How to Store and Organise Pokémon Cards

Store Pokémon cards in a soft sleeve first, then in a binder page or a lidded box, and keep them indoors away from damp and direct sunlight. Before you buy any storage, decide how you will sort the cards, because a set collector mostly needs binders while a player mostly needs deck boxes. Cards that travel, or that you would mind losing, go one step further into a toploader or a semi-rigid holder.

Choose an organisation system

Set order suits collectors who want to complete sets. Modern English cards carry an expansion symbol and a collector number near the bottom, so the set's own numbering shows you which pockets are still empty. The cost is that a favourite Pokémon or an evolution line ends up spread across many binders. Our set symbols guide shows how to read the symbol.

Sorting by Pokémon suits people who collect a character rather than a set. Group the cards in National Pokédex order, or keep one binder per favourite. Each new set then adds cards in several places at once, so a ring binder with loose pages is easier to rearrange than one with fixed pages.

Sorting by rarity splits a shoebox of mixed cards into a small binder of rare cards and boxes of commons and uncommons. Keep set order inside each box, or the boxes become hard to search.

If you play, sort by deck first, with each deck sleeved in its own deck box. Sort the spares by card type (Pokémon, Trainer and Energy) so a deck can be rebuilt quickly. If you both play and collect, keep the two apart, so you always know which copy is in a deck and which belongs in the binder.

Sleeve cards without forcing the fit

A standard Pokémon card is 63 by 88 mm, or 2.5 by 3.5 inches, which Ultra PRO converts to 63.5 by 88.9 mm. Three kinds of sleeve are made for it, and the perfect fit kind comes in two versions. Our card size guide covers the card itself.

Ultra PRO's support site gives its standard sleeves a tolerance of half a millimetre either way. Dragon Shield also sells a smaller Japanese size (59 by 86 mm), but it lists that size for other Japanese-format games such as Weiss Schwarz, not for Pokémon.

Work on a clean, flat surface with clean, dry hands. Hold the sleeve by its sides and squeeze gently so the mouth opens. Hold the card by its edges and slide it in square to the opening, without bending it.

Dragon Shield gives a specific order for its sealable perfect fit. The card goes in top first, with the front of the card facing the side of the sleeve that has the flap. The flap then tucks in between the back of the card and the other side of the sleeve.

Stop the moment the card catches, because it is pushing against the sleeve wall and can dent a corner. If it will not go in without force, use a different sleeve. We will stock card sleeves when we open.

Double sleeving when it is useful

Double sleeving means a close-fitting inner sleeve on the card and a standard sleeve over it. It suits cards that get handled a lot, such as a deck you shuffle every week, and Dragon Shield sells it as protection against dust and spills. Its instruction for the Clear Toploading Perfect Fit Sleeves is to slide the card top first into the perfect fit, then sleeve the card as you normally would. Dragon Shield says this covers the top of the card, which a single sleeve usually leaves slightly exposed.

The sealable version closes all four edges with a flap and no glue, so the card can come out again. The cost is thickness. Dragon Shield says cards double-sleeved with sealable perfect fits are slightly thicker than with normal ones, and whole decks noticeably thicker.

Dragon Shield's Clear Matte Sleeves page rates the box those sleeves come in for 75 or more single-sleeved cards, or 65 or more double-sleeved ones. Those figures are the maker's. A deck box cut for single sleeves may not close on a double-sleeved deck.

Binders vary too. Vault X says its 12-Pocket Exo-Tec Zip Binder takes single- and double-sleeved cards, with an internal pocket of 68 by 97 mm. Ultra PRO rates its ECLIPSE 12-Pocket PRO-Binder for 480 cards in Deck Protector sleeves and says nothing about double sleeves. For a card that stays in a binder, one sleeve is the simpler choice.

Plan binder pages and variant spaces

Binder capacity is pockets per side, times two sides, times the number of pages. The Ultra PRO Pikachu 9-Pocket PRO-Binder for Pokémon holds up to 360 standard cards, which works out at 20 pages of nine pockets a side. The Vault X 12-Pocket Exo-Tec Zip Binder has 20 double-sided pages of 12 pockets and holds 480. A ring binder with loose pages, such as Ultra PRO Platinum Series 9-Pocket Pages, holds whatever the rings hold.

To plan a set, count three things. Cards to place is the set's main numbering plus any secret rares you mean to chase. Variant slots are extra pockets for versions you want beside the main card, such as reverse holos. Reserved spaces are pockets left empty on purpose, so each evolution line starts at the left of a row.

Add the three together to get the pockets you need. Divide by pockets per page times two, and round up for the required pages. Spare capacity is the binder's total pockets minus the pockets you need, and a negative figure means the set will not fit.

The sets in the table are imaginary. Take real numbers from the set's own numbering before you buy a binder. If the plan comes out short, put the reverse holos in a second binder in the same order, or move up to 12 pockets. The master set guide explains which variants count towards a master set.

On a 9-pocket page a three-stage evolution line fills one row. Write the plan page by page in pencil before you sleeve anything. Our binder guide compares fixed pages with ring binders.

Boxes, toploaders and semi-rigid holders

A toploader is rigid and a semi-rigid holder flexes. Use a toploader for a single card that sits on a shelf, lives in a box of your best cards or goes in the post. Put the card in a penny sleeve first, which is the sleeve Ultra PRO lists as compatible with this toploader. We will stock toploaders when we open.

For a submission, follow the grader's own packing instructions. CGC asks for each card in a protective sleeve, then in a semi-rigid sleeve sturdy enough for its staff to remove the card safely. Each company sets its own rules, so read the current packing page on the grader's site before you post. Our grading guide covers the rest of the process.

Everything else goes in boxes. Stand sleeved cards upright, with a divider taking up any gap so they do not lean. Ultra PRO says the square corners on its 200 Count box help prevent damage to card corners.

Store graded cards and sealed products

A graded card is already sealed in a hard case, so the job is to stop cases scratching each other. Ultra PRO's PSA Graded Card Sleeves are sized for PSA slabs and close with a resealable strip. Its Graded Card Box for TOPLOADER Sleeves and ONE-TOUCH holds ten PSA or Beckett slabs, with a write-on strip on top. Stand slabs the same way round so you can read every label without lifting one out.

Neither product lists CGC slabs, so check the fit before you buy for those. For a binder of slabs, Ultra PRO sells a 4-Pocket Page for Graded PSA Slabs and a separate one for Beckett slabs.

Sealed product is packaging as much as cards, so protect the packaging. Keep a booster box or an elite trainer box in its shrink wrap, flat on its base, with nothing heavy on top. Stack by size with the largest at the bottom, and keep stacks short. Loose booster packs lie flat in a lidded box so nothing presses on the crimped ends.

The Library of Congress's general advice for works on paper is to keep them out of direct or intense light, and away from attics and basements, where leaks and extremes are more likely. In a UK house that points to a cupboard indoors rather than the loft or the cellar. We give no temperature or humidity figure for cards here.

Maintain the collection and record changes

A collection stays sorted if new cards go through the same routine. Keep one box as a holding area and sort it into the system on a fixed day, such as the first weekend of the month. Keep a spreadsheet with one row per card you care about and a column for where it lives. Our condition standard gives condition terms you can borrow.

• Note each new card's condition before you sleeve it, in fixed terms, and photograph any visible flaw.
• Mark duplicates in the spreadsheet as they arrive, and keep them together in one box rather than in the binder.
• Log every move between a binder, a box, a deck and the post, with the date.
• Once a year, open every page and box, look for cloudy sleeves, curled cards or damp, and re-sleeve what needs it.

When a card leaves the collection, note the date and pack it properly, as the posting guide explains.

If most of the pile is commons, what to do with bulk Pokémon cards covers sorting, keeping and passing them on.

If you are starting from a pile, sort by set first, sleeve the cards you would mind losing and box the rest. Boxes and dividers will be in our storage range when we open.