Metagame.com - Take Your Game to the Next Level

You know how you feel when you see a card you’ve been trying to get for ages, but it looks like it’s been through the wars? (Jason owns a Widespread Ruin from his “I need all the copies of this I can get” era that actually appears to have been chewed on.) In today’s article, I’m going to talk about what you can do to help keep your cards—decks, trades, and collection—safe and in good condition. Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards can be quite an investment, in terms of both the money and time you spent building your decks and stocking your collection. Harder-to-get cards are difficult to replace, and the cards themselves can mean a lot. So you want to do what you can to keep them safe, and that includes how you store them, where you store them, and how you look after them when you take them out to events. Let’s start with what you can do with them at home!

I have a very young nephew who loves the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG and my last visit worked out well for him—he really wanted a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and I had an extra copy. I brought him that, along with a few packs and some other random cards I thought he’d enjoy, and he was ecstatic. I also brought him a pack of sleeves and some card storage boxes, and explained to him how to store his beloved cards so they’d stay in good condition, and showed him how to sleeve his deck. I’ve also given him a few small binders, and he does a good job of keeping the cards inside them. I won’t claim I understand his filing system, but it works for him and the cards are stored.

What works for him will work for anyone—if you’ve got cards you want to keep in good shape, you need to store them appropriately. Use sleeves for cards that you don’t want to scratch or get dirty, and store them in appropriate containers, such as binders or card boxes. Random boxes like shoe boxes might be convenient, but they aren’t good for your cards. Look for archival-quality sleeves, binder pages, and boxes—they really don’t cost that much, and if you’ve gone to all the trouble to get your cards in the first place, go a little bit further and protect your investment.

It’s a good idea to have a dedicated place to keep your cards, so you can put your hands on them when you need them. Binders, boxes, decks, supplies—keep them all where you know where they are. Then put your cards away when you get them—don’t leave them sitting around your place in little piles. I have a bad habit of doing that, and I’ve regretted it on many occasions. I know I have another Mirror Force somewhere and I have no idea where it is! (I hope it wasn’t in that pile that I accidentally knocked back behind the entertainment center, because I’ll never be able to reach them . . .) I also know someone who knocked soda over on a stack of good holos that had been sitting on his desk for weeks. That was a sad, sad day.

Finally, if you have siblings who like Yu-Gi-Oh! or siblings with friends who like Yu-Gi-Oh!, you’re better off keeping your cards put away and out of sight: somewhere that you know acquisitive family members and their associates won’t come scavenging.

Okay, you’ve got your cards all set up and safely stored and protected at home. What happens when you leave home, and take your cards to an event? Read on!

If you’re just driving or taking a transit bus over to a local event, all you really have to do is make sure you don’t leave your bag behind when you exit the vehicle. If you’re taking a longer trip—possibly to a Shonen Jump Championship event—you might need to get on a plane or a commercial bus or train. If that’s the case, put your cards in the bag or bags you’ll be carrying on. Avoid checking your cards whenever possible—if something happens to your luggage, what are you going to do at a major tournament without your deck? Keep your cards (and anything else you really, really need) where you can keep an eye on them.

Pack them so they’re well protected—binders travel well, as do sturdy card boxes. Keep your decks in boxes designed for the purpose: the sturdiest that you can find. The decorations on the box can be appealing, but the box’s first job is to keep your cards together and protected. Make sure the bag you’re carrying them in closes securely, and isn’t in danger of splitting a seam.

Since it’s a good idea to keep the cards with you, you’ll want to choose what you bring. You probably don’t need to bring every card you own, so sort them out beforehand, and bring a reasonable amount that you know you can keep track of (although it’s true that sometimes you or a friend needs something obscure and it’s great if you have it on hand—I was glad to get those Ojama Trio cards at Boston!).

Handle your cards with care. Remember that shuffling and snapping them down on the table will bend and crease them if you do it too aggressively. Maybe that doesn’t matter to you, but it can mark the cards to the point that you won’t be allowed to use them in a tournament, and it will certainly reduce their value in a trade later on. If you can’t play them, sell them, or trade them, they’re not much use to you, are they?

At the event, your storage choices will help or hurt you. I’ve seen kids show up trying to balance deteriorating shoe boxes and Tupperware-type containers that don’t close very well. They drop the box, and bang! Cards are everywhere. Binders and card storage boxes, carried in a sturdy bag that closes, seem to be the best choice.

Make sure you watch your stuff! Keep your cards in a bag that you can keep track of easily. Don’t walk in, balancing a pile of binders and boxes and your deck and a bottle of soda and a fast-food bag and your jacket and . . . you get the idea. Leave things like coats in the car or hotel room, if possible—it’s almost never freezing at a tournament—and if you have a lot of trade fodder, bring what you think is most likely to be needed and put the rest in a secure place. Make sure it is secure—don’t leave an obvious binder full of cards sitting in full view in the back seat of your car. If you’ve got a hotel room, put the cards away there, or leave them in the hotel safe. Know who has access to your car or hotel room, too—if anyone can come and go, your cards aren’t very safe, are they?

If you are at the event to play, then you want to be able to focus on that, right? Keep your possessions minimal, so you can keep track of them easily. You can trade later on. Don’t put your things down and wander off, or turn your back on them. Put your stuff away, securely in a bag that closes—not in the pocket of your jacket—and keep it on or under your feet where you can see and/or feel it at all times.

If you do lose something, report it to the TO or a judge immediately. They may be able to help you locate it. Check the lost and found—judges pick stuff up and sometimes other players do as well. Remember, your cards are your responsibility—you shouldn’t assume that the event staff or your friends are going to watch out for your things.

Know the contents of your deck box, so you can describe and report it accurately. Naturally, the event staff is going to ask you detailed questions about anything you want them to hand over to you, which is a good thing—it helps ensure that the items are returned to their rightful owner. If you’re there as part of a group, help each other out by watching over things, but each member still needs to be responsible for his or her own possessions. Events can be crowded and the span of time between matches can be a little chaotic. You don’t want to lose track of your stuff when things get confusing.Hi Tim.

This is all more or less common sense, and shouldn’t be difficult to manage. (If I can learn to stop leaving my cards in little piles around my apartment, then anyone can.) If you like to actually use your cards, then maintaining them in good order and keeping track of them when you take them to an event is the best way to ensure that you’ll have cards to use! No one likes to lose cards due to damage, carelessness, or someone else’s sticky fingers—with some effort on your part, you can do a lot to make sure that never happens.