Curious, how you store your vintage sets?

Brian48

Just wondering. Do you use top loaders with penny sleeves or PVC free pages? I've a really nice Topps 68-69, 71-72, and 73-74 Hockey set and was thinking of doing something with them. The 68 and 73 are particular nice and if I was made of money, I'd probably send most of the cards in for grading, but seeing as that's not the case...... Thanks

lostdart58

I think you will find about half have in toploaders and half in pages.

stown

I keep all of mine in hard top-loaders and shoeboxes with some residing in there for over 10 years. FYI - PSA slabs will not fit in regular shoeboxes, so I have to lay them on top like this:

Stone193

Brian

It depends on the set and condition.

Lesser condition not in a binder go in penny sleeves and into boxes. Better condition go in semi-rigids.

mike

mikeschmidt

I leave mine out on the front lawn with a sign saying "Please stop by to enjoy the cards - but don't steal them"


Actually - I just have those graded card boxes for my sets/team runs, and I have a few raw cards in sheets-

ColleSystem

MYLAR.

Stay away from card savers, penny sleaves, top loaders as they will all react with the gloss on your cards. Use mylar.

lawnmowerman

<< <i>I leave mine out on the front lawn >>



Goog thing for you I dont cut your grass



<< <i>Stay away from card savers, penny sleaves, top loaders as they will all react with the gloss on your cards. Use mylar. >>



Very true. Many of my modern cards are not worth getting graded because the penny sleeves ate the gloss and in worse cases actually pitted them. ALL of my 2000 Bowman Chrome cards are pitted from the sleeves

Matt

stown

<< <i>MYLAR.

Stay away from card savers, penny sleaves, top loaders as they will all react with the gloss on your cards. Use mylar. >>



As I've said, mine have been on hard top loaders for over 10 years (some for 15). To my knowledge and eyes, the gloss has remained the same.

originalisbest

First I've heard of the penny sleeves doing such a thing - but they do come in different grades of plastic, and I'm not a modern-glossy card guy, so I can't comment on that. For vintage items however, the penny sleeve + topload combo doesn't seem to be a problem.

The problem with album pages is sag and card curling, not to mention, if you avoid that by placing the albums flat, the lowest card pages are mashed flat by the others. IMO I'd rather have individual holders, without undue pressure on any one card.

brian26

Wow. This news about penny sleeves is a bit un-nerving. I've been basically putting all of my Sox cards in penny sleeves and 9-pocket sheets over the past five years. I've got seven or eight large binders full of modern stuff, in addition to Heritage sets. Am I really at risk? This is sad because I feel like I'm doing the right thing by purchasing the UltraPro product. Any card with any sort of gloss finish might get messed up due to penny sleeves? If this is the case, why are they still sold at hobby shops?

Also, what is mylar? Are there mylar sleeves? Top loaders? I assume it is much costlier.

ColleSystem

<< <i>Also, what is mylar? >>



Mylar is what the Library of congress uses for archiving documents, I am not sure what that exact polymer is. The sportscard industry has been lax in following the LOC in document archiving. Most card savers are made of polyethelyne. When you have a card in a card saver for several years and you remove it, that "foggy" imprint of where the card was, is the chemical reaction between the polyethelyne and your sportscard gloss. I am not sure if the looseness of the penny sleeves exempts them from this reaction or not. But I hate putting my cards in card savers.

Mylar sleeves are definately made, but they take some searching to find. I bought a 5000 count that are the thickness between a thick penny sleeve and a card saver. See Grand Moff Tarkin below:

originalisbest

Mylar (it's a generic term for this inert, archival plastic) is definitely not going to hurt your cards, but the expense may not be worth it when a penny sleeve and toploader will do. That said, if you can't risk damaging a card and are worried about penny sleeves, by all means try mylar. Comic collectors have used it for years when appearance matters most.

You should note, the outer surface of the mylar is beautiful when fresh and new, but it will show every scuff and fingerprint, particularly if you have mylars next to mylars. If you don't notice it at first it will soon become apparent. However, the card inside will remain perfect. Also note that the typical mylar thickness is NOT stiff like a toploader, so if you aren't careful you can easily crease a card when grabbing it/flipping through a box.

Some great sources for mylar holders made in all shapes and sizes (including for cards) are Jef Hinds comics and egerber products. Links below. Both are great but IMO, Jef's prices are slightly better, and he's customer-friendly - not that egerber is not. Call or email Jef, he does still make the mylar sizes, but right now they're not listed on his site.

Jef Hinds comics

E Gerber

ColleSystem

Jef Hinds is where I bought my mylar sleeves from. I highly recommend them (again, see the star wars card scan).

daveryan2001

I keep mine in penny sleeves and a hard top holder, and then I bought an old library card catalog cabinet
on Ebay(for $150 or so) to store the cards in. Each drawer holds up to about 150 cards and there are 12 drawers.

You can still find those card catalogs at antique stores, for a couple hundred bucks.

It works great, and looks real nice too.

daveryan2001

On the card catalog, there are actually 72 drawers.

lawnmowerman

For all the non-believers. I put these Bowman Chrome cards in penny sleeves and toploaders about two years ago. They were fresh from a box and were mint. Then they reacted with the sleeves and it was all over. Look at all the pits on the surface.



matt

stown

<< <i>For all the non-believers. I put these Bowman Chrome cards in penny sleeves and toploaders about two years ago. They were fresh from a box and were mint. Then they reacted with the sleeves and it was all over. Look at all the pits on the surface.



matt >>



Kids, let this be a lesson to you. Don't put glossy modern cards in penny sleeves

GDM67

<< <i>I keep mine in penny sleeves and a hard top holder, and then I bought an old library card catalog cabinet
on Ebay(for $150 or so) to store the cards in. Each drawer holds up to about 150 cards and there are 12 drawers.

You can still find those card catalogs at antique stores, for a couple hundred bucks.

It works great, and looks real nice too. >>

Can you put them upright in the drawers or do they have to go on the sides? And could that work w/ PSA slabs?

I like my Roop box and I'm nowhere close to filling it, but I've looked around for similar sorts of wooden items that could possibly be converted to my nefarious purposes and this sounds pretty cool.

originalisbest

Sorry that happened to your glossy moderns. I really don't collect that type of material, so I didn't know about the penny sleeve reaction. The Jef Hinds mylars should help a great deal.

Curious, any ill effects on the modern chrome-y stuff from ultrapro pages?

originalisbest

One thought I had as to the reaction of the penny sleeves with that chrome is the way they're produced (cheaply.) All plastic material has some sort of greasy mold release agent - some more than others. I would say this batch of penny sleeves had plenty. Even mylar has some sort of release agent, but the nature of mylar is such that it doesn't cling to the final product - and hence, doesn't cling to your collectibles.

Mylar is the best option, but for vintage, ie non-chrome finish cards, the penny sleeves should be fine. Unless you leave in a hot sunny window for 3 months.

blindflyer

What about the new Allen Ginter set? I'm storing all of them in Card Saver IIs (Cardboard Gold, Card Saver II brand) ... they aren't glossly like Chrome -- but will the Card Savers harm them. I was anticipating using them for long term storage.

-t

daveryan2001

In the card catalog, you have to lay the topholders on their side.

As for graded cards, the holder is too big, you'd have to lay them in there
and stack them up, so it's not good for that.

The drawer width is 5 1/8 inch. Height is 3 1/4 inch.

lawnmowerman

<< <i>What about the new Allen Ginter set? I'm storing all of them in Card Saver IIs (Cardboard Gold, Card Saver II brand) ... they aren't glossly like Chrome -- but will the Card Savers harm them. I was anticipating using them for long term storage.

-t >>

I bought a box of bcw vinyl 9 pocket pages. I put all my cards not worthy of grading in them. No problems to report...yet

Matt

rbdjr1

My 1976 Topps Baseball PSA Registry Set (660 slabs!)

12 - PSA cardboard boxes (Made by PSA) Me? I put 55 PSA slabs into each box (but I think you can squeeze just about 60 PSA holders into each box?)
01 - Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Case

rd

P.S. What a sugar rush it was to finish (12) 20.4 oz boxes of Mini-Wheats cereal! The things we do for our hobby!

originalisbest

Keep an eye on that BCW vinyl, Matt. I wouldn't be too keen on keeping cards in those, long-term. If you check out the ultra-pro album pages, I think you'll find those to be less "slick" and prone to possibly leaching something onto the cards.

There's a test for PVC (very damaging to coins, possibly so on cards) you can use on any plastic with an open flame (standard disclaimer - it's FIRE so be careful) - take a very tiny, perhaps dime-sized piece of the plastic you want to test - place in metal tongs, or whatever will protect your fingers. Let it burn, it'll flash up very quickly. If it burns bright orange - no PVC is present. If it burns with a bright green flame - there's PVC in the plastic and you'd do well to keep collectibles away from it.

digicat

For all the non-believers. I put these Bowman Chrome cards in penny sleeves and toploaders about two years ago. They were fresh from a box and were mint. Then they reacted with the sleeves and it was all over. Look at all the pits on the surface.

<< <i>For all the non-believers. I put these Bowman Chrome cards in penny sleeves and toploaders about two years ago. They were fresh from a box and were mint. Then they reacted with the sleeves and it was all over. Look at all the pits on the surface. >>



What kind of sleeves did you use? UltraPro advertises theirs as being PVC free and acid free.

I do notice that there are some imperfections in the UltraPro sleeves sometimes that make it look like a grain of sand got caught in the plastic. THOSE will cause indentations and pits. I usually end up tossing almost 1/2 the pack of sleeves due to this.

detroitfan2

I guess I'm getting scared now. I have all my Heritage chrome cards in penny sleeves (Ultra) and hard top-loaders. Sounds like that's a bad idea. If so, where should I put them?

And I'm assuming the regular Heritage cards should be okay in penny sleeves (since they're made from "vintage" cardboard)?

digicat

<< <i>I guess I'm getting scared now. I have all my Heritage chrome cards in penny sleeves (Ultra) and hard top-loaders. Sounds like that's a bad idea. If so, where should I put them?

And I'm assuming the regular Heritage cards should be okay in penny sleeves (since they're made from "vintage" cardboard)? >>




For the sake of argument... I have 2003 Bowman Chrome in Ultra Pro penny sleeves (sleeved in August 2003), and they look fine right now.

originalisbest

I think the "vintage" (ie, no special modern glossy or chrome finish) cardboard should be fine in penny sleeves. If there is a question in your mind as to appropriate holder, a jef hinds mylar will do fine, no matter the finish on the card.