Top Loader vs Card Saver for vintage?
 

Hey guys,
For those that Do NOT use binders and instead put them in a box, do you prefer Top Loader vs Card Saver for vintage? and why do you prefer one over the other? (Asking because I’m trying to learn from you guys) also, are there any benefits to and do you put the top loader or card saber in a team set bag? Thanks

Card savers show better and you can put more in a box.

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agree.

I just checked and it seems to me that card savers don’t fit in those monster boxes due to them being too wide for the rows. Are there boxes designed specifically for card savers since they don’t fit in the regular top loader storage boxes? Thanks

Boxes wide enough to fit graded cards will be fine for cardsaver storage.

Awesome. Thank you! I will have to get some of those. Do you guys put the card saver in a team set bag or sleeve or just straight in the box? Thanks

I'm a strictly raw collector. Nothing graded. And here's what I use.

All of my sets go into binders. The older sets go into penny sleeves then pages. That's everything from a 5 cent common to a Mantle or Rose RC. Everything in penny, then pages then binder.

As far as my extras, I put all of my stars and HOFers into penny and toploader. All others go into penny sleeves and all of my extras are sorted by years. The stars/HOFers are sorted alphabetically by player.

I use top loaders with penny sleeves inside for storing valuable raw cards. I just don't feel that card savers are rigid enough to provide a lot of protection.

I use CS2s for my smaller 1950 and 1952 Bowman sets and the larger CS1s for the larger early 50s Topps and Bowman cards. I also use CS1 for standard size Topps because the fit with CS2 is a bit snug for my taste.

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pros and cons
 

I have used both extensively.

In general I like the card savers better because 1) The cards can't move in them and corners are better protected and 2) As previously mentioned they are clearer and cards look better in them.

On the other hand, the top loaders are more durable and a stronger level of protection. If you use the penny sleeve method - card in penny sleeve, penny sleeve in top loader, you significantly mitigate any potential corner damage from the card moving around.

So it kind of depends on the storage environment and level of handling skill as well as how clearly you prefer to see your cards

For me, toploaders, usually with penny sleeves. or not if it went in the toploader back when I was even cheaper than I am now.

The cardsavers I could get didn't fit the boxes I use well at all. Too tall for the shoebox boxes, and both too tall and too wide for the old 3200count that fit toploaders really well. The 3200 counts I can get now don't even fit toploaders because of the width being just barely too wide.

Not every card gets a holder either, 50's beaters won't get much worse just being in the box, and I'm gradually putting the not so beat stuff into sleeves.

Most of my cards are in binders. For loose cards, I use penny sleeves and then use both top loaders and card savers, depending upon perceived value. I am always concerned with dinging corners when placing cards in card savers - so most end up in top loaders.

I have horrible luck removing cards from top-loaders. Way too easy to hairline crease the top center of the card.

My good cards go into mylar anyway. Not as strong but better for the cards.

i use tall boy holders for all i like them

I'm a bit late to the party; however, figured I'd weigh in.

I briefly tried Card Savers a few years ago. I found them to be too flimsy, they don't lay entirely flat, and they put slightly more pressure on the corners than the rest of the card. So, I went back to the storage method I've used since the '80s:

Unless they're in a binder, each card gets a penny sleeve. If the card is worth more than a few dollars, it then goes into a toploader.

+1 I keep mine exactly like how you keep yours.

All my post war vintage is stored raw in 2,000 count boxes. From Al Corwin to Mickey Mantle, none are penny sleeved, top loaded or card savered. I used to use top loaders and binders, but top loaders just take up so much space when we’re talking thousands and thousands of cards. Binders stopped working for me once I started collecting printing variants with my sets - making it a constant growth every year without a predefined checklist to be able to slot cards into correct order in a binder. Didn’t feel like resorting them in the binder, removing every card again, every time I got a new defect or variant. I’m happy with my new way.

Top Loader vs Card Saver for vintage?
 

I’m not a binder guy, and have about an equal mix of Card Savers and toploaders probably housing my cards that are not graded, (though some of the pricier ones are in One Touch or Pro-Mold mag cases.) Which do I prefer? It probably depends on the day I’m asked, though on paper I think the CS has the edge. Each have their advantages and downfalls, of course. Off the top of my head:

Toploaders:

Good in that they are more rigid than card savers, and that they are clear and showcase the card well. Good in that they are fairly cheap and very easily replaceable if you have an old one that gets scratched or dirty. Bad in that you have to use penny sleeves with them, and if you are loading a bunch of cards or something, this can become cumbersome and frustrating and sooner or later if you aren’t super careful you are going to ding a corner trying to get it into a penny sleeve. Bad in that cards can sometimes still easily slip out of the top if dropped, bad in that a stack of toploaders gets heavy fairly quickly.

Card Savers (both 1 & 2):

Good in that the high-quality ones are usually super clear, and showcase the cards very well. Good in that especially with vintage, there is no need to use a penny sleeve and you can forget about that constant frustration in holding your mouth right while trying to sleeve up dozens of cards. Good in that once the card is seated in a Card Saver, it’s not going to move around at all and generally will not risk coming out of the top of the holder if you drop it. Good in that compared to toploaders, they are much lighter and easier to fit more in a box, etc. Bad in that some people think they are too flimsy, but really - if you’re being careless, you can damage a card in a toploader just as easily as you can in a Card Saver. I think with either, you have to be somewhat intentional about it to bend a card too far or anything like that unless you’re just somehow being super careless. Many people dislike the smaller sized CS2’s for postwar vintage, but to me at least with the post-1957 size, the larger original Card Saver I’s just seem too big. I like the compact presentability and snugness that the smaller size provides for most of the type of cards I collect. CS1’s of course are great for the oversized vintage cards, and for grading submissions. If you want to be super careful, you can also put standard size cards into penny sleeves and then put them into the larger CS1’s… a card sleeved up like that isn’t going anywhere.

I will conclude by saying that I think the largest complaint I hear on the regular about Card Savers is people sometimes have a hard time figuring out how they are supposed to put cards into them. If you just barely grab the lip and try to stuff a card down into the semi-rigid plastic as if it were a toploader, you are going to have a big problem. You have to get the bottom corners of the card into the lip, and then squeeze the sides to kind of make the CS pouch open like an envelope, and then gently wiggle the rest of the card into place. It sounds weird, but again - unless you are just being really rough, you aren’t likely to damage the card.


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I think it far less likely to damage cards in mylar pocket sheets than with either top loaders or card savers; I am not a big fan of either and never have been.

Top Loader vs Card Saver for vintage?
 

My only experience with Mylar and it was extremely difficult to get the cards into sheets that were way more rigid than I expected. The HOF and other archivists use Mylar because they expect the cards to last for another thousand plus years. Selfishly, I need mine to be preserved archivally for only about the next 50 or 60 years…[emoji851]

In all seriousness, while poly sleeves and toploaders might not be as inert a material as Mylar, they are still considered archival quality.

What boxes do you guys use to store card savers in? The monster boxes only fit top loaders.

I use the shoe boxes for graded cards. I put my PSA cards in front and the card savers behind them.

Thank you!!!

I would mostly agree on poly sleeves, but not toploaders.
I just added a few cards to sets I hadn't bothered with for several years, and had many I had to replace the toploaders on. It may be that they picked up something from the cadboard shoebox size storage boxes, but the boxes seem to be fine.
The cards inside them were also fine, so maybe archival in a sacrificial way?
I'll still use toploaders, I think the new ones may be better.