[Questions] How do you organise your base set and expansions?

[akingscrown]

Hi there! I'm very new to posting on forums so please excuse any missed etiquette and feel free to correct me. I'm also super new to collecting Pokemon cards!

I have a bunch of old cards that seem to be from the base set. But the base set also includes its expansions. Some of the cards say they are out of 62 and others say they are out of 102. I want to place these cards in a 3x3 binder but I don't know how to organise them. I read on this cardboardkeeper blog that you can arrange them in their evolutions, alphabetical order or by the number they are in the set - but how do I apply this to include the expansions?

I've also noticed there are visually identical cards in the base set 2. Do I treat all of these as a different set entirely? Can I put them in the same binder?

I'm hoping there are some rules I can follow, or a guide, because I'd like it to be right, if that makes sense.

And lastly, do you have any advice for an aspiring collector? Thanks in advance :)

 

[donavannj]

So, those expansions are also called "sets" in the Pokemon TCG, and is what people mean when they refer to "sorting by number within the set".

Out of 64 means they're from the Jungle set, which on 99% of cards will have a "flower" just outside the bottom right corner of the card's art box (some of these had an error where they didn't get the symbol). Out of 62 means they're from the Fossil set, which has a skeleton hand instead of a flower. The only ones that are in the actual Base Set are the ones that are out of 102 and have no symbol just outside the bottom right corner of the picture.

While you can still arrange them however you want, I've used the individual sets they're from as my guide for sorting. Though I kept separate spaces for each print version I knew existed. So for Base Set, I had 1st Edition, unlimited (non-1st edition stamped) shadowless, unlimited shadowed, and the unlimited 1999-2000 copyright largely exclusive to Europe and in particular the UK. For Jungle, without as many print editions, it's just 1st Edition and Unlimited.

Does this help you any?


EDIT: Missed a couple questions, whoops.

Base Set 2 is its own set for collecting purposes and should be sorted separately. As it was a set that was pulling from existing sets to make up its numbers, it only has an unlimited print, so there's no need to reserve space for a 1st edition run.

Also, don't overspend yourself, and use card sleeves before putting the cards into binder pages (ideally a perfect fit or near perfect fit sleeve put on the card upside down, and then a larger standard sized sleeve that the card in the perfect sleeve is inserted into with the card oriented right-side up to minimize corner damage on the card), and don't use any sleeves/binders with slots where you can't fit a card that is inside a sleeve into the card slots on them.