If you’ve been a card player for longer than a week, I’d almost bet money on the fact that you own more than one card deck (with plans to acquire more of them). Guitarists do the same thing, and card enthusiasts have always been known to lean just a little towards collectors. We just can’t help it – and that’s because card decks are cool.

But how do you store them, once you have more than a handful of decks that are no longer in regular play?

Casinos will sometimes punch holes in the cards, or cut the corners: most casual players just throw their unused decks back into the drawer.

Here are 4 proper storage tips for your decommissioned card decks.

1. Record your collection

Any type of collection is best recorded.

How do you think the world’s top trading-card collectors know just how many cards they have, and what each is worth?

It’s because they keep track.

Record your card collection with pictures of the deck and box. This way, essentials like the barcode, serial, and individual art is saved somewhere.

Even if your card deck collection isn’t considered super-rare, it’s worth keeping track of what you’ve got.

2. Moisture murders cards

Moisture isn’t paper’s friend. Wet your local newspaper and see if you can do the crossword after this. See? That’s not easy, and I’d almost go far enough to call it impossible.

Cards are the same.

Exposure to moisture is either sudden and obvious (“Oh, heck, I’ve spilled something on the card deck!”), or long-term (“Why’d the cards get wet in storage?”).

Moisture speeds up the decaying process, messes with inks, and can create an ideal breeding ground for mold.

Store decks with silica-packs, available from most hardware stores. Usually, it’s enough to pull moisture out of the air where you choose to store your cards.

3. Live on the edge

If you’ve put cards in storage for a long time, the edges tend to damage first. It comes from years and years of shuffling, or putting cards back into the box.

fDon’t forget that paper is, in essence, wood.

A dusting with fine sandpaper can restore frayed card decks, and just the same for older books. Be careful, and make sure that you don’t inhale any of the dust. If you were wondering, it’s probably not good for you.

Please note, I said fine sandpaper.

4. Fix it (with flour)

Card decks that have been well-used will collect oils, dirt, dust, and all sorts of other bodily fluids that you can probably figure out for yourself.

If you buy a vintage deck, assume that it’s been subjected to years and years of debauchery. Has it played strip anything? You wouldn’t know… Ew.

Simple corn flour can help to collect oils (and well, other things) that have accumulated on the cards over time. Collect cards in a bag, shake it up with some corn flour, and dust off.

They’re a lot less disgusting after this.

Do you have any useful tips for how players should be storing their cards (or disaster stories for how they shouldn’t)?