Pokemon Card Collection Storage Tips

Well, the time has come to discuss the Pokemon Trading Card Game on my blog. I've been collecting Pokemon cards since I was about 8 years old. I did stop for a few years but with last years 20th anniversary celebrations for the Pokemon franchise being shoved at me from all directions, I somehow found myself purchasing a Mythical Collection: Mew Box at my local EB Games one day. Just like that, my love for collecting the cards was ignited once again.

The one thing I had to do when I decided that I would get back into collecting the cards was find a more efficient and better way to store them. As an 8-12 year old I found that I was keeping all my spares in a tin and the ones that I liked or were rare in an unsorted binder full of 9-pocket sleeves. It was not the most convenient system.... Not even close. So I did a lot of research around the web. There are some fantastic Poke-tubers who specialise in PTCG related content and some of them have made videos about how they have found it best to store their collections. From there I drew my own conclusions and came up with a way that best suited my budget and personal preference.

There is no right or wrong way to protect and store your cards. It is totally up to you. If you want to keep them all in a tin and an unsorted binder, go ahead. If you want something a bit more organised and a way that helps protect the cards a lot better then you are going to have to do better. The good thing is, there are lots of different ways to go about doing it.

For now I'm just talking about the storage of your actual collection cards (the ones you want to display and have sorted for your investment/enjoyment) and not the spares. Further down I will discuss how you can store your spare cards. But for now we're focusing on the main collection - the real goods!

Option 1: You could purchase the official Pokemon themed card binders, like this one. These are ones that even come with the page sleeves already inside, but remember, you can't add any pages and are limited to how many is there. They're also quite expensive, they sit around $20-$35 each. If you wanted to store all your sets in a different binder or just have more than one because you have a large collection, then it's going to cost you a lot to store them like this.

Option 2: On the other hand, you could buy an ordinary binder and then buy the page sleeves and do it yourself, sort of like this. You can actually get some Pokemon themed binders like this if you look around, but again, they will be more pricey than an ordinary binder. The problem then becomes finding the best deal on the pages or deciding which ones to use. It can get a little messy, and expensive too. But at the end of the day, you will want your collection stored well if you want to make an investment of it and you are going to have to spend some money to do it.

Me Personally: I like to store my cards a lot like Option 2. So basically, I have binders. They're pretty ordinary and have only at most cost me $3 each, they are empty and I buy my own pocket pages to put inside them. Another thing on the binder itself, the ones I buy actually have a plastic sleeve on the outside of them. This is ideal because I have a binder for each card set that I own and I can slip my labels into these sleeves for easy identification. It's optional though, but certainly something to think about when choosing your binders. I like to have the set name and the set logo on the spine because I sit them upright. On the front and back I like to slip in any set related artwork from opened boxes that I have cut out. I find the cardboard that covers the Elite Trainer Boxes are the best as they have some fantastic artwork and sometimes have the set name on them. Anyway, the cards themselves get inserted into card sleeves, these then go inside the pocket pages. Taking it a step further, the cards are sorted by set number (ie 1-124) in the correct order. I store a "set list" at the start of my binder, it's a check list where I can keep track of the cards I have. I also like to store one of each art work from the sets booster packs in a plastic sleeve too, but this has nothing to do with keeping my cards safe and everything to do with looking awesome. ;)

Now to elaborate further...

I've found the best way to store my cards is to stay with my 3 ring or 2 ring binders. These can be picked up pretty cheaply, I've even got them for as little as 75c at my local Target and they're just as good as the more expensive ones, if not better! The 3 rings are definitely better though, so try and grab those if you can, but a 2 ring binder will still do the trick if they're all that is available. Just remember that you need your binder rings to align with the holes on your pocket pages!

These binders do not come with any pages to store the cards. There are two ways you can go about this now. What you want is some "pocket pages" with the right size for Pokemon cards. However, you get a choice of going for "top loading" or "side loading" pages. In case these terms don't make it obvious - you can choose to grab pocket pages that you either load (insert) the cards from the top, or from the side. There are downsides and upsides to both ways. If you load your cards from the top, sometimes when you're turning the pages of your binder the cards can slip out the top a bit and you can risk damaging them. Side loading doesn't have the same issue, however inserting them can be more difficult.

Personally, I use the 9-pocket top loading pages. To be specific, I use the Ultra-Pro 9-Pocket Pages. I buy these in boxes of 100. It works out cheaper if you buy in bulk and with the amount of binders and cards I've ended up with, it's certainly not a waste. It costs about $30 for the 100 pack. They're really well made because they were designed for the purpose of card collecting and the cards always look really good in them. There are many alternatives out there though, so be sure to shop around and find something you not only like, but something that suits your budget.

So, my 9-pocket pages go inside my binders. I have a binder for each set of cards that I am collecting, as well as one for my "Promo cards." I have a few "Jumbo cards" too, but I will be making a separate post at another time to discuss how I'm storing those, as I haven't yet decided on my method, for now they're just being stored in regular A4 plastic sleeves in a binder.

There is one more step I like to take to ensure that my cards are safe. Card sleeves or deck protector sleeves. Before I insert my cards into my pocket pages, they first get put into a card sleeve. I put the sleeve on upside down so that the sealed off end of the pocket is at the top. Then when it goes into the page pocket upright the normal way, the sealed end is facing the open gap of the page pocket. It helps protect the cards from all sides. The top loading and even the side loading sleeves still have to have an open end for inserting cards right? Which means dust can get in! But you can prevent that by putting your cards in a card sleeve first. A bonus to doing this would also be that the cards don't slip as much, and doesn't make the falling out the top much of a problem at all if you go with top loading pages.

I use the Ultra Pro brand card sleeves. I can purchase 12 packs of 50 for about $40. That's a lot of card sleeves! I like them because they're a good fit around the cards. They come in a range of colours too. I personally prefer to by the clear ones though, as they're the only ones you can actually buy in bulk. You would think that having the cards double protected like this would mean they don't look very good in the binders. But you are so very, very wrong. They still look fantastic.

A tour of one of my binders!

This is the front of my Sun and Moon base set binder. As I talked about above, I have used the cardboard that was around my Sun and Moon Elite Trainer box as the art to decorate the front.

Here is the spine of the binder. I have my set symbol at the top and the set name along the spine. The bonus of having a white binder means that when I'm printing my spine labels that although they're being printed as A4 and the binder is longer, you can't actually tell unless you have a hard look ;)

Here is what you get when you open the binder up. I have decided to store the booklet that came with my Elite Trainer box for this set in the front pocket. Then I have my booster pack art collection in an A4 sleeve. One of each pack art for the set. Behind those, I have my set list which lists all of the cards in the set by number and rarity, you can find these online and print them off.

Here is an opened page. I flipped to some pages that are all filled out. You probably can't see, but they are ordered by their set number.

And this is the back, it's simply just the rest of the artwork from the front of the binder.

As you can see, your binders don't have to be so plain if you do decide not to buy the themed ones. You can simply decorate them and really make them your own. My original card binder from my unsorted mess days has some fan art that I drew and some Pokemon stickers on it. I mean, sure the nice official looking Pokemon binders look great and everything, but there is always something nice about a personal touch. That's just my opinion though.


But what about the rest of the cards? What about all the duplicate commons, uncommon, rares or even the ultra rares? What do you do with those? 


Disturbingly enough, it appears to be a bit of a trend to just toss them all into an unsorted heap in a storage container somewhere. I guess I could understand that for common and uncommon cards. But for the rares and ultra rares you should probably be making an effort to at least sleeve them and store them in a sealed container or tin as these will be what will be worth the most in the years to come.

Personally, I like to keep my spares sorted out in their respective sets. I like organisation... in case you hadn't noticed. You can bet that any holo, reverse holo, full art or other rare forms of card that I own go into sleeves and are stored somewhere safe. Those cards are easy to manage because there aren't a lot of them, it's the common and uncommon and even the regular rare cards that most people have their storage problem with. Good thing there are a few ways that I know of to help.

Thick Top Loader Card Protectors: While I can't speak from experience on these, you can get some excellent top loading card cases for keeping individual cards safe and sound. They're pretty heavy duty so they're pricey so by no means should you store your entire collection of spares inside them. You should be storing special cards in them, like ultra rares, full-arts, limited edition special event cards and what not. I have seen that these are great for people who are trading their cards through the post too, as it helps keep the card protected. I intend to get my hands on a few, maybe even get some wood from somewhere and make a groovy display base for a few of my favorite cards so I can show them off, as I have seen similar done around the place and I think it looks pretty damn cool.

Pokemon Tins: The Pokemon collection tins are pretty good. You can fit a lot of cards in those, and as bonus, when you buy them you're adding more cards to your collection, so it's a win-win. Plus they look pretty damn cool and stack easily. It.. it's almost like they were designed for it! My goodness! Just be careful though, they are a little awkward in their shape so be sure that the way you are placing your cards in isn't going to damage them.

Official Image for the Pokemon Trading Card Game XY Spring 2016 Tin Collection.

Pokemon Elite Trainer Boxes: I mentioned these further up. They are truly are fantastic. Not only are they the perfect size for storing the cards, but they also come with dividers so you can separate your card types for easy sorting! I especially like these because I know that yes, my Generations Elite Trainer Box has my Generations spares in it. It's good to easily identify what is what. They also come with some sweet designed card sleeves, so those are great for storing your favorite cards in.

Tackle/Craft Boxes: I also have these... I suppose they're actually supposed to be for storing tackle or screws or craft things in. They're basically sectioned off so it helps to keep things sorted. You need to be careful if you do want to store them like this though! This is important! These types of boxes sometimes have little nubs on them that can poke into and damage the cards. You can just file them off if they do - providing it's not going to prevent you closing the box. If they have nubs and things that can't be removed without ease you will have to find something else. Plus you will need to find ones that have the sections at an appropriate size for the cards. If you're careful and patient enough this is a pretty good way to store them though.

It's not the most elegant way. But it works. I know from memory which cards are which, but you could label the sections of the box somehow for easier identification. It all depends on how much effort you want to put in.

In conclusion: So yeah, that's pretty much how I like to store my collection. Once again, and I cannot stress this enough; at the end of the day you can do whatever suits your budget and your preference, it is your collection and you can store it however you like. You may even want to frame your favorite cards and hang them on the wall. If you want to keep them locked away in a box somewhere, that's fine too. I really hope that this post might be able to help someone out. It was actually a little daunting when I was trying to decide how to store my cards, especially my spares so I hope this post is useful to someone out there. <3