Slip N' Slide Slabs?

[jchcollins]

Why is it that the occaional PSA slab will contain a card that moves around and jumps up and down in it like nobody's business? This drives me nuts and more times than not when a card does this, it doesn't survive in the slab for long around me. I'm not talking about oversized issues and older slabs where they guessed or just made it fit into something, I'm talking about standard size, 1957 and later Topps baseball cards. I know the thickness differed from year to year, and I'm guessing this is something that PSA simply has not perfected. Companies like Pro-Mold and UltraPro clearly haven't either - the former's "oversized" one-screws for pre -'57 cards and most of them slip around in there. The same for the magnetic cases - the 2.5 by 3.5 cards from the late 50's were thicker than those from later, and stay in place just fine - but if I put a 1970 Topps card in one of those, here we go again bouncing up and down and all around.

Until this can be perfected, I will continue to sing the praises of penny sleeves, top loaders, and Card Saver I's. Oy.

[Yastrzemski Sports]

That’s the one big plus Beckett has. The inner sealed sleeve is really nice and will prevent damage to the card while in the holder.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Yastrzemski Sports

That’s the one big plus Beckett has. The inner sealed sleeve is really nice and will prevent damage to the card while in the holder.

That would be a big plus, except the grade of sleeve that BVG uses is thicker, and they seem to have problems sealing their slabs without at least a little bit of dust or crap getting into them. I've busted about every Beckett slab I've ever had due to that, just shoddy quality control.

[jchcollins]

I will say that depending on the card thickness and holder manufacturer, I have had limited success in the case of something like a one-screw with putting a card that rattled around into a penny sleeve, and then getting it into the case in the recessed area a la a Beckett slab, and then the card no longer moves. The standard issue thin / glossy penny sleeve is a lot cleaner in most cases than the thicker one that Beckett uses. And those do come in pre-1957 sizes.

[jchcollins]

Again, another 1975 Topps card arrived yesterday which does this; I liberated it this morning. Very frustrating. I know that studies here and there over the past 20 years (Bruce Moreland's paint can shaker experiment comes to mind...) have shown that you have to really intentionally beat the hell out of a PSA slab to do any noticeable damage to the card inside, but I still don't like the cards moving around. It just does not jive with my OCD. I guess this is why I did fine back in the early 90's with screw-down cases for vintage cards. Sure, they were destroying them in other ways, but at least they didn't move around.

[swarmee]

Yeah, this is mostly a "you" problem. But it's mainly because the PSA slabber has the choice to put cards in a mylar bag if they're slightly undersized or not to. Beckett does it no matter what; most collectors prefer "no baggie" because the baggie usually wrinkles during the slabbing process and looks unsightly during scanning the card.
When you submit cards, you can request "please baggie" or "no baggies" but those are only suggestions to the PSA slabbing team, who has right of refusal depending on how protected they think the card will be.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Yeah, this is mostly a "you" problem. But it's mainly because the PSA slabber has the choice to put cards in a mylar bag if they're slightly undersized or not to.

Oh I know, it's totally a "me" problem, but it has nothing to do with undersized cards, it has to do with thickness or lack thereof on standard issue 1957 and later cards. The issue for me is why does a 1962 Topps card not move in the slab, but a 1970 or '75 Topps card does? Both measure 2.5 x 3.5; the size is not the issue - the rails inside the slab are the exact same size. I do know what you are talking about with the mylar bags on other types of cards; seems these are mostly used with certain prewar issues.

I'm not expecting this to change anytime soon. For those that really bother me, I'll continue to bust the slabs. Weird that I don't mind mid-to-lower grade cards, but I'm so picky on how they work with the slabs...I know, I know.

[KCRfan1]

I don't know if this is an answer to why some card years will slide around more than others, but there are certain years from Topps that the card stock is thicker than other years. A good case in point is the 1977 issue which is considerably thinner stock than the 1976 issue.

For a newer year, the 1977's are hard to find without chipping too, and IMO a sleeper set due to those factors.