How To Store your Stupidly Large Collection of Map Packs

[My Little Metroid]

This will work.

It will store up to ten of them per album, and since there's four visible at a time you can also arrange them to see how most of the various multi-part maps look put together.

Hope that will be useful for other people too.

[Brian E. Harris]

I use these:

Box

I suppose they don't give you visibility, but are quite handy, when paired with something like these:

Dividers

[Liz Courts]

Moved thread.

[My Little Metroid]

Liz Courts wrote:

Moved thread.

Ah didn't see the GameMastery category for the message boards. Damn this place is big...

[My Little Metroid]

Brian E. Harris wrote:

I use these:

Box

I suppose they don't give you visibility, but are quite handy, when paired with something like these:

Dividers

I had a similar setup but wanted something that would let me peruse all the maps more quickly, especially the multi-part ones, as it takes a bit of time once I figure out the kind of encounters and settings the adventure will be around to find the right maps to use when preparing the game.

[thunderspirit]

Brian E. Harris wrote:

I use these:

Box

I suppose they don't give you visibility, but are quite handy, when paired with something like these:

Dividers

Yep, that's what I use.

I can see the advantage to seeing the cards all at once, but I think the box with dividers works pretty well. YMMV.

[Belnor]

thunderspirit wrote:

Brian E. Harris wrote:

I use these:

Box

I suppose they don't give you visibility, but are quite handy, when paired with something like these:

Dividers

Yep, that's what I use.

I can see the advantage to seeing the cards all at once, but I think the box with dividers works pretty well. YMMV.

I just use an empty Treasure Chest box from Gamemastery. Fits my map packs and flip mats. I have six of those boxes. Might get up to ten, not sure though.

Bel.

[Steve Geddes]

My Little Metroid wrote:

I had a similar setup but wanted something that would let me peruse all the maps more quickly, especially the multi-part ones, as it takes a bit of time once I figure out the kind of encounters and settings the adventure will be around to find the right maps to use when preparing the game.

Thanks for the suggestion - I'm also using the boxes+dividers, but in addition to being difficult to 'browse' they (at least the ones I have) dont travel well, which is a hassle as I take them as a player too for the DM to use as required - hence I need to take all of them.

[Drogon]

Excellent suggestions from everyone.

Anyone have any ideas that are just as good for Flip-Maps?

[Brian E. Harris]

Drogon wrote:

Excellent suggestions from everyone.

Anyone have any ideas that are just as good for Flip-Maps?

I use the empty Treasure Chest boxes mentioned above for my flip mats.

I should probably buy a couple more of those before they disappear...

[My Little Metroid]

Drogon wrote:

Excellent suggestions from everyone.

Anyone have any ideas that are just as good for Flip-Maps?

flip-mats are pretty sturdy so I generally just have them in a bag.

As I start having too many of them I might just get a three ring binder and put them in standard sheet protectors.

[Steve Geddes]

Drogon wrote:

Excellent suggestions from everyone.

Anyone have any ideas that are just as good for Flip-Maps?

If you don't mind lugging one around an artists's portfolio folder/bag is ideal - less space friendly but it means you can store them flat.

[thenorthman]

My Little Metroid wrote:

This will work.

It will store up to ten of them per album, and since there's four visible at a time you can also arrange them to see how most of the various multi-part maps look put together.

Hope that will be useful for other people too.

These I like a lot. Will go with the folder that I have the Gamemastery Cards in. Of course these look more fancy but they look nice.

[Andrew Eakett]

Steve Geddes wrote:

If you don't mind lugging one around an artists's portfolio folder/bag is ideal - less space friendly but it means you can store them flat.

This is *perfect* if you have the space. If you're short on space, try good old-fashioned sheet protectors in a binder. I also slip the cardboard header from the original packaging into the sleeve for easy identification.

[Andrew Eakett]

For map packs, I use a large drawer style card box a lot like this one. I prefer this to the smaller plastic boxes (which I also used for a time, before I outgrew it), because it doesn't have those little plastic ridges in the bottom. I found that they tended to put little dings on the edges of my precious maps.

Also, to the original poster, I noticed that the product description on the linked page says that the binders are 5x7. Do the map cards (which are 5x8 I believe) actually fit? If so, I'll be tempted to try these out.

[thenorthman]

Andrew Eakett wrote:

For map packs, I use a large drawer style card box a lot like this one. I prefer this to the smaller plastic boxes (which I also used for a time, before I outgrew it), because it doesn't have those little plastic ridges in the bottom. I found that they tended to put little dings on the edges of my precious maps.

Also, to the original poster, I noticed that the product description on the linked page says that the binders are 5x7. Do the map cards (which are 5x8 I believe) actually fit? If so, I'll be tempted to try these out.

I was just coming back on here to point that out as well. I had ordered then canceled from Amazon.

[Laithoron]

Oof! Guess I better cancel my order as well. :(

Oh well, it was a nice thought...

EDIT: Gah, too late. >.<

RE-Edit: Hmm, so looking at the interior photos, it LOOKS like the pockets load from the side and that there is a fairly wide margin abutting the spine. If that's the case then these might just work. I'll post a photo when they arrive on Wednesday to illustrate success or failure.

*crosses his fingers...

[thenorthman]

Laithoron wrote:

Oof! Guess I better cancel my order as well. :(

Oh well, it was a nice thought...

EDIT: Gah, too late. >.<

RE-Edit: Hmm, so looking at the interior photos, it LOOKS like the pockets load from the side and that there is a fairly wide margin abutting the spine. If that's the case then these might just work. I'll post a photo when they arrive on Wednesday to illustrate success or failure.

*crosses his fingers...

Please do! Thank you in advance.

[My Little Metroid]

Laithoron wrote:

Oof! Guess I better cancel my order as well. :(

Oh well, it was a nice thought...

EDIT: Gah, too late. >.<

RE-Edit: Hmm, so looking at the interior photos, it LOOKS like the pockets load from the side and that there is a fairly wide margin abutting the spine. If that's the case then these might just work. I'll post a photo when they arrive on Wednesday to illustrate success or failure.

*crosses his fingers...

I wouldn't have posted to the forums if I wasn't sure it works. I have two of them full and plan to order a couple others now that I've ordered the rest of the ones I didn't have (subscriber discount running out at the end of September and all that).

The 5x8 cards protrude a little from their pockets but there's enough 'memo space' to accommodate for that easily.

[Laithoron]

Alright, the albums arrived today while I was at work. I just got home and filled-up one of the two that I had ordered. Since seeing is believing, I took some photos and uploaded them so you can evaluate this solution for yourselves.

http://wiki.worldsunknown.com/wiki/File:Map-Album.jpg

TL;DR: They work.

Metroid:

Please don't take any offense. You only have a few posts to your name and didn't reply for a while when others had some legitimate concerns. Even if this is Paizo, it's still the Internet — stuff like that can make people nervous, that's all.

At any rate, thanks for the heads-up on a handy and creative solution. Glad to see my blind faith was not in vain. :)

[My Little Metroid]

Laithoron wrote:

Alright, the albums arrived today while I was at work. I just got home and filled-up one of the two that I had ordered. Since seeing is believing, I took some photos and uploaded them so you can evaluate this solution for yourselves.

http://wiki.worldsunknown.com/wiki/File:Map-Album.jpg

TL;DR: They work.

** spoiler omitted **

No offense taken, admittedly I would have been nervous to take the plunge and try without assurances had I been in your shoes.

Now let's hope the Truth spreads and people can store their Map-Packs in style going forward :P

[thenorthman]

O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G-!-!-!