Organizing Your Collection

by Crazy Ivan

I am not what you would call an organized dude.  My desk is always a mess, my car is always cluttered... even my bedroom would be disorganized if Pinky wasn't there putting things in order.  My disorganization even extends to my computer (desktop has dozens of icons I never use, old pics and word files, etc.) my notebooks (notes are squeezed in to the margins of other notes) and my brain (I know that long division is in there somewhere, I just can't find it).

It does not, however, extend to my Myachi collection.

Ask me where last weeks inventory reports are and it'll take me a minute to find them.  Ask me where the file I just downloaded and I'll scratch my head.  Ask me where my 5B Finish Line is and I'll tell you it's in the bottom pocket of my roll up, 3 columns to the right.

I've always been a collector.  When I was a kid, it was "Garbage Pail Kids" trading cards (which were actually stickers, but nobody ever peeled them off the cards).  Eventually I traded up to collecting model airplanes, went through a phase where I was collecting soda cans (not for recycling mind you) and then went on to collecting movies.

No wonder, then, that I got into the whole Myachi collecting thing pretty hard core.  Like most Myachi collectors, I eventually found myself scrambling to find a good container to keep them in.  At first I kept my collection in a shoe box and that worked well when I only had a dozen or so Myachis in it, but as the years ticked past my collection swelled and outgrew the box.

I upgraded to a bigger box, of course, but that didn't solve the problem.  I was looking for a container that would allow me to keep my Myachis organized and make them easy to display.  Like many Myachi collectors, I tried a lot of things before I found something I liked.

Here we see a homemade collection box made by
none other than our old friend MMFL.

See, when your collection starts getting really big, it can be a challenge just knowing what you have.  Sure, you'll know you have a Blue Dragon if you have a Blue Dragon, but will you remember if you have a Bedrock Red or an Orange Corduroy FAO (The FAO Pumpkin)?  Well, if your Myachis are just hanging out in a giant box you'd have to go through them one by one just to be sure.

There's more to a good Myachi container than simply keeping your Myachis organized.  It also has to look cool.  When Myachi first got big on Long Island, most of the Myachi Maniacs carried their collections in plastic zipper bags, but the more dedicated maniacs would find or make cool boxes and carrying cases.

Personalizing the box makes all the difference.

The first solution I came across came from the Container Store and a really cool maniac named Wheelz.  He had found this awesome roll-up container with Myachi sized pockets on both sides that could actually carry quite a few sacks.  As soon as I saw it I knew I needed one.  He told me where he got it and as soon as I left FAO that day, I went straight over to Lexington Avenue and picked up an identical roll-up:

And yes, there are just as many on the other side.

This thing was perfect.  It allowed me to keep my Myachis organized by series, it allowed me to display them in such a way that people could see them without me having to take any of them out and it was convenient to carry even if it was loaded up.

There was one problem, though.  It was too small.  By then my collection was too big to fit in this thing.  It only held 72 Myachis and my collection was at least three times that size.  So I had a good spot to put some of the sacks, but I was still in need of something a little more substantial.

Luckily, at about that same time another Myachi Maniac hooked me up.  His dad owned a factory and they had tons of these little boxes with drawers designed to hold screws, nuts and bolts.  The Maniac in question (A-Train) saw them and said, "Man, those would be great to hold Myachis".

His dad hooked him up with two, one for him and one for me.  He surprised me with this awesome gift one day at FAO Shwarz and although it was kind of a pain to carry home on the subway, I was more than happy to do it.  At the time being, it would be enough to house all my remaining Myachis:

This contains all my post 4.0 sacks, all the FAOs and most of my Pakisacks.

So for a brief time I had my collection container woes settled, but that wouldn't last.  This was in late 2008 and 2009 was a huge year for Myachi collectors.  That year my collection almost doubled in size as we released the 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 series as well as the first NBA series.  As if that wasn't enough, we also doubled the size of the FMX series and created a bunch of new promotional Pakisacks.

By late 2009 I was once again scrambling for places for all of my Myachis.  I tried to find a second container like the one A-Train got me, but I couldn't find the exact same thing.  Instead, I found a similar box that was about half the size and had several wide drawers that would allow me to stick whole series in together:

And before you ask, no... none of that is up for trades.

At the time, this was perfect.  I got all of my Myachis together and organized in such a way that I could find any of them at the drop of a hat.  It even freed up enough room in A-Train's box for a few series that hadn't come out yet.

Of course, as I'm sure you've guessed, that wouldn't last either.  I filled that box up when the NBA2 series came out and now, once again, Myachis are gathering in a box that sits next to my collection while I look for yet another box to put yet more Myachis in.  So altogether, at the moment, my collection looks like this:

And yes, that cabinet spends most of its time locked.

Now, if you're looking at my awesomely organized collection and feeling like maybe yours needs an upgrade, don't worry about it too much.  Not every collector is quite as assiduous as myself.  It's also perfectly acceptable to go with the "Animal Method" of organizing your collection:

Oh, and Animal, if you're reading this, hope you don't mind me going
in your room and rooting through your stuff while you're in Australia.