Organizing your promo collection?

[monkeymadness]

I decided to use a few seconds of my precious free time experimenting with my new software.  I have resorted to storing all of my cards in plain white three-ring binders.  I then throw a quick scan together of a few of the cards in the set and place that on the binder cover.  I will make a side label consisting of the set logo, the expansion symbols, and the art from the two most popular cards in the set so I can tell what is in each binder at a quick glance at the shelf.  
So, I have long wondered how other people can keep organized - especially the promos.  I know a lot of you have systems in place and I thought I would ask what they are.  Here is the front label for my promo binder as an example of what I am talking about above.




I then have the cards in 9 pocket sheets with each section separated by a card sized picture in the first slot on the page.  Like this one:



I actually find messing around with this stuff relaxing so experimenting has been a lot of fun.  

What kind of system do you use?

[fvzappa]

Heh, so did you do these photos? I like them.

My organization method- I have an apartment they go into. Other than that, it is tough. My "misprints" are in a binder, everything else is scattered. Everywhere.

[silver.paladin]

Mine are seperated in 2 ways.
1st, seperated by color/land/artifact
2nd, organized in date chronological order, using the 9 page holders of course, front and back side.

Mind, I virtually only have Red/Lands cards, so #1 is easily done  ;) but if I was collecting all the promos, I would have the colors seperated as well as gold/multi cards.  I like using chronological too, because it allows me to see the cards over time - how they changed, and so on.

[Celebrindor]

My sets go by collector number, in black, heavy-duty, 3" Slant-Ring binders.  They are organized by collector number.  Older sets are organized as if they had a collector number (sorted by color [white, blue, black, red, green, artifact, gold, nonbasic land, basic land] and alphabetized within color.

As for promos, I seperate them by category (FNM, Arena, JSS, Judge's, MPR tokens, other [other including the foil Serra Angel, and the MPR cards, such as the 'keg, and the new textless]).  Within category, they are in the same order as they are on this site (thus I can easily determine what I am missing, and I am under the [mistaken, apparently] impression that the cards on these pages are organized by date.  These cards go in Ultra-Pro 9-pocket 'collector's albums'.

[flatmatt]

Let's see.  My "non-trade" binder encompasses promos, signed cards, and other non-normal stuff.  I don't remember exactly what order everything's in at the moment, but I believe it goes like this:

- Signed Eager Cadets (2 pages)
- Prerelease promos (1 page)
- FNM promos (1 page)
- Other promos (1 page)
- Non-playable "cards", all on one page, including:
--- Tokens (Unglued, Player Rewards, then 3rd party)
--- Samurai Jack card (A joke mostly, I use it as a token at times, but it gets +3 if the Chicken from Outer Space is in play!)
--- Portal Tip cards
- 6x9 Plains (1 comic book page)
- Artist-signed cards (several pages)
- 4 letters from Pete Venters with Goblin sketches and a signed Crosis, the Purger Pro Tour badge (2 comic book pages)
- dry-cereal lands and token (1 page)
- Cards I made long ago to represent my friends (1 page)

No dividers or anything like that to speak of, unless you count the comic books pages.

I was planning to post an image of the cover here, but then I realized that that was the cover that was accidentally erased last time I was working on it.  I haven't made a new one yet, but I'll have to if anything spills on the current cover. :(

[monkeymadness]

Heh, so did you do these photos? I like them.

My organization method- I have an apartment they go into. Other than that, it is tough. My "misprints" are in a binder, everything else is scattered. Everywhere.

Thanks fvzappa, they are actually not hard to do now that I have become proficient in PowerPoint and Paint/Photo Shop since I do a lot of presentations for work.  Some of them are scans of my own cards and this site is wonderful for stealing pictures to use of cards that I do not have.  If you want the other pictures, I will be happy to post or send them to you.  

Celebrindor, your method of organization is very similar to my own.  I was guessing that this would be the most common way to do it.

Flatmatt, if you ever recover that image, I would love to see it.

[flatmatt]

Heck, I'll probably just take a picture of it sometime after I get back.  In the meantime, here's a small version of the cover of my Bear collection:


I actually took all my Bears out of the binder and took a picture of them for that background.  Easier than putting a bunch of images together.

And my rare binder just for kicks:


That fiery background looks better when printed.

[Big Games Supply]

Well, lets see here.  I have one 2 inch d ring binder.  Here we go.

page#

1) Arena League 1996
2) Arena league 1999
back: Island - no set symbol
3) Arena league 2000
4) Arena league 2001
5) Arena League 2002
6) Arena League 2003
7) Arena League 2004

8) FNM 2000
9) FNM 2001
10) FNM 2002
11) FNM 2003
12) FNM 2004
13) FNM 2005
14) JSS
15) Japan Junior (currently page is blank, lol)
16-19) prerelease cards
20-21) Judge Rewards
22) dci legend membership
23) MPR
24) Harper Prism
25) armada
26) Duelist mag
27) Topdeck mag/ player's guide
28) Cardz Mag
29) apac red
30) apac blue
31) apac clear
32) euro blue
33) euro red
34) euro purple
35) guru
36) online store
37) Planeshift alt
38) mpr tokens 2001
39) mpr tokens 2002
40) mpr tokens 2003
41) mpr tokens 2004
42) Arena league life counters
43-44) Minigashi tokens

45) ultra pro lifecounters
46) some made up cards with naked actresses on them made and sold by some guy at Nationals last year.
9 pages of signed cards some with doodles, most play sets, lots of signed shrapnel blasts.
next page) I had an apartment fire about two years ago and I saved a single pack of Onslaught along with some other things like wet bricks of magic that I could peel apart from the water damage.  In that pack was 15 wet cards.  The rare was a Ravenous Baloth.  I kept it as a reminder of some darker days.  To this day, when ever I play with something that needs a baloth, I add this one to it.
same page, the 1/1 swamp
next page) proofs
next page) protour stamped cards
next pages) my collection of foil sunken fields, by the way, I would like more.

Last page some miscuts and a sowing salt crimped down the middle, top to bottom.

There you have it.  Other than that, I keep a binder for each set with 4 per pocket from all sets.  I also have 25 4 row boxes of extra cards sorted by everything: color, number, alphabet, set.

I am surrounded by sorting trays and extra supplies.

Hope it helps.

james