7 Wonders Storage Solutions Compared (Base Game + Cities & Leaders)

7 Wonders gets harder to store the more you own. The base game box is already big and mostly air. Add Cities and Leaders and you now have three boxes' worth of cards, boards, coins, and tokens fighting for space on a shelf. Every time you play, it's setup, tear-down, and the slow drift of wonder boards sliding under the table.

Here are the five realistic ways people store 7 Wonders (second edition) with Cities and Leaders, compared honestly.

What you are actually storing

Before comparing solutions, it helps to know what the full set is:

• 7 wonder boards and 4 expansion wonder boards (11 wonders total)
• Age cards across three ages, plus Leaders and Cities cards
• Military tokens, coins, and diplomacy tokens
• Score pads and the rulebooks

The pain points are the wonder boards (they warp and slide), the coins (a bag of mixed money that has to be sorted), and the cards (three decks that need to stay in age order).

Option 1: Keep everything in the original boxes

The default. Three boxes: base game, Cities, Leaders. It works, and it costs nothing extra. The downsides are obvious once you play regularly: three boxes on the shelf, a ten-minute setup involving three separate components hunts, and the base game's flimsy cardboard insert collapsing under the extra cards. Nobody keeps the insert alive past month three.

Option 2: One box with baggies

Consolidate everything into the base game box and sort components into zip bags. Cheap, light, and the box finally holds all of it. But baggies don't organize — they bundle. The wonder boards still slide around, the coins become one clinking jumble, and every setup is a treasure hunt through identical plastic bags. It solves storage; it doesn't solve setup.

Option 3: Third-party plastic inserts

Companies make fitted plastic inserts that drop into the base game box. These are a real step up: individual trays for coins, tokens, and cards, with dividers for the decks. Setup gets meaningfully faster. The tradeoffs are cost (often $30–40 on top of the game), added weight, and a lid that sits a little proud once everything is in. They also don't help with travel — you still have a full-size board game box.

Option 4: DIY foamcore or 3D-printed dividers

The hobbyist route. Foamcore inserts cut to fit, or printed tray designs from file-sharing sites. Great if you enjoy the project, and the result can be genuinely good. The catches: it takes hours to design and build, foamcore wears down, and printed designs from strangers fit their printer tolerances, not yours. Worth doing if the building is the fun part; not worth doing to save money.

Option 5: A compact travel case with internal trays

This is the option I ended up making for myself, because I wanted 7 Wonders to travel. The GameCrate 7 Wonders travel case holds 7 Wonders second edition plus Cities and Leaders, including all 11 wonder boards, in a hard-shell 3D-printed PLA case with internal trays and a snap-on lid. It is about one third the size of the original box, so it fits in a backpack instead of needing its own tote bag.

Inside, the trays keep coins, tokens, and cards in their own compartments, so setup is opening the lid and dealing, not excavating. It holds everything except the full large base-game instruction book — keep that on the shelf or pull up the rules on your phone.

At $59.98 on Etsy, it sits in the same price range as a third-party insert, except it also solves the travel problem: the game goes in a carry-on, a weekender bag, or a car trunk without the box getting crushed.

The honest comparison

No single answer is right for everyone:

• Original boxes — cheapest, slowest setup, three boxes, not travel-ready.
• One box with baggies — a few dollars, still slow setup, one box, barely travel-ready.
• Third-party insert — about $30–40, fast setup, one full-size box, not travel-ready.
• DIY foamcore or printed dividers — costs time and materials, fast setup if built well, sometimes travel-ready.
• GameCrate travel case — $59.98, fast setup, one travel-size box, travel-ready.

If 7 Wonders never leaves your game room, an insert is the practical pick. If it goes to game nights, cabins, and conventions, the travel case is the one that solves both problems at once — storage and transport.