I have my large binder organized in the following way:

First, Standard then Non-standards (I only have a few that I carry around)

Secondly, By colour, artifact, colourless, land

Thirdly, by set Scars first, back to Zendikar

Then under each set, 1 page for rares, mythics and chase uncommons, another for all the other uncommons of the most recent set.

Lastly, each page is arranged alphabetically.

This makes it exceptionally easy to find a card quickly with the downside of a very large binder, and no prioritization of traders.

In my trunk I leave a binder with playsets of all the uncommons and staple commons of all the standard cards. This lets me be the go-to guy for cards needed at the last minute sideboards.

Finally, at home I leave my collection of non-standard cards with low trade value. Mostly kept for nostalgia as I doubt any of them will ever see play again.

Binder A – High end binder. Things like jaces, vengevines, fetches, duals, wastelands, goyfs, forces, or any super stuff like moxen, vintage staples, etc can lead in here. Everything at minimum $10 or more, though depending on how high end it gets you can lift the barrier to $15 or $20. IF you have things like moats, loyal retainers, power, vintage staples, underground seas, jaces then you shouldn't put them with your zendikar fetches and abyssal persecutors.

Binder B is your lead binder and probably the one that you should pull out first and sees the most action. All T2 and legacy playable staples $10 or less should be in here. Depending on your volume you can leave the zendikar fetches in here as your high end point. Aside from things like jaces, primevals, cobras, molten-tail masticore, and duals my current binder is a perfect example of what a lead binder can be, and what many traders often show me as their lead binders. Organize this one by T2, extended, then legacy. If you have room stuff some EDH stuff in there too. You can also include any promos/foils/foreign with large appeal in here. $1 rares should be the minimum and only if the particular one sees play in a tier 1 deck. Key uncommons can be featured here too.

Binder C – Your low end binder. Most dollar rares that don't see play all the way down to bulk can fit, also the obscure low end FNM or gateway promos that don't have a home. Usually you'll pull this one out last as either an act to seal the deal, or have casual players look through and find some fatty or swingy big card for their kitchen table deck for their $1-2 rares you want and they have no interest in (maybe higher end cards too? You never know). With most players and traders though expect to use it for the guys who want that last $0.50-1 push they need to seal a trade, or collectors looking to complete sets.

Binder D – Optional but can yield some decent results. Put any low end techy cards here. This ranges from staple common/uncommons in all formats to any random cards used in sideboards that doesn't fit in another binder. You'll be surprised if you throw this binder on the table with say Binder B will get you. Some cards alone might be able to give you a premium, especially at events. We're not even getting into the benefit of being the "go-to" guy for those random uncommons everyone needs for their sideboards at the last minute that dealers "forgot to pack"

Just some ideas i use personally, and can't wait to get more use form when my collection fills out. I have enough bulk rares that I'll make my C binder when i can afford to, and my B binder is halfway towards being a truly strong B binder that I can leave the A-team on their own in another binder, and the D-binder out of it. THe commons/uncommons get a lot of look from my trade partners though both as deal sealers and for the random cards they can't find to finish a deck (actually had a guy trade me a hand of the praetors for a playset of kor outfitters and disfigures because he couldn't find them elsewhere). I have to say this part of my collection has truly been the MVP to trading up as I have both online and off.

I think as long as you have a system and can explain it to people, i.e. all the blue cards are in this binder or here are all my standard cards, you can save people you're trading with time and they (and you) will appreciate it.

Just make sure it's the Ryan Reynolds one. It's not a good movie, but it is entertaining.

This is an interesting point. I have been known to pull out the Pokemon cards from time to time with old friends. Time to put those Charizards back into the binder? I think not, but your point does apply to WoW and possibly YuGioh. I know next to nothing about other TCGS, but it certainly can't hurt to have a section for these.

I like this idea, especially the keeping only one copy of a card in the binder. Your binder in effect becomes a menu, and when they order cards off of it, you go into the appropriate boxes and grab the number of copies you need.

Obviously this is most useful for larger collections, and I don't think I'm quite there myself, but if I were, I'd consider that system without hesitation.

@Chosler88

Thank you for another informative article!

I do see your point where if I separate cards into tournament format, I need to have multiple Blue sections, multiple Green sections, etc. and that could frustrate casual players. For my needs though, this does not apply, as I almost exclusively am trading at my local game shop's FNM, where 90% of my trading partners are interested in Standard, and a smattering are EDH players. In this case, I need to keep my Type 2 binder separate from everything else, as anything they can't immediately use in their decks takes up time for them to flip through.

As always, it's about knowing your audience, and if I were in a heavier casual crowd, I see the benefit of not segregating by tournament format, and would combine all cards from a color into one area.

Best part of the article haha

2 binders, one 'lead' and one 'pimp'.

Anything over ~$10 goes in the pimp binder, which I don't pull out unless there is something important I need. That binder has multiple copies of each card in it.

The lead binder is organized by section. Standard at the start, then Legacy/Extended, then EDH/Casual, then Foils.

Each section is further broken down by color. Once in a while I sort from oldest to newest, but that goes by the wayside pretty quickly.

I separate each section with a dividing tab.

No more than one of each card in this binder. (except the foil section) I keep spares in fat-pack boxes – one for each section in the binder. I then keep the fat pack boxes in a separate pouch of my backpack.

One thing I didn't see mentioned is organizing by rarity. What I have begun doing, and my trading partners have thanked me for, is sorting by both color AND rarity. I also have tab for each rarity. That way, if a trading partner wants an red uncommon, they know exactly where to go. I've found much more success with this organizational style, and wish that it had at least been briefly touched on.

Another point I would also like to make, is that if you have a smaller magic collection, but also play other TCGs is to think about throwing those pages into your binder as well. I recently got into the WoW tcg. I didn't really know a lot of people who played it, but I put my trade stuff in the back of the binder, with a tab identifying it. I've found 4 people who play WoW from doing this. This has also allowed me to trade off WoW cards for Magic cards. I personally think of it as diversifying my portfolio. I have been able to make more trades in my favor because I am helping people find more cards for their other tcg collection. I'm happy to trade a $10 wow card for an $8 magic card, as I know there is more liquidity in magic.

You get into trouble putting 4-6 cards in a sleeve around the edges if you trade a couple away. That's when cards go flying out. You were stuffing 6 cards in there, but now you only have 2. The page warps.

I only double up (4x) cards I'm looking to trade as a playset. I'm not looking to do single trades on lightning bolts, counterspells what have you. If I can get $2 (minus fees) on eBay for the stack I don't want to trade you one for $0.50, esp since you are likely asking for it as a throw in.

I'd rather you take all 4 and give me $1.50 worth of throw in. I only really trade cards under $1 like this. I'll spread playsets of rares out and use the Jon Medina line "I need a little extra for breaking my playset".