dude that card sorting machine is SICK! I had no idea something like that even existed. One day maybe ill own my own shop........

I use paper index cards to divide my sets and cards in alphabetical order.

I want a job that all I have to do is sort cards!

Divider between sets and “raw dog”

Somebody commented this 2 years ago but I just casually found your channel & I'm glad I did. Nice store!

My sorting system is to sleeve the first of the same cards. For example, if I have 10 of the same cards, I sleeve the first card only, and that sleeve essentially became my divider. I also don't consider that sleeved card as part of the inventory so that sleeved card become at the same time a place holder as well as a safety stock in case I even am exactly one card short.

(Note: I am a person predisposed to over-complicating things, so keep this in mind when reading.) Direct Seller with a Brick Mortar here. Average daily inventory is ~2000 cards between 5 games (MTG, PKM, FAB, Lorcana, and SWU). I have changed things a few times, but I currently have cards organized by game, then foil or non-foil, then alphabetically. When I box break a bunch of one set, I'll temporarily have that set in it's own box (also broken down by foil then alphabet) until it gets down to a more manageable size them I'll merge it back in with the larger inventory box for that game. It's a hybrid approach and seems to work pretty well for an inventory of _this_ size and also given that I'm really the only person pulling from and adding to it, but we'll have to see how it works as we scale up both inventory and labor. I also sleeve ALL my cards, but I try to emphasize sleeve reuse as much as possible. To save time and material, I tend to throw multiples of the same card (if lower value) in one penny sleeve, then mark those sleeves with a number so I know to check those sleeves for extras to avoid accidental overships.

All of our product is separated by game, then by set alphabetically, then by Condition breakdown, and then alphabetically within those conditions. All NM and LP condition cards are sleeved. If the foils are separated into their own section on our website, they will have their own section otherwise foils go after regular versions of cards. Our separator for sets/condition of that set is a note card. For larger sections that go more than a row, we use slips of paper just higher than the cards with letters on them to separate out and make it easier to pull. Since NM and LP have sleeves on them, we aren't worried about our fingers touching them. MP and lower condition will not make much difference so we don't mind touching the cards. We use Costco racks (8 of them) where you can fit five of the 4-row boxes and one 2-row box both front and back, so each shelf has 11 total 4-row boxes - basically. Times that by 4 with using the floor and you can get 44 4-row boxes of cards in use with one rack that cost $250 or so and the top shelf is used for storage, supplies, etc.

Did a bit of quick math because I'm a nerd, each of those boxes assuming they're full holds 5,000 cards. There are 8 shelves per row on each of those stands, and 2 rows. You have 10 stands in total, so for magic assuming every box was completely full you would have 800,000 cards on the shelves alone. So you're probably pretty close on the 1 million cards count.

How much do I get for a mint condition Ace of Spades?

sleeves

Dividers. I find the sellers that put dividers between ever card have like 20-30 copies of these cards. We put dividers based on the alphabet. Usually a dividers ever 2-3 inches so we can grab the cards with one hand to look through them. We do sleeve foils. We don’t sleeve normal cards. That was a suggestion from our growth rep

How many hours a week do you feel your have dedicated to putting cards in stock (conditioning, filing, etc)

Create a "control" group now... put some pristine cards (foils, non-foils, new, and old) in a special marked section of a heavily flipped through box... you'll know exactly how long they've been in there and that they weren't cycled through... in 6 months you'll have an idea about damage. In a year... you'll have a very good idea and can let us know the outcome! I've always wondered about those same things!

At my shop we use: 3200 count boxes for each condition NM/LP/MP/DMG We then have BCW Tall Dividers for each condition, labeled with each TCGplayer set (MTG currently has like 400 different set listings) so that's 1600 label dividers we have just for the MTG inventory We do combine non-foils and foils into the same box based on condition. Each set is loaded alphabetically from A-Z for non-holo, then another blank divider with the foil inventory then loaded A-Z. All foils and cards over $1 are penny sleeved. So 2 dividers per set, per condition. We leave the dividers in the box in order (alphabetically not not TCG sorted system) regardless if we have cards from the set or not to avoid having to alphabetize in the future.

twilight masquerade gets us all sometimes tough luck! ive ripped two etbs before and pulled like ten dollars worth of cards haha

Imo, this 2% direct thing that tcg gave is causing you to worry and overthink condition to an extreme. Im not saying the conditions shouldn't be important but not to the point where we're asking if sifting through cards in the box is going to overtime cause damage. I personally just do dividers by set, rarity, and alphabetical. Leave enough room where you can put 2 or 3 fingers in between cards to search without having to force cards out of the way, can mitigate potential damage. As long as someone isn't man handling the cards, it should be fine.

Dividers for each set. A-Z from there. If I had as many dividers as you're using it would give me an aneurysum.

Just started getting into collecting and watching to better my know. One thing that's impressed so much is the realness of some of content creators I've seen, so refreshing.

From a raw mechanical view: Every movement causes friction to some level. The point is rather: Is that friction causing damage to the card, i.e. mostly the surface if cards are shoved against one another while shuffling through the big boxes. That again depends on the distance the cards can move and the force applied. Each movement may cause insignificant stress on the surface but repeated over hundreds or thousands of iteration that may well add up to surface damage - especially if the very same spot(s) are hit over and over again.

The damage kind of depends on your turnover rate. Risk is minimal from other cards or tags if the product moves in and out of your inventory quickly. In my experience as long as the "wiggle" isn't very extreme you shouldn't have to worry too much. Though I've definitely had pack fresh foils in a box that I barely look at and brought them out later with a big scratch I definitely didn't put there myself. I chalked it up to too much movement when moving the box around. In other words you want space but not too much or too little. As for how much you should tag, that also depends on what you need your pick rates to be or how much you believe your employees will grab the correct version of a card if there isn't a divider. If you need speed then you don't want then sifting through a bunch of A or B to find a copy. However if you're putting cards into your inventory it can go a lot faster when you don't need to look for a specific tag. So there's kind of a balance there.

*You should make an updated video!*

please. Any shop worth its salt has a card sorting machine or two. These machines can be programmed in many ways and one of which is checking the value of the card by referencing it with pricing sites. these machines can drop any card that is worth more than the programmed amount into a separate bin. This is why as a non-professional buyer it is NEVER beneficial to buy in bulk because those cards have already been sorted and picked through for the most valuable cards. The only ways to get valuable cards is by direct purchase, buying sealed packs, or simply getting lucky and finding cards in the most random of places. I had the idea to look into online estate liquidation auctions where foreclosed, death or any other means resulted in some collection being put up for auction. However, i quickly realized it was not an original idea as i found myself in competition with card stores outbidding me on nearly EVERY auction. Card stores, Especially online card stores are a damn cancer and are only in it because it is big business. you just cant compete with em.

99 percent if card shops fail. Go work at mcdonalds or drive uber

I've been running a small tcgplayer shop (mostly just Pokémon) for over a year to help fund my hobby. I'm still using penny sleeves on cards and dividers just for sets. Nonfoils I will put up to 10 copies in a single penny sleeve so it is less "units" to flip through in the box and then holos and reverses either get their own sleeve or 2 per sleeve, back to back so they don't scratch. However, my inventory is currently in the 20-30k cards range so I could see it becoming prohibitively time and cost expensive if I scaled up significantly. I could definitely see dividers being helpful in an operation with multiple people working on the same inventory because it makes it harder for things to get mis-filed. I don't know how many times I've had a brain fart and forgot alphabetical order several letters into a card name and then spent time later trying to catch my mistake when I have to pull cards for an order. But similar to my sleeves approach, I think it would largely depend on the ratio between how you separate the cards and how many copies fit in each "bin". I like the approach you mentioned in an earlier video of keeping all NM cards together, all LP cards together, etc. A lot of why I use sleeves in my inventory is so I can encode the condition on the sleeve, but with a large enough inventory and high enough throughput, duplicating the set structure to keep conditions separate would probably be easier. Because pull sheets are sorted by [condition, set, card name] I imagine that allows parallelism across multiple employees as one could be pulling the NM cards for an invoice, another the LP cards, etc. Overall I just find it very interesting how much inventory scale and process scalability changes what is best practice for a given tcgplayer system. Look forward to seeing how this series unfolds!

The amount of doofuses on tcgplayer groups saying "IVE NEVER HAD A SINGLE REFUND OR DISCREPANCY, I DONT GET IT, JUST LIST LESS CARDS". I wish facebook replaced the poke button with slap.

Team less dividers

This is how we sort our MTG. Pro LGS with over 100k in inventory First we divide in half, 93-2014 & 2014-current. 2014-current has the 3 digit set code you can alphabetize (vow, one, 2x2, 2xm, afr, etc) We use the white dividers just for the 1st letter, so between 6 boxes we have a-z dividers. We use a red card sleeve with a backwards land as the divider between sets. Within the set it's by card number. 001-999 Prior to 2015. We sort first by year. We have white dividers with just the year on them. We then organize sets based on chronological release date and within those sets we organize alphabetically. This method allows anyone to look at the card and either find the year or set code and narrow down quickly. It allows easy inventory audits via CSV exports.

Lorcana is the only game I divide by letter (card names are in the middle of the card) everything else set

3:38 It's not worth it of course. It's a hobby! But you must have loved some part of it?

Alpha/Color sort the stuff and then penny sleeve everything in there. You can comfortably fit about 10 copies of a single card in a penny sleeve. You can separate foils and showcases, etc as well. With a big inventory like yours I'd probably break it down from loose alpha to A-a, A-b, A-c, and so forth with the single dividers. You said you penny sleeved things before so you know they do an okay enough job of protecting the cards in the box if you're worrying about damaging them with everyday use. Plus, as long as you're not using your fingernail to thumb through them while looking for a card your damaging to the tops of the cards due to the open top of the penny sleeve won't be much of an issue either. It'll happen of course but it is what is is there. I agree with Rob though, too. Dollar binders for the win. I've got them at my shop. Take your bulk rares, slap them in a binder, they're all $1 and done. Plus, that's less product you have to directly worry about with TCG and their conditioning team. Plus, you can sell a .45 bulk rare for $1 with no fees from TCG or worry a about shipping. Also, unless a card goes from like .50 to $5 suddenly, don't patrol your $1 binders constantly. Let the customer think they got one over on you/got a steal. Who cares? You can't win them all and you most likely paid bulk prices for it anyways.

I like dividers only for separating by color within a set, then alphabetizing the color. That way the box tells you set, divider the color, and then name where to look within that color.

I use dividers or top loaders by set then by letter.

Plastic for a to z then a paper one for each card

I use a divider for every letter. I find things a lot faster.

If my cards are all messed up, I'll email WotC and ask for replacements. I don't really care, but they'll probably do something to make it right.

I use dividers to label sets and conditions. I'll have set A N/M followed by set a LP and so on all in the same spot back to back. No bounching between boxes for one set. I sort foils in with the non foils. Just sort the foils after each regular version so everything is together. I'll sleeve older foils (pre collector boosters) and any high value cards. Keep the boxes packed tightly so the cards dont move around as much, and make sure you have washed hands to reduce oils when you're pulling. I try to use as few dividers and sleeves as possible. I do put one divider on each end of the rows so the cards dont rub on the box.

I found that dividing up each unique card saves me alot of time pulling for orders rather than just one divider for each letter of the alphabet and then set. However buying that many BCW dividers seems kind of crazy cause they are pretty pricey but maybe wholesale they're not too bad. I just use heavyweight cardstock index cards that I cut up with a guillotine paper cutter so they're just tall enough to peak over the cards and i can flip through them with the tips of my fingers, if that makes any sense.

I sort my boxes by set and then have a divider for each card number. My deviders are just DIY cardboard cuttings to save space and costs. Each solution is different for different types of stores or collectors, but for us, this works best when it comes to packing orders efficiently.

My stock is sorted by Color, within colors by sets in chronological order and within the sets they are alphabetized. Instead of sturdy dividers I use paper since it is just an indicator to guide me towards the right set. As far as I know I had no card damaging from storing the cards that way so far in the last ~17 years. Keep up the good work! Greetings from Germany ;)

Like this alot man, thanks and looking forward to next episode. I like Lean and Six Sigma. Have certain "belt" myself in process management. Really think condition becomes more and more important and I rather be to strict on it. It can only bring fortune. The divider is nice touch. It will save you time and money in the long run. Sleeve the foils. When the foils get more expensive in the long run and you can still sell them NM/LP, some foils gain thousands of percents in few years in NM condition.

I just do a set divider

Do you keep you rares and mythics in with your commons/uncomomons? I recently added them in with the bulk, but in sleeves, but I'm not sure I like it. However, it was always a pain to have to jump over to a separate spot to pull the cards rares from that set. (at home seller) Regarding the dividers - I think having a divider for each card is too much. I think the cards are better off with less plastic in the mix. With that being said, I have a much smaller inventory, so it may be practical for someone like you with dozens of each card. I also wouldn't do it just for the price alone. Those ten packs add up!

I just do set>a-z both foil and non but i would also take a card that is not listed and test over a year to see if it get damaged after going through all the stuff also i leave a bit a gap so i can see what cards are there and can easily get them out

Dollar binders!

what's up with all the $70,000 card listings on your website? the first thing i see when i click on magic cards is a wall of stupidly priced cards

My local card store, will run a sale every quarter, in order to get rid of their bulk. During those sales, you can get 15-20 commons, or 8-12 uncommon for $1

Are those cards sleeved up too?

I run a store in NY, we are also direct. Just so you know, 99.9% you have correct conditions. What we practice is NM is LP, LP+ is MP. If we post NM its gotta be very very good. Direct is a little ridiculous and way too strict

Went to a store for a Ainok Bond-Kin from Khans of Tarkir. I was told they dont sort their own bulk. Walked right out