My husband and I prefer to have matches in the matchbooks, even if there's only 1 match left.

The safest way to store books with matches is in tins. Our collection outgrew the tins, so now the collection is in small plastic three-drawer storage chests from Target...the dupes are in tins.

Almost all of the books are stored open, so the cardboard doesn't get stressed by repeated opening and closing. I put them face-to-face and back-to-back so the bulk is sort of distriubted. Every now and then, when I have some common books, I'll put a few closed books in the drawers just because it helps even out the bulk. Almost all are in small zip-lock baggies, with the casino name on it. Filed alphabetically. 1-6 books per baggie.

Oh...I had to divide the drawers down the middle...some are divided with plastic strips, others have a shoebox in 1/2 the drawer! I improvise a lot!

This drawer has odds-n-ends...non-casino covers, covers that are too big to fit in the general population, a couple of covers that are in baseball card holders (decided it was cost-prohibitive and unnecessary as flat empty matchbooks fit beautifully in plastic pages in our binders)

Sorry...probably TMI!!