Keepers

We have figured out that we are going to keep three collections:

Pre-Modern
Modern
Standard

Being a player and a collector you will want to keep a playset of each card.  Since you can have up to 4 of any one card in your deck, that means we will want to keep 4 of every card.  Now I know there are reprints, but being a collector you will still want to have 4 of every card to complete your sets.

That means that in each collection you will have some of the same cards.  Now you could put all the reprints together in any one collection, but that is just too much work to do.  With every new release you would have to go through the many boxes just to get the reprints and put them with the other cards.  If you just collect 4 of every card and keep them in the collections we have set up you will still be able to build decks based on the specific collection you are looking in, and also still have each set together.

Now you might do something different, but that is how I have decided to do it to minimize time, but also keeping the cards in order to keep the collecting going.

With all this said, there are cards that you might want to keep more than 4 of because they are useful and you might want to have more than one deck using those cards.  One example is Force of Will.  I have kept 8 of those due to their usefulness.  Another example is dual lands.  You will always be able to use dual lands, and they are also great cards to use for trading later.

Ok, so three collections with 4 of each card.

But talking about playsets, we should really define what a playset is.  For Vintage there is a restricted list.  You will never have a deck with 4 Black Lotus in it, so technically a playset is 1 Black Lotus.  With that being said, a full playset would be 4 of every card that is not on a restricted list and one of every card that is on the restricted list, but being a collector you would still want to have 1 of every card.  So, it is a pretty big punch to the nuts, but 1 Alpha Black Lotus, 1 Beta Black Lotus, and 1 Unlimited Black Lotus should be the goal.  Yeah, thats big punch to the nuts...

If you could ever get to this point, that would be the crown jewel of collections.  Maybe someday...

I would also add having one of ever banned card would also be the goal.  Banned cards are normally ante cards, and cards like Chaos Orb.  You will never see a deck with Chaos Orb in it, but you will still want to get one of each of those.  And no one plays for ante anymore, but you will still want those as well.