Monday, June 22, 2009

Greenhorn Question of the Week: Storage

Just a quick question for you all:

As my collection continues to grow, I have debated the best way to store my cards. I have been using the card boxes for my sets, including the "rookie box" which every single rookie or prospect card I pull, penny sleeve, and throw in the box, and also my miscellanous team box which I dip into to fill out my brown envelope mailings.

I have recently started to purchase the three ring, nine slot plastic sheets...are these considered a safe way to store cards. I assume as long as they are kept out of extreme conditions they are pretty safe, but for permanant storage of sets, is it better to go with the boxes?

Also, for autographs, of which I have precious few, should I hard case those, or is the three ring plastic sleeve sufficient enough?

I just want to make sure I am taking care of these cards properly, so please leave me some feedback! Thanks!

5 comments:

  1. The vast majority of my cards are in 5,000 ct. boxes. I put hall of famers, future hall of famers, shiny inserts, my favorites, and promising rookies in penny sleeves, the rest are "unprotected". I put hand collated sets (all one of them) in album sheets. Pulled autos/relics go into plastic sleeves/plastic top loaders, while TTM autos also go in to an album.

    As for long term storage, I've never had problems with plastic sheets in binders. I've had cards in albums for years and I've never had problems.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I find binders work for most of my cards. You might want to put your auto cards in top loaders for extra protection, especially if you have any significant autos (Hall of Famers, etc.)

    I am finding that chrome cards curl when put in sleeves in a binder, so I'm thinking of transferring most of my chrome cards into top loaders, or something, haven't quite figured that out yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. the only issue I have with the collation is that I have test drove so many brands that seperating them all out would require a ton of boxes and a ton of time. Currently I just divide by team, but if I have a large group of cards like topps 2009, I tend to keep those seperated temporarily and search for a collector who is working on that set. So autos should NOT be kept in a folder and instead stored seperately with a top loader?

    ReplyDelete
  4. It all depends on how you value them. I'm still kinda stuck in the late 90s mindset, when autos were fairly rare, so I place ridiculous value on autos I pull from a pack! This is probably different for a lot of other bloggers out there. For example, over the weekend I pulled a Team USA sticker auto out of 2008 Timelines of someone I've never heard of (not Strausburg, obviously), and it IMMEDIATELY went into a top loader!!

    I typically buy cards by the box (of packs, I mean), so unless I'm busting with the full intention of putting together the set, I sort them as normal in team boxes/rows.

    All this talk about storage is reminding me that I need to stock up on binder pages and top loaders this week, probably instead of cards. Boooo!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well if it will make you feel any better, I have taken a page from your book and have put myself on a weekly budget. I went a little bananas with the SP Legendary Cuts, but they are really nice. I think at this point I quit cold turkey for a month and take the extra for a third box of A&G!

    ReplyDelete