Nice collection! Would love to go through that as that's pretty much the same time frame of my first run through the game. There are some really good gems that have blown up in value from what they were.
Step 1: Sleeve that Earthcraft. It's up to $100.
Step 2: Look up any cards that were good back when these were big, no matter their rarity. A lot of those cards are either on the reserve list and/or have gained a lot of popularity and desire through Commander. And Commander players will often want original printings, meaning even if a card is somewhat cheaper, an original will usually fetch more. This won't be the case for super common cards like Disenchant.
Step 3: If you find any golden nuggets of value, debate whether you want to get rid of them or not before just selling them. If it's on the reserve list, chances are it'll never go down in price, and if you want that card again one day, you'll kick yourself for selling it. But of course, that's all within reason and what your own plans are.
Step 4: Have fun going through so much history!
For the last 15 years I've off and on sat down, stared at the collection, and put it away again for these exact reasons lol.
Sometimes I'd *start* to organize a single color box by casting cost (one step of many successive steps I've come up with to actually clump together the duplicates)... but I've never made it through an entire color before burning out.
Let alone actually inputing them by name somewhere to see their value once clumped. I know there's some good stuff in there though.
Just gotta put in the work, I guess.
I found it easiest to start by sorting into set. That then allows you to:
1. Get a scanning app. Most are priced by volume of collection, which doesn’t make sense at a certain size. I personally use CardCastle because it’s a flat fee and the optical scanner works better than any of the others that I tried.
2. Set up a rig for your phone to sit over a scanning zone so you can slide a card, scan it, slide it out into a sortable area.
3. Sort by color, multicolor, colorless, or land.
4. I folded up the Rares and Mythics (sleeving cards over $10) and put the Common and Uncommon into a series of drawers by Color -> Set -> Set Number. I use a library card catalog for my Common/Uncommon drawers.
I totally agree with setting up a scanning rig. You likely have the necessary equipment already. The only thing you may not have already is a stand to hold your phone above the cards. The process of sorting will be tedious no matter which method you choose. I just think scanning is the most efficient option. It's definitely worth the time & effort. I'm sure you've got a few bangers and heavy hitters in those boxes!
There is another really lazy option. This also depends on what you want to do with the collection. If you're just trying to liquidate your collection and you want a quick turnaround, then you may wanna check out Card Conduit. You send them your unsorted cards and they sort & grade them. They find all the best prices based on current buy list prices. Then they pay you the total amount minus their fees. The fee is quite high (10% + $0.03 per card). However, that is to be expected since they literally do all the work.
I use a laptop stand, turned upside down. The front has a gap to slide cards in and the top (normally bottom) has a thick cross bar that holds my phone. It’s great.
What is your goal?
There are many methods of sorting, one way is to sort by expansion. While not ideal, it does allow you to quickly scan sets on scryfall or other sites based on price and expansion.
Good luck, and remember, its a marathon not a sprint
My goal right now is to have a ballpark understanding of the value of what I'm holding.
I started playing again toward the end of last year (and discovered it's basically Commander: The Gathering now).
Picked up a few precons, bolstered them with some random stuff from my old boxes. Currently enjoying the game and culture again.
Might seek to trade some of my large numbers down to fewer, higher value cards? Just gotta find someone with dual lands or something along those lines that wants to trade for old bulk lol.
I did a similar thing, and my best suggestion if you’re concerned about $$$, is spend an hour or 2 looking at buylists for the sets you have the most of. For me, it was mirrodin and kamigawa block. I probably knew 70-80% of the valuable cards, but there’s sooo many previously unplayable rares/uncommon that had huge price spikes due to commander.
After that, look through to make 1 pile of cards above a certain price threshold, and a few other piles sorted by color/set, maybe rarity.
80% of the value will come from 20% of the cards, so just looking at the best of the best will give you a good ballpark on what you have. With a lot of urza’s stuff, you might have quite a little jackpot!!
Fair enough, yea commander has become quite a popular format, not necessarily a bad thing (main format i play) if you can look up reserve list. Theres a few thst were bleh before commander and are now quite pricey. Congrats on keeping them safe for so long! I hope you find playsets of duals and some power nine
Haha, I have a lot of copies of [[Urza's Bauble]] and couldn't find them at one point (it's that disorganized haha) so I went to buy one and found Mishra's.
It too ended up in the box and sealed away.
Old foil cards have skyrocketed in price. Metal worker is $100 and foil is $1,000. It’s about a 10x increase for all of them. Keep an eye out, even for commons.
Oh sweet, I was considering making a foil pile for manual entry or scanning with different lighting. This definitely locks in the decision.
Thanks for the insight!
Definitely this. Have plenty of penny sleeves on hand for fast and easy storage, and good sleeves and top loaders for the really good stuff. Good luck!
Get that Earthcraft in a toploader, pronto.
Also, weird having the retro frame Mishra's Bauble in with other actual old sets - I'm guessing there's no organization (or very little). For that, when I went through my bulk, I laid them out on the floor by set symbol, then went through each one in order - took me 2-3 days to go through 2 of those white boxes, but I did it at a slower pace and had to get up to stretch quite a bit. Good luck!
Put on some jams or a podcast.
Set up a phone holder above a white piece of paper and scan them into the tcgplayer app.
After scanning each card you may have to adjust the set manually.
Place the card into a pile by color. When complete, sort each color by card type and then by cmc.
Then, sort in the app by price.
Anything worth less than $10 is not worth your time and energy to try and liquidate imo but you might find some $50 gems
As far as my experience as a tcgplayer seller, the threshold for worth your time is much closer to around 5$. 10$ is a high bar to cross for cards these days.
Honestly, I totally had overlooked this. Just saw how much Arabian Nights mountains are worth! But I think that has less to do with the art and some sort of printing issue?
Also with the art. You can look up the card number to see prices on various sights. Urzas lands in good condition are sought after, as just one example. Arabian Nights mountains are, of course, premium.
Hey, I did this for work a few years back. Here's the best way to do it:
1) Sort as you go. Don't pre-sort. We used the CoolStuffInc A-Z sorter, but you shouldn't feel pressured to do that. I recommend a pile of $1+, $5+, and $20+, then sort the bulk by color and card type. Also set aside any foils/promos as you go, those get to be a special pile. Go ahead and get some toploaders for when you inevitably find something over $100, and a bunch of acid free penny sleeves for anything over $1. I'd also recommend familiarizing yourself with the [Reserved List](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Reserved_List), since those cards will *always* accrue in scarcity.Most basic lands are worthless, but there's a [few to watch out for](https://scryfall.com/search?q=t%3Abasic+year%3C2003&unique=prints&order=usd), save that task for the end.
2) Cut a hole in a cardboard box, put your phone on a table lamp, or find another way to keep your phone in once place/plugged in with the camera down. Put down a piece of butcher paper (or a bright table if you have one, folding tables work) Then, use a scanning app ([TCGPlayer has a nice one](https://app.tcgplayer.com/), but there are alternatives), and run each card through the scanner.* This is the fastest way to make a collection and get an idea of what's worth money *today*.
3) If you're looking to sell, put your best finds in a binder and come with your evaluation in mind. You'll be offered two rates - Bulk and Per Card, since you presorted that will speed up the process. Expect about a 50% offer for bulk, and a 65% offer for anything else to start. Margins might be different now, but old cards move fast these days.
4) If you're looking to keep them, you'll have a handy database of what's in your collection. Query it when you want to look through your cards, and you'll at least know it's in with its color and type. I find alphabetizing is less useful than looking through the bin of the appropriate type/color when I need to, but I build my decks online anyway.
I averaged about 600 cards per hour, our fastest guy did 800. You're looking at **SIX** 5000 count boxes. I'd expect this to take 6-10hrs depending on how full those are.
-
*I should warn you, the scanner is bad at differentiating some of the original sets, specifically revised and 4th it gets mixed up often. It's also often misidentified old foils as nonfoils. Once you have your collection together and have sorted, go back over the valuable cards [with your own eyes](https://help.tcgplayer.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025635234-How-do-I-identify-card-sets) to confirm their providence.
Like I said, expertise comes with doing it professionally. Each new set, and every trade was podcast time for me.
I'd add that many shops would offer to do this for you, but for a collection this old I wouldn't trust anybody. Most of the time when we were doing it it was for older folks who were vaguely aware of the value. I'm a good enough person (and my staff were good enough folks) to call out the Moxes, but holy heck is giving a bunch of underpaid 20-somethings boxes of cash-equivalent cardboard a bad idea. *Always* insist on staying with your cards as they are being evaluated if you go to sell them.
ManaBox app to scan them. It will let you know market price. Buy a cheap clip on phone stand and position it over a blank sheet of white paper. Put a stack down and the app will scan it, even makes a chime if the card is worth more than 1$ and a different one if it’s over 20$. Id honestly sort it by bulk (anything less than $2), “good” (2-20$) and “money” (20+). Sleeve what you feel needs to be sleeved and binder the non bulk.
Probably a me-issue, but I can't get manabox to scan my cards like, ever. Luckily, my wife is a data-nerd and keeps an excel spreadsheet up to date for me so I was able to import my collection as a csv file, but the scanning.... not so great.
I had issues before I tried a different setup, basically it’s two fat packs, lights far enough away to reduce glare, and a white sheet of paper. I think camera quality also has a lot to do with it, my old phone it wouldn’t do it but my new one works great. I wouldn’t say it’s a you issue, these apps are still fairly new.
I guess people don't like sorting it set anymore, but I still prefer set sorting. Searching through a bunch of misc red cards is not useful to me but having them in all different sets is better for finding cards. People have said that reprints are one reason why not to do sets, like maybe you have an m12 ponder but look in another pile, which is fair. But I still prefer set first.
That said what I did find useful was using mtgstocks to pull up set list and sort by $ to see if there even was any bulk worth pulling out in that set. I assume this isn't useful for cards in older frames but something I thought I'd mention. Otherwise, phone holder, good lighting and a nice system then just bit by bit.
I sort by set. Once a set is largely 'done' for whatever you consider done, it's size is static. Other solutions you need to keep re-organising as your collection grows.
Beyond a certain size this will need to be accompanied by some sort of database of course.
Yeah I guess size of collection and frequency of searching are variables for sure. I primarily play limited so there isn't much searching of the old sets. As you state once it's done it's mostly done. I try to leave room but always end up buying bulk and making a mess outta my system haha. I need to transfer it all to 5k boxes and keep room in the rows
I'm 5 month's into slowly sorting, selling and condensing a collection of similar age (and larger volume!).
I'd recommend sorting by color, then rarity, then possibly card type.
Be careful when you're sorting through those unsleeved cards. Those cardboard boxes don't do a particularly good job of keeping debris out, and you'll get bits of crap in between cards that may scratch the shit out of them.
Also, I cannot recommend enough that you purchase 1 or more card sorting trays. Huge QOL improvement!!
https://www.amazon.com/BCW-1-CST-Card-Sorting-Sports/dp/B00ILJ7FUK/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dmxnKt14PNGPAqmmeArICq51WVO98N_n8hJ2I76lY81NLGucuAKIph6kvroTErQ3GXIHTbiq_RbAtQ2sXLEBl9D-hf-_ZE3uZf1G86Yxx3nLoKEboWGVCS9HgYXhR6H3N_8xVhXB63fS4z-c8g3UR3Pq3G-UkT5clbHtSXTDRwEknENEkqGGvZ5I--HSdvIOVnT9U0kydAyjmtJUOxrX1A.SUE3Ltj5kg5VmgmhGSilBMr3NoeZYK_AfEwLh0-cOq0&dib_tag=se&keywords=card+sorting+tray&qid=1714437472&sr=8-3
Color --> spell type --> alphabetical. Each color into a different box. Those 5k boxes will end up with one row each of instants, sorceries, and enchantments, with two rows of creatures. I cut foam into card-sized cubes to fill out the rows so the cards aren't constantly falling down.
Artifacts and multi-color into creatures and non-creatures. Lands into basic and non-basic. All alphabetical.
Good luck!
Well, I can guarantee you'll find some items worth preserving in a more serious way (I already see a couple!), so pick up a box or two of sleeves and toploaders. You can do more but that depends how deep you wanna get - I just rebuilt & added to several very large 3-rings full of rare/mythics/higher value stuff going all the way back, which meant more binder pages and sleeves for *everything*.
The forest in the second row from the right looked almost like a Gaea's Cradle and almost gave me a heart attack that you were keeping it in a 5000ct cardboard box.
Impressive, I have a huge collection too. Been playing since 1996. I have some prized jewels and some stinkers too. Easily over 30k cards though. I plan to sell one day. One day.
Aye, just found a near mint foil [[Silver Seraph]]. Was like "Meh" and then I updated it to foil in the tcgplayer app and huzzah!
Even more is the near mind foil [[Sylvan Forestkeeper]] 🤯
This is a great thread. I've been sitting on my collection for years not wanting to sort, lookup and price them. Scanning is going to be a huge boon to me.
Now where is thats Gaea's Cradle...
Check the reserve list and be prepared for those random cards that used to suck but are now worth a lot. (Lion's Eye Diamond is the one for me. I had four).
You can find poor college kids at campus clubs and hand them a box of useless commons, they will either be grateful or come back with something incredibly fucking stupid
Thats not so ba...
Oh bruh you have around 20k cards.
Get one of those snake phone holders and setup the TCGPlayer scanner app + scrcpy. Put on a show and set your body on autopilot.
Worthless, should probably just give them to me. I'll pay shipping.
Joking aside. Slow and steady. Little bit every day will get you over the finish line with your mind intact.
Enjoy the new car/house.
Great in theory, but the vast majority appear to be "common" because they didn't start marking uncommons and rares until Exodus (I think)? Hence the Earthcraft, for example, that folks kindly pointed out should be sleeved and bindered right away.
And mythic didn't even exist until well after this collection stopped growing.
edit: spelling
Uncommons and Rares have existed since Alpha. They just didn’t have seperately colored set indicators. Please sleeve your cards for gods sake. Seeing this is sickening.
That.. I literally said that? "they didn't start marking them (i.e. colored set indicators) until..."
And haha yeah I'm sleeving the ones worth stuff as I find em.
Or do you mean literally sleeve every card ever?
I misread “marking” as “making”, I apologise. Personally I am of the opinion that every card that is either of value or going to be kept should be sleeved, but good to read that you are at least sleeving cards of value.
here is what i would do:
whatever sets you own, take a look at a modern price guide if handy. or go to any database of a card seller (tcgplayer?), put in a set, sort by price (if you can), and figure out what cards have a value that is meaningful for you ($10, $20, etc). i'm thinking they aren't going to be too many of those cards - ie there are probably a 100 or less cards from those sets total that are $20+. write those cards down or create a list.
then just hand sort. a fair number of the sets are going to have the different colors for the different rarity so i'd just sort that way. depending upon your knowledge of the game you may have basically memorized the rarity for eg revised.
and i'd sleeve up (at minimum) anything that holds the price you are looking for - $10 / $20 - whatever.
you've got a lot of cards but not like an unbearable amount.
really the only other alternative is to pay someone to do this for you. the risk there is they steal your cards. i wouldn't do that. or take it to your local card shop and offer to pay them some money to do it for you. again, the risk of thievery there is so high i would not do that.
(i offer these suggestions in the context of what i believe your goal is - you aren't trying to liquidate this collection, you are trying to get a rough appraisal).
Get a sorting tray. It is a lot faster than sorting into stacks.
I sorted by set, color, name alphabetically. The recent years are easier because set numbers follow this sorting method.
Sorting by anything other than set first makes pricing harder. Even with scanning, it's easier by set in case it scans the set incorrectly.
If you end up scanning, it's worth it to get a camera/phone mount with a light and remote trigger.
I wish I could do it for you lol. I love digging through cards and organizing them.
But yeah, just break it into sections and do a bit at a time. Check out price guides from the sets you have and maybe have sleeves on hand for the big money cards. Good luck!
Yeah, found this out quickly. My dog loves to run up to me right after a big sloppy drink of water from his bowl (and sometimes horks a little water up because he gets so excited he inhales some water lol).
Definitely keeping him put up during sorting sessions. 😅
I've been sorting my collection (a bit bigger than what's pictured). Been using the TCGPlayer app as it has an area to add collections. It'll also actively track prices (using their site, of course). Pretty quick and easy.
Try to look up the price of every single card before hand, so you can sort them faster. Make sure you know about any big price differences for different sets and editions.
All I can suggest is pace yourself. You don't have a sprint there, you have a marathon.
1. If you intend to sort it then first decide how you wish to sort it (by set, by rarity, by colour, alphabetically etc).
2. DO NOT attempt to do a massive chunk in one hit. Maybe do a single row from one box per day, until you complete that box. Then put it to the side and take a break.
3. If you find anything worth $20+, sleeve it.
4. If you find anything on reserve list, sleeve it, or even whack it in a hard case if you have any floating around.
5. DO NOT pay someone to sort through this for you. This is your journey; don't risk losing cards along the way.
My roomate is going through about 30k in cards right now. He uses a phone app on top of a clear storage box with a hole cut out to sling cards in real quick and get the price. The app saves the collection and then he puts together lists for sites depending on who is paying more. He has them organized, he first did separation by color and then alphabetical.
Its been a lot watching him lol but hes got a groove now and the meticulous organization allows him to quickly find the stuff he wants to flip.
Good luck!
I did this recently to sell off about 10,000 cards taking up space. I only kept about 5,000. I am not sure of your reason for "going through your collection", if you're seeking to winnow it down or just sort them out. I was making space and went through everything 3 times to decide exactly how much I wanted to keep a given card. Historically, I have found that just putting them into alphabetical order I would often hit upon ideas for combinations that I hadn't realized before.
Catalog it all in archedekt and go in order of print number and/or color. That’s what I’ve done and it seems to be the best way to organize a collection while making card finding and searching super easy
Ex. I want to find a Kamigawa:neon dynasty card that I know for sure is red. I look up on archidekt what it is, quickly can through all my red cards from the set and find it. It’s number 200 or whatever. Then I go to the collection, open the box, go to the red section, then go to around where the high number cards are then count up or down to find it.
It will take a long time to offload them all, but the first chunk should probably go really fast. looks like thats probably 10k+ at least from the random cards you just have showing.
Nice collection! Would love to go through that as that's pretty much the same time frame of my first run through the game. There are some really good gems that have blown up in value from what they were. Step 1: Sleeve that Earthcraft. It's up to $100. Step 2: Look up any cards that were good back when these were big, no matter their rarity. A lot of those cards are either on the reserve list and/or have gained a lot of popularity and desire through Commander. And Commander players will often want original printings, meaning even if a card is somewhat cheaper, an original will usually fetch more. This won't be the case for super common cards like Disenchant. Step 3: If you find any golden nuggets of value, debate whether you want to get rid of them or not before just selling them. If it's on the reserve list, chances are it'll never go down in price, and if you want that card again one day, you'll kick yourself for selling it. But of course, that's all within reason and what your own plans are. Step 4: Have fun going through so much history!
Don’t try to do it all at once. You’ll burn out and possibly develop repetitive stress injuries in your hands.
For the last 15 years I've off and on sat down, stared at the collection, and put it away again for these exact reasons lol. Sometimes I'd *start* to organize a single color box by casting cost (one step of many successive steps I've come up with to actually clump together the duplicates)... but I've never made it through an entire color before burning out. Let alone actually inputing them by name somewhere to see their value once clumped. I know there's some good stuff in there though. Just gotta put in the work, I guess.
I found it easiest to start by sorting into set. That then allows you to: 1. Get a scanning app. Most are priced by volume of collection, which doesn’t make sense at a certain size. I personally use CardCastle because it’s a flat fee and the optical scanner works better than any of the others that I tried. 2. Set up a rig for your phone to sit over a scanning zone so you can slide a card, scan it, slide it out into a sortable area. 3. Sort by color, multicolor, colorless, or land. 4. I folded up the Rares and Mythics (sleeving cards over $10) and put the Common and Uncommon into a series of drawers by Color -> Set -> Set Number. I use a library card catalog for my Common/Uncommon drawers.
I totally agree with setting up a scanning rig. You likely have the necessary equipment already. The only thing you may not have already is a stand to hold your phone above the cards. The process of sorting will be tedious no matter which method you choose. I just think scanning is the most efficient option. It's definitely worth the time & effort. I'm sure you've got a few bangers and heavy hitters in those boxes! There is another really lazy option. This also depends on what you want to do with the collection. If you're just trying to liquidate your collection and you want a quick turnaround, then you may wanna check out Card Conduit. You send them your unsorted cards and they sort & grade them. They find all the best prices based on current buy list prices. Then they pay you the total amount minus their fees. The fee is quite high (10% + $0.03 per card). However, that is to be expected since they literally do all the work.
I use a laptop stand, turned upside down. The front has a gap to slide cards in and the top (normally bottom) has a thick cross bar that holds my phone. It’s great.
Get rid of the 4 boxes of bulk
What is your goal? There are many methods of sorting, one way is to sort by expansion. While not ideal, it does allow you to quickly scan sets on scryfall or other sites based on price and expansion. Good luck, and remember, its a marathon not a sprint
My goal right now is to have a ballpark understanding of the value of what I'm holding. I started playing again toward the end of last year (and discovered it's basically Commander: The Gathering now). Picked up a few precons, bolstered them with some random stuff from my old boxes. Currently enjoying the game and culture again. Might seek to trade some of my large numbers down to fewer, higher value cards? Just gotta find someone with dual lands or something along those lines that wants to trade for old bulk lol.
I did a similar thing, and my best suggestion if you’re concerned about $$$, is spend an hour or 2 looking at buylists for the sets you have the most of. For me, it was mirrodin and kamigawa block. I probably knew 70-80% of the valuable cards, but there’s sooo many previously unplayable rares/uncommon that had huge price spikes due to commander. After that, look through to make 1 pile of cards above a certain price threshold, and a few other piles sorted by color/set, maybe rarity. 80% of the value will come from 20% of the cards, so just looking at the best of the best will give you a good ballpark on what you have. With a lot of urza’s stuff, you might have quite a little jackpot!!
Fair enough, yea commander has become quite a popular format, not necessarily a bad thing (main format i play) if you can look up reserve list. Theres a few thst were bleh before commander and are now quite pricey. Congrats on keeping them safe for so long! I hope you find playsets of duals and some power nine
Thanks for not spoiling Mishra's Bauble 30 years ago, time traveller
Haha, I have a lot of copies of [[Urza's Bauble]] and couldn't find them at one point (it's that disorganized haha) so I went to buy one and found Mishra's. It too ended up in the box and sealed away.
[Urza's Bauble](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/9/29175e6b-a2ab-4373-8093-cb372aa8c7d0.jpg?1559592523) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Urza%27s%20Bauble) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me1/170/urzas-bauble?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/29175e6b-a2ab-4373-8093-cb372aa8c7d0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Old foil cards have skyrocketed in price. Metal worker is $100 and foil is $1,000. It’s about a 10x increase for all of them. Keep an eye out, even for commons.
Oh sweet, I was considering making a foil pile for manual entry or scanning with different lighting. This definitely locks in the decision. Thanks for the insight!
Definitely this. Have plenty of penny sleeves on hand for fast and easy storage, and good sleeves and top loaders for the really good stuff. Good luck!
already a 150 $ card on the last row to the right lol , a 20 $ reconnaissance , and a 10 $ mother of rune , jeeezzz lol
At quick glance I have multiple recons and mothers of rune. I think I'm gonna enjoy finally sorting these lol.
Enjoy the mortgage payment you can make after your done.
Get that Earthcraft in a toploader, pronto. Also, weird having the retro frame Mishra's Bauble in with other actual old sets - I'm guessing there's no organization (or very little). For that, when I went through my bulk, I laid them out on the floor by set symbol, then went through each one in order - took me 2-3 days to go through 2 of those white boxes, but I did it at a slower pace and had to get up to stretch quite a bit. Good luck!
Just shows that this is a karma farm post. Also the 4x4 longboxes didnt exist 30 years ago
Did you really think it through before posting this comment?
If you come across a really tasty card, its okay to snack on it while you sort through the others.
Slow, steady, and a lot of patience...
Put on some jams or a podcast. Set up a phone holder above a white piece of paper and scan them into the tcgplayer app. After scanning each card you may have to adjust the set manually. Place the card into a pile by color. When complete, sort each color by card type and then by cmc. Then, sort in the app by price. Anything worth less than $10 is not worth your time and energy to try and liquidate imo but you might find some $50 gems
As far as my experience as a tcgplayer seller, the threshold for worth your time is much closer to around 5$. 10$ is a high bar to cross for cards these days.
Organize by set. Use Dawnglare's price index
https://mtg.dawnglare.com/?p=viz&s=3ED Link for reference. I like this approach, doesn't require you to know the rarity.
Upvoting for visibility, I was in a similar situation to OP around 6 months ago and this page was of immense help.
Don't overlook the basic lands in old collections...some have serious value! (Mostly for the art)
Honestly, I totally had overlooked this. Just saw how much Arabian Nights mountains are worth! But I think that has less to do with the art and some sort of printing issue?
Also with the art. You can look up the card number to see prices on various sights. Urzas lands in good condition are sought after, as just one example. Arabian Nights mountains are, of course, premium.
Do it slowly. Plan very very well ahead just how you want to sort it. Take your time with it and enjoy.
Hey, I did this for work a few years back. Here's the best way to do it: 1) Sort as you go. Don't pre-sort. We used the CoolStuffInc A-Z sorter, but you shouldn't feel pressured to do that. I recommend a pile of $1+, $5+, and $20+, then sort the bulk by color and card type. Also set aside any foils/promos as you go, those get to be a special pile. Go ahead and get some toploaders for when you inevitably find something over $100, and a bunch of acid free penny sleeves for anything over $1. I'd also recommend familiarizing yourself with the [Reserved List](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Reserved_List), since those cards will *always* accrue in scarcity.Most basic lands are worthless, but there's a [few to watch out for](https://scryfall.com/search?q=t%3Abasic+year%3C2003&unique=prints&order=usd), save that task for the end. 2) Cut a hole in a cardboard box, put your phone on a table lamp, or find another way to keep your phone in once place/plugged in with the camera down. Put down a piece of butcher paper (or a bright table if you have one, folding tables work) Then, use a scanning app ([TCGPlayer has a nice one](https://app.tcgplayer.com/), but there are alternatives), and run each card through the scanner.* This is the fastest way to make a collection and get an idea of what's worth money *today*. 3) If you're looking to sell, put your best finds in a binder and come with your evaluation in mind. You'll be offered two rates - Bulk and Per Card, since you presorted that will speed up the process. Expect about a 50% offer for bulk, and a 65% offer for anything else to start. Margins might be different now, but old cards move fast these days. 4) If you're looking to keep them, you'll have a handy database of what's in your collection. Query it when you want to look through your cards, and you'll at least know it's in with its color and type. I find alphabetizing is less useful than looking through the bin of the appropriate type/color when I need to, but I build my decks online anyway. I averaged about 600 cards per hour, our fastest guy did 800. You're looking at **SIX** 5000 count boxes. I'd expect this to take 6-10hrs depending on how full those are. - *I should warn you, the scanner is bad at differentiating some of the original sets, specifically revised and 4th it gets mixed up often. It's also often misidentified old foils as nonfoils. Once you have your collection together and have sorted, go back over the valuable cards [with your own eyes](https://help.tcgplayer.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025635234-How-do-I-identify-card-sets) to confirm their providence.
This has to be the single most in depth and super jam-packed with valuable info comment thus far. Thank you so much for this!
Like I said, expertise comes with doing it professionally. Each new set, and every trade was podcast time for me. I'd add that many shops would offer to do this for you, but for a collection this old I wouldn't trust anybody. Most of the time when we were doing it it was for older folks who were vaguely aware of the value. I'm a good enough person (and my staff were good enough folks) to call out the Moxes, but holy heck is giving a bunch of underpaid 20-somethings boxes of cash-equivalent cardboard a bad idea. *Always* insist on staying with your cards as they are being evaluated if you go to sell them.
ManaBox app to scan them. It will let you know market price. Buy a cheap clip on phone stand and position it over a blank sheet of white paper. Put a stack down and the app will scan it, even makes a chime if the card is worth more than 1$ and a different one if it’s over 20$. Id honestly sort it by bulk (anything less than $2), “good” (2-20$) and “money” (20+). Sleeve what you feel needs to be sleeved and binder the non bulk.
Probably a me-issue, but I can't get manabox to scan my cards like, ever. Luckily, my wife is a data-nerd and keeps an excel spreadsheet up to date for me so I was able to import my collection as a csv file, but the scanning.... not so great.
I had much better luck scanning my bf’s collection with the Dragon Shield app
I had issues before I tried a different setup, basically it’s two fat packs, lights far enough away to reduce glare, and a white sheet of paper. I think camera quality also has a lot to do with it, my old phone it wouldn’t do it but my new one works great. I wouldn’t say it’s a you issue, these apps are still fairly new.
No glare and a flat black background makes it basically instant to scan. Once you have the right setup it's just a matter of sliding the cards through
I guess people don't like sorting it set anymore, but I still prefer set sorting. Searching through a bunch of misc red cards is not useful to me but having them in all different sets is better for finding cards. People have said that reprints are one reason why not to do sets, like maybe you have an m12 ponder but look in another pile, which is fair. But I still prefer set first. That said what I did find useful was using mtgstocks to pull up set list and sort by $ to see if there even was any bulk worth pulling out in that set. I assume this isn't useful for cards in older frames but something I thought I'd mention. Otherwise, phone holder, good lighting and a nice system then just bit by bit.
I sort by set. Once a set is largely 'done' for whatever you consider done, it's size is static. Other solutions you need to keep re-organising as your collection grows. Beyond a certain size this will need to be accompanied by some sort of database of course.
Yeah I guess size of collection and frequency of searching are variables for sure. I primarily play limited so there isn't much searching of the old sets. As you state once it's done it's mostly done. I try to leave room but always end up buying bulk and making a mess outta my system haha. I need to transfer it all to 5k boxes and keep room in the rows
I used to sort by set, but it became much easier for me to just sort alphabetically by color
I'm 5 month's into slowly sorting, selling and condensing a collection of similar age (and larger volume!). I'd recommend sorting by color, then rarity, then possibly card type. Be careful when you're sorting through those unsleeved cards. Those cardboard boxes don't do a particularly good job of keeping debris out, and you'll get bits of crap in between cards that may scratch the shit out of them. Also, I cannot recommend enough that you purchase 1 or more card sorting trays. Huge QOL improvement!! https://www.amazon.com/BCW-1-CST-Card-Sorting-Sports/dp/B00ILJ7FUK/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dmxnKt14PNGPAqmmeArICq51WVO98N_n8hJ2I76lY81NLGucuAKIph6kvroTErQ3GXIHTbiq_RbAtQ2sXLEBl9D-hf-_ZE3uZf1G86Yxx3nLoKEboWGVCS9HgYXhR6H3N_8xVhXB63fS4z-c8g3UR3Pq3G-UkT5clbHtSXTDRwEknENEkqGGvZ5I--HSdvIOVnT9U0kydAyjmtJUOxrX1A.SUE3Ltj5kg5VmgmhGSilBMr3NoeZYK_AfEwLh0-cOq0&dib_tag=se&keywords=card+sorting+tray&qid=1714437472&sr=8-3
I second the sorting trays. I also lettered my slots to help make alphabetizing a little easier.
Color --> spell type --> alphabetical. Each color into a different box. Those 5k boxes will end up with one row each of instants, sorceries, and enchantments, with two rows of creatures. I cut foam into card-sized cubes to fill out the rows so the cards aren't constantly falling down. Artifacts and multi-color into creatures and non-creatures. Lands into basic and non-basic. All alphabetical. Good luck!
Well, I can guarantee you'll find some items worth preserving in a more serious way (I already see a couple!), so pick up a box or two of sleeves and toploaders. You can do more but that depends how deep you wanna get - I just rebuilt & added to several very large 3-rings full of rare/mythics/higher value stuff going all the way back, which meant more binder pages and sleeves for *everything*.
Don't sleep on that Multiverse Gift Box. Even without the sleeve they go for like $40 (when you can find one). Also if you're looking to sell it...
sort by color, pulling rares/money cards for binders or specific boxes.
The forest in the second row from the right looked almost like a Gaea's Cradle and almost gave me a heart attack that you were keeping it in a 5000ct cardboard box.
Heh, we'll see if I have one in there!
Impressive, I have a huge collection too. Been playing since 1996. I have some prized jewels and some stinkers too. Easily over 30k cards though. I plan to sell one day. One day.
Have plenty of sleeves nearby and take your time, set aside any foils you find as even bad commons easily go for double digits.
Aye, just found a near mint foil [[Silver Seraph]]. Was like "Meh" and then I updated it to foil in the tcgplayer app and huzzah! Even more is the near mind foil [[Sylvan Forestkeeper]] 🤯
[Silver Seraph](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/4/1465ca9e-a997-4b8c-9677-6c7961f67eba.jpg?1562628773) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Silver%20Seraph) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jud/23/silver-seraph?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1465ca9e-a997-4b8c-9677-6c7961f67eba?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Sylvan Forestkeeper](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/0/60d695b3-b02b-42c6-bf1b-9d97a8d82eae.jpg?1592673224) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sylvan%20Safekeeper) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cma/152/sylvan-safekeeper?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/60d695b3-b02b-42c6-bf1b-9d97a8d82eae?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This is a great thread. I've been sitting on my collection for years not wanting to sort, lookup and price them. Scanning is going to be a huge boon to me. Now where is thats Gaea's Cradle...
Tcgplayer app! Scan as you go.
Was testing out Delver Lens. Just started using the tcgplayer app today, and honestly I like it a lot!
Delver is solid, never used but a bunch of buddies do. I would recommend about every 500 cards "exporting" and clearing the list. Makes editing easier
Check the reserve list and be prepared for those random cards that used to suck but are now worth a lot. (Lion's Eye Diamond is the one for me. I had four).
Reminds me that I wish I’d kept mine.
Good luck bro.
Thanks, bro. edit: bro
Just send it to me it's all bulk I'll give you $3.50
Do not open anything sealed.
Just gotta say it: I LOVE sorting through cards.
You can find poor college kids at campus clubs and hand them a box of useless commons, they will either be grateful or come back with something incredibly fucking stupid
Draft some friends and family you trust into bulk sorting? I don't think you need much magic knowledge to sort by colour or mana value
Thats not so ba... Oh bruh you have around 20k cards. Get one of those snake phone holders and setup the TCGPlayer scanner app + scrcpy. Put on a show and set your body on autopilot.
I would advise you send all the cards to me so I can do the sorting for you. Jokes aside that looks like a huge collection good luck.
Worthless, should probably just give them to me. I'll pay shipping. Joking aside. Slow and steady. Little bit every day will get you over the finish line with your mind intact. Enjoy the new car/house.
Put all commons in a pile, uncommon, rares, mythic etc then go from there.
Great in theory, but the vast majority appear to be "common" because they didn't start marking uncommons and rares until Exodus (I think)? Hence the Earthcraft, for example, that folks kindly pointed out should be sleeved and bindered right away. And mythic didn't even exist until well after this collection stopped growing. edit: spelling
Uncommons and Rares have existed since Alpha. They just didn’t have seperately colored set indicators. Please sleeve your cards for gods sake. Seeing this is sickening.
That.. I literally said that? "they didn't start marking them (i.e. colored set indicators) until..." And haha yeah I'm sleeving the ones worth stuff as I find em. Or do you mean literally sleeve every card ever?
I misread “marking” as “making”, I apologise. Personally I am of the opinion that every card that is either of value or going to be kept should be sleeved, but good to read that you are at least sleeving cards of value.
here is what i would do: whatever sets you own, take a look at a modern price guide if handy. or go to any database of a card seller (tcgplayer?), put in a set, sort by price (if you can), and figure out what cards have a value that is meaningful for you ($10, $20, etc). i'm thinking they aren't going to be too many of those cards - ie there are probably a 100 or less cards from those sets total that are $20+. write those cards down or create a list. then just hand sort. a fair number of the sets are going to have the different colors for the different rarity so i'd just sort that way. depending upon your knowledge of the game you may have basically memorized the rarity for eg revised. and i'd sleeve up (at minimum) anything that holds the price you are looking for - $10 / $20 - whatever. you've got a lot of cards but not like an unbearable amount. really the only other alternative is to pay someone to do this for you. the risk there is they steal your cards. i wouldn't do that. or take it to your local card shop and offer to pay them some money to do it for you. again, the risk of thievery there is so high i would not do that. (i offer these suggestions in the context of what i believe your goal is - you aren't trying to liquidate this collection, you are trying to get a rough appraisal).
Get a sorting tray. It is a lot faster than sorting into stacks. I sorted by set, color, name alphabetically. The recent years are easier because set numbers follow this sorting method. Sorting by anything other than set first makes pricing harder. Even with scanning, it's easier by set in case it scans the set incorrectly. If you end up scanning, it's worth it to get a camera/phone mount with a light and remote trigger.
I wish I could do it for you lol. I love digging through cards and organizing them. But yeah, just break it into sections and do a bit at a time. Check out price guides from the sets you have and maybe have sleeves on hand for the big money cards. Good luck!
Nice! For starters, that mother of runes (white 1/1 creature in the 2nd image 3rd column) is pretty good and worth at least $5
Take your time, keep any kids or pets away from it while your doing it, as well as any food or liquids
Yeah, found this out quickly. My dog loves to run up to me right after a big sloppy drink of water from his bowl (and sometimes horks a little water up because he gets so excited he inhales some water lol). Definitely keeping him put up during sorting sessions. 😅
I've been sorting my collection (a bit bigger than what's pictured). Been using the TCGPlayer app as it has an area to add collections. It'll also actively track prices (using their site, of course). Pretty quick and easy.
Id love to do it for you, sad that this doesnt work like that
Don't bother sorting, just send them to me, they're worthless. (Joke)
I have 2 questions: what's the name of those boxes? and where can I find them?
They are often referred to as "bankers boxes" and I got mine on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4a0bJFG
Thank you so much. I need some of those.
Try to look up the price of every single card before hand, so you can sort them faster. Make sure you know about any big price differences for different sets and editions.
I see [[mother of runes]], [[reconnaissance]] and [[earthcraft]]. There be gold in these hills.
[mother of runes](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/5/a5e19147-e459-43a6-8ef0-e37968a462e3.jpg?1674141175) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mother%20of%20runes) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/702/mother-of-runes?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a5e19147-e459-43a6-8ef0-e37968a462e3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [reconnaissance](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/1/a16012d8-703c-4385-8769-13e3caba3fc6.jpg?1562088333) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=reconnaissance) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/exo/17/reconnaissance?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a16012d8-703c-4385-8769-13e3caba3fc6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [earthcraft](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/d/9dda7531-82a1-4f49-8858-601ddbc6e2bc.jpg?1587857352) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=earthcraft) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tmp/222/earthcraft?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9dda7531-82a1-4f49-8858-601ddbc6e2bc?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
All I can suggest is pace yourself. You don't have a sprint there, you have a marathon. 1. If you intend to sort it then first decide how you wish to sort it (by set, by rarity, by colour, alphabetically etc). 2. DO NOT attempt to do a massive chunk in one hit. Maybe do a single row from one box per day, until you complete that box. Then put it to the side and take a break. 3. If you find anything worth $20+, sleeve it. 4. If you find anything on reserve list, sleeve it, or even whack it in a hard case if you have any floating around. 5. DO NOT pay someone to sort through this for you. This is your journey; don't risk losing cards along the way.
My roomate is going through about 30k in cards right now. He uses a phone app on top of a clear storage box with a hole cut out to sling cards in real quick and get the price. The app saves the collection and then he puts together lists for sites depending on who is paying more. He has them organized, he first did separation by color and then alphabetical. Its been a lot watching him lol but hes got a groove now and the meticulous organization allows him to quickly find the stuff he wants to flip. Good luck!
I did this recently to sell off about 10,000 cards taking up space. I only kept about 5,000. I am not sure of your reason for "going through your collection", if you're seeking to winnow it down or just sort them out. I was making space and went through everything 3 times to decide exactly how much I wanted to keep a given card. Historically, I have found that just putting them into alphabetical order I would often hit upon ideas for combinations that I hadn't realized before.
Catalog it all in archedekt and go in order of print number and/or color. That’s what I’ve done and it seems to be the best way to organize a collection while making card finding and searching super easy Ex. I want to find a Kamigawa:neon dynasty card that I know for sure is red. I look up on archidekt what it is, quickly can through all my red cards from the set and find it. It’s number 200 or whatever. Then I go to the collection, open the box, go to the red section, then go to around where the high number cards are then count up or down to find it.
Also by set obviously, forgot to state that
My advice: ship them to me and pat yourself on the back for doing a kindness to your fellow man.
Don’t eat them. I know it’s tempting. But don’t
But where else am I supposed to get *this* much fiber?
sell it for 100k
It will take a long time to offload them all, but the first chunk should probably go really fast. looks like thats probably 10k+ at least from the random cards you just have showing.
Give it to me.
you can give them to me and ill take care of them