QJ Speaks about Binders, Boxes, and Sheer Looniness

For as long as I can remember, I've been a very detail-oriented person. I like things to be in order (which should not be confused with being a neat person - just ask Beakman about the state of my apartment). As a small child I used to like to ride in the grocery cart while my mom shopped. I would put all of the canned vegetables in one stack, the cold stuff in another stack, and the cleaners in another. While it sounds a little crazy, even as a kid, I liked for things to be in order. So you can see what a problem organizing my SW:CCG cards has been.

To the best of my knowledge, there are 1,236 different cards (that does not count WB Premier or New Hope as separate cards) and I own the vast majority of them. That's an awful lot of organizing. And now, with Special Edition looming, I've started thinking about what I will do with all of those cards. With 324 more cards coming my way, I had better do some planning now if I'm not going to have an organizational crisis on my hands.

When I first started collecting, I kept my cards in a Reebok shoe box - the DS on one side of the box and the LS on the other. That worked for a while, but it didn't take long before the cards outgrew the box. Then I moved to a two-box system - LS in a First Anthology box and DS in a long white collector's box. Unfortunately, pawing through two different boxes of cards made deck-making inconvenient, so I had to find a new system. That led me to the binder system. I have one of each card in a huge binder and all of the extra commons and uncommons separated by side in anthology boxes. In addition to the binder and boxes, there are also piles of cards left over from old decks or deck-making "to be put away" when I get the time.

But let's talk about that binder for a second. An organization freak like me can't just put cards in a binder - they got to be in some logical order. Currently, my cards are in two big sections - LS and DS. Within each section, cards are separated by type, set, and are then arranged alphabetically. Sound crazy? Well I set up this system right after Cloud City came out and it's served me pretty well. Unfortunately, when I came up with this brilliant ordering, I neglected to decide what I would do when I started filling in my sets. The question was whether or not I would reorganize all of my cards, leaving blanks for the cards I don't have yet or would I just add a few blank pages behind each card type and put the cards there, regardless of the fact that they would be out of set and not alphabetized. Despite my organizational tendencies, my lazier tendencies kicked in and I went for the latter option.

Of course, putting the cards in the binder also caused some other difficult decisions. First of all, was I going to have a section for interrupts or should they be divided into used and lost interrupts and what happens to an interrupt that is both used and lost? Then there were cards from the Jedi Pack, two player games, and, later, the sealed deck. What set should they go with, or do they get their own section? Should all characters go together or should there be separate sections for droids, aliens, and Imperials/Rebels. Should vehicles and starships go in the same section? What about sites, systems, and sectors? Should mains be filed along with the rest of the characters or should they get a small section of their own and if they do, should their character weapons go with them? For those of you laughing at me stop - it's not funny.

But now Special Edition and the EPP mains are on their way and it's time to reevaluate. According to my bathroom scale, my card binder weighs almost 11 pounds. There's no way I'm getting another 324 cards in that thing. I suppose I could go to a two-binder system in which the DS and LS could be in separate books, but that doesn't really appeal. I'm also running out of space in the boxes where I keep the commons and uncommons. I have a sneaky suspicion that the SE distribution will guarantee lots and lots and lots of duplicates. November is almost here and I have to figure out what I'm going to do with all of those cards before SE arrives.

The funny thing is that as nutty as I probably sound, I know that there are a lot you of you out there who are in similar situations. Right now, in living rooms around the world, there are SW:CCG players who just can't seem to figure out where that Hyperspace Navigational Chart should go. Last night I posted a poll on the BBS: How do you organized your cards. Here are a number of the responses. Names have been withheld to protect the identity of those more psychotic that I.

• I keep all my rares in my binder, organized first by side, then by type, then random. I have my Dark uncommons in my First Anthology box, and my Light uncommons in my Second Anthology box, each organized by type, then by sub-type, then alphabetically. My commons are in two double-sized boxed, sorted in the same way.
• I don't. I chuck all of my cards in a 3,000 count box -except my rares, they are in a 3-Ring Binder.
• I keep them in a large shoe box. LS on one side and DS on the other side. I don't reorganize them often.
• Not in decks: Commons/Uncommons: 7,500 ct. box ordered by side and set. Rares: In a binder in pages. In decks: Cards in the decks are in clear Deck Protectors and those in boxes, and those in Sealed Deck boxes, Vader for DS decks, Luke for LS deck.
• In a big square box, by set, then by side, then in alphabetical, R,U,C all ... together
• I just separate light and dark and pray I don't drop the box... :-)
• I just keep em all in a big pile in the corner of my dorm room. It's a pretty big pile. Let's see, 3 Premiere Starter boxes, a box of ANH, 1 of Hoth, 2 of Dagobah, CC, and JP each, a first anthology, and 2 SA's. And an OSD. And a lot of packs. All just in a pile. Sure, it's hard to find my Darths when I need them, but it's so much work to put things into binders. And binders are expensive too. SO are those little sleeves. I think my system's best.
• When I'm bored, I organize cards. I find it to be fun. Heck, I've even organized my brother's cards a couple times...

And then, there was this guy.......

• I'm very picky, actually. I organize my cards in binders, up to three of each card per slot, in a number of different ways. If you're really interested, here goes: First are all characters, organized by importance and rank. For instance: Mains first, then military and political ranked personnel (from highest to lowest, excepting "generic" ranked characters such as "Imperial Commander" and "Rebel Squad Leader"), then pilots (starfigher- then vehicle-), then important civilians/others, then generic military troops (specialized first then "normal": AT-AT Drivers, Imperial Gunners, ..., Snowtroopers, Stormtroopers), then generic characters. Then Aliens, by importance/recognizability/influence. Also, "unique" before 2- or 3-of's before unlimited generic. Then Droids, by droid type. BHs first (for DS), Threepio units, astromech units, etc. Then Jedi masters. Then Starships. First capital (by descending power and importance), then Starfighters, keeping all similar ships in order (Red Leader in Red 1, Red 1, Red 2, Red 3, Red 5, Red 6, X-wing, X-wing Assault Squadron; Gold Leader in Gold 1, Gold 1, etc.). Then Vehicles. Combat Vehicles, Transport Vehicles, Shuttle Vehicles, Creature Vehicles, by coolness (subjective to me). Then Weapons. First character weapons, then starship, then vehicle, etc., with uniqueness and importance taking precedence. Then Equipment. Pretty haphazard. Then Jedi Tests (for my first Light binder). Then Systems, by importance/recognizability. Then Locations, by system relation and preceding from interior-most to exterior (for Hoth sites, mainly). Randoms, such as SD Launch Bays, Sandcrawler Loading Bays, and Dejarik/Imp Holotable last. Then Effects, haphazard. Then Epic Effects, then Immediate Effects, then Utinni Effects, then Mobile Effects. Haphazard, all of them. Then Used Interrupts, then Lost, then Used/Lost, then Used/Starting. Haphazard. Then Random, such as those annoying Dagobah inserts and the Hyperspace Nav Chart. All cards beyond three of each I store in the expansion boxes, in a similar order for ease of location.

I realize that the organization of SW:CCG cards is not a matter of national security, but it's something that we have to think about. I need for my cards to be in a logical order where I can easily locate them when I need them. I also need them to be stored in a manner that protects them as well as makes them accessible. I guess it's different for everyone too. I mean Beakman has half a dozen boxes and binders full of cards with some semi-random system that I won't even pretend to understand, but he seems to be able to find stuff (except for the occasional "Honey, have you seen that extra Obi-Wan? I just can't seem to find it." --must be nice).

Maybe I'm just longing for the simpler days when I would ride in the cart in the grocery story and organize the groceries. Of course then I wasn't deciding about used or lost interrupts, I was trying to keep all the green vegetables together and the tomato products together and deciding if potatoes are a vegetable or.............................ummm, nevermind.

Queen Jawa