If you’re a Yu-Gi-Oh cards enthusiast, you’ll want to know how you can extend the life of your cards further. Only an avid collector can understand the pain of watching their favorite collectible cards suffer at the hands of time and the environment. You’ll need to keep your trading cards in perfect condition if you want to retain their value over the course of time and if you want to keep them shiny as new. It becomes even more important to properly preserve your cards when you finally get your hands on a rare card that you were waiting on for a long time.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at the various ways in which you can keep your precious trading cards protected from the usual wear and tear. Even if you’re an active player, it doesn’t mean that your cards should get spoiled, you can still undertake all the measures we’re about to discuss. So let’s get to it and find out the ways in which you can keep your Yu-Gi-Oh cards collection intact.

1. Sort the Mess

If you don’t store Yu-Gi-Oh cards in a sorted manner, you’ll be the one who’ll have to be frustrated every time you want to take a look at your favorite cards. Sorting your collection in a proper manner will always be better for their longevity than just leaving them all lying in a box. Try to arrange your collection according to any parameter of your choice. Most people like to sort theirs by rarity, name, creature type, or even color. Find out the arrangement that works for you and helps you easily pick out a card.

2. Store Them Properly

This advice is quite similar to the previous one and concerns the arrangement part as well. You need to get a good quality binder or a box depending on the size of your collection. A specialized binder or box will help you to store your cards much better than any random box lying around your house. It’s not mandatory to follow this step but it can be very useful if you want to safely store your extensive trading cards collection.

3. Utilize Sleeves

Every serious trading card collector knows how important the condition of their cards is. You need to keep them in mint condition at the least if you want to retain their value or watch it increase over time. The sleeves are a default option for many and the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG enthusiasts at customcardsleeves.com say that customized sleeves are great to offer the best fit. The sleeves will protect your cards from dust, moisture, bent edges, sunlight, and even regular wear and tear. The sleeves usually don’t even cost you much and the benefits they’ll have will far outweigh the price you pay for them.

4. Control the Environment

The environment that your cards are kept in can greatly influence the condition of your collection. Trading cards are usually made up of delicate materials that can’t bear the effects of temperature and humidity changes for long. The dryness in winters and the humidity in summers can cause them to go through a cycle that will eventually start harming them. Even the UV rays from sunlight can be very damaging since they’ll cause the colors to fade and the cards to become frail. Your best precaution against these factors is to get a storage unit that can maintain consistent temperature conditions. If you choose to store them in your house without any specialized storage, you’ll need to ensure that the humidity, temperature, sunlight exposure, and ventilation are all taken care of. If you can’t keep a check on all these different factors, it’s best to invest in a climate-controlled storage unit.

These are some of the tips that you can implement to ensure that your trading card collection stays in top shape. The collections that are intact after prolonged use usually sell for a huge amount and can fetch you huge gains if you take proper care of them. Since you’re a Yu-Gi-Oh fan, you might want to even play with your friends, and playing and using them more often can lead to some serious wear and tear. However, you can minimize all the negative effects by just keeping your trading cards in proper enclosures, sleeves, and environment. There are some additional steps that you can take to ensure that they last longer, however, these steps should be more than enough if you’re on a budget or just starting out.