When did plastic pages (and the safe polypro kind) and proper 3 inch D-ring binders first come out?

Estil

I think I had already asked before if kids back in the 70s (especially early 70s/60s when they came in series!) could realistically assemble a full set or if hardly anyone really tried? Well, I'm also curious to when plastic pages (and in particular the safe non-PVC polypropylene ones) first came out as well as proper 3 inch D-ring binders for them?

I know Frisch was the first true baseball card dealer (too bad his prices were always way too high) and started in 1970 (and when did others appear in the 70s)? When could one realistically be able to buy a complete set outright? Besides the 1974 factory set.

PS: Wow, did I already reach 7000 posts?

craig44

They were out and popular when I first started collecting in earnest in 1987

firstbase23

I want to say mid to late 70's

Matt

GroceryRackPack

My 1st time with Polypropylene was around in 1986-ish...

Groo

@firstbase23 said:
I want to say mid to late 70's

Matt

Are you sure during the 70s that it wasn't polyethylene?

Polypropolyne first dropped in price in the mid 80s. Prior to that cost was many multiples of the cheap and abundant ethylene.

brad31

Not necessarily what the OP was asking. From my memory plastic sheets containing PVC that damaged cards were a problem in the 70s. As I started doing binders and sheets as a kid in ‘82 the non PVC sheets were just coming out. There were two brands at the time that were non PVC (neither of which had come up with the top loading sheets yet). I do not recall the company names as I was 11. The nicer sheets that were too expensive for me had a white band along the edge where the binder holes were. I remember reading articles in Baseball Cards magazine about the danger of sheets with PVC hardening and damaging the cards. D ring binders were already a thing in ‘82. In mid 80s top loading sheets came out and a company called MVP got really big. Switched all my sheets to those. Not as nice as what is available today they were heavier and more stiff than what BCW makes now.

olb31

I went to some shows around 1979 and 1980 and the sheets were used then.

Bosox1976

I feel like I started getting these types of binders in ‘75 or so (before expansion), so obviously there were sheets. Had to switch to the denim style to fit bigger sets though ….

GroceryRackPack

Yes Polyvinyl chloride was the Killer back then...
☠️☠️☠️

LEHR73

I had a card binder with pages as early as 1981, but I have no idea what they were made of. I don't remember the pages yellowing or affecting the cards in any way.

PROMETHIUS88

In the late 70's we had the clear pages that had the blue along the left side where the holes were at. I believe those were the PVC pages. I clearly remember in the early 80's when all the scuttlebutt was about PVC pages and how they were going to ruin all your cards. We all switched to the new pages.

Honestly, I still had a binder, up until about a year ago, that had lower end cards from my childhood in those pvc pages. None of the cards were ruined after 40+ years of being in there.

Mookie1986

What exactly would the PVC pages do to the cards?

GroceryRackPack

@Mookie1986 said:
What exactly would the PVC pages do to the cards?

Yellow🟨...Yellow🟨...and Yellow🟨...

Estil

@GroceryRackPack said:

@Mookie1986 said:
What exactly would the PVC pages do to the cards?

Yellow🟨...Yellow🟨...and Yellow🟨...

I remember in a 90s Beckett (yeah that's gonna be a recurring theme with me) someone was horrified to find out that vinyl/PVC pages can cause gold foil (in this case 1991 Leaf Gold Rookies) to peel off onto them!! And I'm pretty sure vinyl pages smell funny too!!

And obviously the pages go at least as far back as 1979 as this book (my middle school library had it at the time) mentions what they call "clean sheets of plastic with pockets"

https://archive.org/details/sportscardscolle00mclo/page/n7/mode/2up