either acquiring 10 sleeves, or the full pack of 120 sleeves that came in the box. I would prefer un-played (and will pay more if they are), but will take very light play. I'm negotiable on the price.
Since this is an "outside of Puca" transaction (meaning there is no trade number) I would prefer to send half the points first, and the remaining half upon completion. If you are a Gold member, I will send all the points up front, trusting your honesty. Message me here, or through Puca. Thanks for your help!
https://pucatrade.com/profiles/show/48512

I am a pretty big comic book fan and absolutely love Batman. More specifically, I love Scarecrow from Batman. The art and writing style for Scarecrow has always been something that I have been drawn to. His appearances in the Arkham games were also fantastic (especially Asylum).

Once I discovered Magic, specifically EDH, I became fascinated with a Scarecrow Tribal deck. As I did my research, I found that this was not a very original idea but I didn't care. I had a lot of fun building the deck and looking up anything that thematically tied in with Scarecrows.

Currently, I am at work so I cannot link the deck list but it is a 5 color Reaper King led deck. Very fun to play.

I also have a Scarecrow playmat that I use when playing the deck and it is sleeved in sleeves with Scarecrow artwork on them. Link to a deck box with the art for the sleeves. Not the greatest quality image.

I have mine double sleeved with these for perfect fit and these for the outer sleeves. Fits perfectly and feels great to shuffle

I Will Never Quit - $10.59 on Amazon

Booster pack of BoTG - $3.99

12 d6 dice set - ~$5-10.00

Rook Helios Metal Deck Box - $3.98

Legends 4-Pocket Portfolio - $0.99

Themed Repack - apparently they were varied in quality, but my guess is that they were valued around $0.50

So totaling everything it comes out to $25.05 not including the individual shipping value of these items. Compared to the $23.33/month subscription fee (shipping included) I would say that it is a good value.

EDIT: so aparently they recentlyy got baught out by ultra pro so they dont make pc whites anymore wtf... these use to be the no. 1 sleave used by pro players like every ycs player on the circuit uses thease... they was like 6$ for a pack from evry vender

https://www.amazon.com/Players-Choice-Sleeves-White-Collectible/dp/B0013FMO9G/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519357611&sr=8-1&keywords=players+choice+sleeves

now they are like 15$ for remaneing supply o_o

I couldn't really find KMC hyper matte minis because that was what I was going for but I found these for an okay price, thoughts?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013FMO9G/ref=s9_simh_se_p21_d0_i6?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=search-desktop-advertising-no-results-center-1&pf_rd_r=06ZV5NXAASTF8GJRW4V2&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=1912906122&pf_rd_i=kmc%20mini%20hyper%20matte

It's not. It's this deckbox