How to Store and Organize Pokemon Cards

There are many ways to organize Pokemon cards, and I have tried just about all of them. I’m sure we’ve all heard of storing them in deck boxes and penny sleeves, and when I was in grade school I just stacked them and put a rubber band over them (cringe). But over the years I’ve found that, personally, the best method of storing Pokemon cards is by using a binder.

Why Use a Binder?

Everyone has different reasons for using the methods that they do. For me, I like to easily see every card I own. Deck boxes require lots of flipping through to find the card you want, and it’s hard to know what’s in your collection by just looking at it. When your collection grows and you need to expand to more boxes, it gets messy really quick, and the boxes start taking up a lot of space. 

So, a binder is what works best for me. I am able to see 8 cards at once, and the turn of a page, I can see 8 more. The use of dividers also makes locating certain cards much easier; which I will discuss later on what categories you can divide your cards into. Penny sleeves offer good protection, but trading card page protectors offer that same protection while also giving you the option to see more cards at one time.

Things You Will Need

To get started, here is a list of things you will need.

• A binder. I like the Pokedex Mini Binder from UniKeep that comes with pages to hold up to 200 cards, and it looks like a Pokedex. If you have more than 200 cards they have a larger version too, but I got the mini one because I travel with my cards often and I can throw this one in my backpack no problem. But any binder will do – make sure to get a thick enough spine to fit all of your cards or get several thinner binders if you’d like to have one binder for each category.
• Trading card pages. UniKeep’s binder comes with pages, so it’s sort of a one-stop-shop. But if you choose to go with a different binder, chances are you’ll need to separately purchase trading card pages. 
• Dividers (optional). Skip this step if you are designating a binder to each category. If you choose to use dividers, you can find them cheap on Amazon here.
• Your Pokemon cards of course!

Categories

When it comes to how exactly you want to organize your Pokemon, the rabbit hole goes pretty deep. I’m a simple person, so I categorized my Pokemon by type (grass, fire, rock, fighting, etc), separating each section by an element card that introduces the next type. In the back of the binder are items and extra cards.

Other categories I’ve seen people use online are evolutions, Pokedex number, rarity, alphabetically… It’s really up to you.

Building the Binder

Once you’ve laid out your collection and decided your organization system, now comes the fun part! Loading the cards. Make sure when loading to carefully insert them. Too much roughness easily bends the corners of the cards, which I learned the hard way. Patience is key when loading your cards. 

Lastly…

The last thing to do is to find a safe place for the binder. You’ll want to make sure that the binder is off of the floor, safe from possible floods, as well as away from direct sunlight. I put mine in a cube organizer, off the floor, and in a shady spot, with no risk of it falling or breaking. If you’re really paranoid about natural disasters and accidents, I’d recommend a fireproof safe.

I hope these tips helped you with getting ideas on how to organize your cards using a binder. It’s an affordable and accessible way to store your cards and also allows you to grab them on the go. If you enjoyed this post, I’d be grateful if you shared it with your fellow Pokemon card collectors to spread the love of the Pokemon TCG!