Did I damage my cards?

mattgabler

I have a collection of baseball cards from my childhood, mostly late 80's and early 90's. Most of them are in binders, protected in sheets. By and large, they should all be in great condition. However, I think that keeping them in sheets in binders for the past 30 years has a tendency to curve the cards some. If they are in perfect 10 condition, but slightly curved (or rounded) from being in a sheet for the past 30 years, does this damage them or grade them lower?

OddRodz

BIG BOTTOMMMMMM BIG BOTTOMMMM.. talk about mud flaps.. MY GIRLS GOT'EM !

Dand522612

No issue with curving. A lot of vending comes out like that as well.

Piggs

I think it's way better to have had them in binders than in screw downs so you are probably OK.

OddRodz

Would anyone have a pic of the late 80's or early nineties 1 inch thick plastic 'slabs' ? Those took things to an extreme.

craig44

Oh how I loved those one inch slabs. Only the best cards went in those.

JBrules

You should be fine as they do not deduct for the bowing of a card.

OddRodz

@new again collector said:

@OddRodz said:
Would anyone have a pic of the late 80's or early nineties 1 inch thick plastic 'slabs' ? Those took things to an extreme.

What, you mean like these? (ipad is for size reference)

When I was a kid I used all my savings to snag a 1952T Mantle that today would probably grade a 7/7.5 (maybe 8). I tightened it down in one of these bad boys for safe keeping. When I came back from college, I found the card oozed out into a puddle on the floor. I collected it in a jar and sent it to PSA, which by then had come into it's own. They sent it back ungraded, saying they "only accepted items in cardsavers, not jars" . . . I think that's the origin of the cardsaver rule...

There were worse ones I recall. The things were literally over 1 inch thick, both sides. Like those silver dollars kept in equator volcano lava flow protected old lady fruit rolls Thanksgiving dinner finds of old,

Arsenal83

I went so far as to waste my money to buy the black "velvet" pouches some company made for those slabs. Who else had those?

Dpeck100

@craig44 said:
Oh how I loved those one inch slabs. Only the best cards went in those.

I loved them too. I had my best cards on display. Thankfully I used penny sleeves and had no damage. I sent a handful in and nailed some awesome grades. One was a 1984 Fleer Update Kirby Puckett that scored a 10.

ClockworkAngel

@Arsenal83 said:
I went so far as to waste my money to buy the black "velvet" pouches some company made for those slabs. Who else had those?

I had those. We were hard core keeping them in those things (to this day,I don't know what purpose they served lol)

I had some half inch and quarter inch screw downs, along with the inch ones. The better the card, the thicker the holder and thats the way most collectors thought back then. Little did we know that by putting our most valuable and cherished cards in those monsters we were doing the worst thing possible. I later was told to put them in a penny sleeve first, but it was too late for all the cards I had put in years earlier. I remember a beautiful Mattingly 84D (at the time it was the hottest card going) that I had in an inch case that I opened a couple years later and it was bye bye corners.

dytch2220

@OddRodz said:

@new again collector said:

@OddRodz said:
Would anyone have a pic of the late 80's or early nineties 1 inch thick plastic 'slabs' ? Those took things to an extreme.

What, you mean like these? (ipad is for size reference)

When I was a kid I used all my savings to snag a 1952T Mantle that today would probably grade a 7/7.5 (maybe 8). I tightened it down in one of these bad boys for safe keeping. When I came back from college, I found the card oozed out into a puddle on the floor. I collected it in a jar and sent it to PSA, which by then had come into it's own. They sent it back ungraded, saying they "only accepted items in cardsavers, not jars" . . . I think that's the origin of the cardsaver rule...

There were worse ones I recall. The things were literally over 1 inch thick, both sides. Like those silver dollars kept in equator volcano lava flow protected old lady fruit rolls Thanksgiving dinner finds of old,

You can bring back the past for only 9.99, they still make one-inchers.

divecchia

Like everyone else I had those also. Fortunately I used a penny sleeve with my cards and I only tightened the screws enough to keep the card in place and not mash the corners. I pulled the cards out between 15-20 years later and they all graded no problem. If you had no penny sleeve with the card and tightened down hard on the screws your corners would be gone or worse yet the card stuck to the holder and left some card stock on the plastic when taking the holder apart.

Donato

travis t

Oh yeah, the black velvet pouch. Mixing cards and romantic imagery. You could put an iPhone inside one quite easily. Like having a sleeping bag at a high tech slumber party.

BLUEJAYWAY

Unused 1 inch holders can be recycled as door stops.

secretstash

Prime example why you should ~~kill ~~anyone who uses these things....

Arsenal83

A part of me just died seeing that Jordan.

secretstash

@Arsenal83 said:
A part of me just died seeing that Jordan.

No kidding. It was a sad day when I unearthed it from the screwdown...the seller was so thinking he gave every effort to cherish that card...it was exemplified in the 2 corners that still remain being relatively nice... Turned a decent score for me based on the price into just an okay one, but yes I am still torn to holder authentic or get a number (1???) or just put back in the screwdown since it is already obvious it was removed from one...would ascetically add the corners back to it, lol... Thoughts are welcome. I will more than likely sell it if it matters if I am holding or not. I wasn't planning it pre removal, but now I just will probably replace through a sale and then a buy for the pc.

originalisbest

What a bummer for that Jordan. I still like (and liked) the 1-inch screwdowns, but ONLY if also used in conjuction with an inner layer of cardboard, at least as thick or slightly thicker than the card itself, with four small holes cut for the screw posts, and a rectangle carefully cut along with diamond corners -- much the same effect as a PSA or SGC slab. My strong preference is for the card to ever so slightly float in the middle, with no undue pressure on the corners or anywhere.

What a bummer to open that Jordan and see that result. OUCH.

Arsenal83

@originalisbest said:
What a bummer for that Jordan. I still like (and liked) the 1-inch screwdowns, but ONLY if also used in conjuction with an inner layer of cardboard, at least as thick or slightly thicker than the card itself, with four small holes cut for the screw posts, and a rectangle carefully cut along with diamond corners -- much the same effect as a PSA or SGC slab. My strong preference is for the card to ever so slightly float in the middle, with no undue pressure on the corners or anywhere.

What a bummer to open that Jordan and see that result. OUCH.

Do you have one of these made already?

originalisbest

@Arsenal83 said:

@originalisbest said:
What a bummer for that Jordan. I still like (and liked) the 1-inch screwdowns, but ONLY if also used in conjuction with an inner layer of cardboard, at least as thick or slightly thicker than the card itself, with four small holes cut for the screw posts, and a rectangle carefully cut along with diamond corners -- much the same effect as a PSA or SGC slab. My strong preference is for the card to ever so slightly float in the middle, with no undue pressure on the corners or anywhere.

What a bummer to open that Jordan and see that result. OUCH.

Do you have one of these made already?

Nothing fancy but somewhere I have a VG '57 Mantle in a screwdown that I made my "insert" for -- and it works well; basically the card is just loose enough in there that it can be tapped around (like a typical PSA holdered card) but with the diamond-cut corners on the cardboard insert, there's no damage to the card's corners. Only thing is it's somewhat a sloppy job I did on the diamond corners, but it works. I'd like to make a really nice effort sometime, just for fun. These days, most cards of significant value or grade-sensitive, I'd rather have properly slabbed.

I'll try and dig it out to show a picture of it.

OddRodz

@originalisbest said:

@Arsenal83 said:

@originalisbest said:
What a bummer for that Jordan. I still like (and liked) the 1-inch screwdowns, but ONLY if also used in conjuction with an inner layer of cardboard, at least as thick or slightly thicker than the card itself, with four small holes cut for the screw posts, and a rectangle carefully cut along with diamond corners -- much the same effect as a PSA or SGC slab. My strong preference is for the card to ever so slightly float in the middle, with no undue pressure on the corners or anywhere.

What a bummer to open that Jordan and see that result. OUCH.

Do you have one of these made already?

Nothing fancy but somewhere I have a VG '57 Mantle in a screwdown that I made my "insert" for -- and it works well; basically the card is just loose enough in there that it can be tapped around (like a typical PSA holdered card) but with the diamond-cut corners on the cardboard insert, there's no damage to the card's corners. Only thing is it's somewhat a sloppy job I did on the diamond corners, but it works. I'd like to make a really nice effort sometime, just for fun. These days, most cards of significant value or grade-sensitive, I'd rather have properly slabbed.

I'll try and dig it out to show a picture of it.

The conversation has proven funny hasn't it ?

'Screw down' holders were invented to clamp the crap down outta any 'loose' card capability. Anyone doing anything to still allow a card within a 1 inch plastic protectoid slab to still slide around, would be .. whacked.

There was an episode of the Simpsons (or was it Beavis and Butthead) where the Card dude actually encapsulated the actual actor, the female Super Hero, the actual flesh and blood body actor, , in 2 foot of plastic encapsulated forever saved greatness. It was the guy who uttered 'the greatest........ card...... ever'. Was that Simpson's ?

baseballfan

wow that's a shame with the Jordan

that sucks

secretstash

@baseballfan said:
wow that's a shame with the Jordan

that sucks

No doubt. I am sending into PSA soon unless someone recommends getting a shade higher than "1" on the grade elsewhere. I was thinking labeling authentic would do it more justice for presentation. It is obvious what the issue is and I don't feel the need to highlight it with a 1 grade...thoughts are welcome.

lawyer05

@secretstash said:
Prime example why you should ~~kill ~~anyone who uses these things....

OMG!!!!! I HAVE THOSE HOLDERS !!! lol