Free Sample Pack of Mylar Sleeves

[Phil68]

Ricks stuff, including the DIY kits are the best I have found. Currently, with few exceptions (less than 1%), all the cards I sell are packaged in TCVS mylar. Crystal clear and virtually invisible seam.

[Jobu]

Hoes does mylar compare to polypropylene in terms of potential impacts on cards?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Jobu

Hoes does mylar compare to polypropylene in terms of potential impacts on cards?

In the short term, there's not much difference, except that Mylar is a lot nicer. Much more clear, and a bit stiff.

In the long term, for archives and large collections where there might not be an opportunity to change a holder for decades or longer, there isn't really anything better than Mylar.

The only problems I've had with the few mylar sleeves I've used, some now about 30 years old, Are from the way I used them.
The seams were a bit inconsistent, some were a bit thick, so putting them into toploaders was a bit difficult.
And taking them out.... They're so smooth the air got wrung out from between the mylar sleeve and toploader, and from the mylar itself. I had to cut most of those cards out of the toploader. The sleeves were fine.

[bnorth]

Bumping this thread because Rick was nice enough to send me one of his "DIY Kits".

The card in the kit is a normal sized modern card. The quality of the kit is top notch. I cut a piece of label to mimic the size of the Avery 8160 Address Labels that are recommended to use.

I think something like this would be a great alternative to grading if your goal is to protect your card(s).

Now the bad. Because of the size it is just too big and ugly for me to use. It is a 4X6 Toploader but the real dimensions are 4 9/16 X 6 1/2. If the size could be changed to 3 3/4 X 5 3/4(min) to 4X6(max) real dimensions I would be very interested in them. I think at that size they would also look very nice.

The SGC slab is 3 1/2 X 5 1/2 for comparison.

Did anybody else get anything, if so what do you think of it?

[Fred]

Ben,

It looks trimmed to me.

Frigging love it!

Originally Posted by bnorth

Bumping this thread because Rick was nice enough to send me one of his "DIY Kits".

The card in the kit is a normal sized modern card. The quality of the kit is top notch. I cut a piece of label to mimic the size of the Avery 8160 Address Labels that are recommended to use.

I think something like this would be a great alternative to grading if your goal is to protect your card(s).

Now the bad. Because of the size it is just too big and ugly for me to use. It is a 4X6 Toploader but the real dimensions are 4 9/16 X 6 1/2. If the size could be changed to 3 3/4 X 5 3/4(min) to 4X6(max) real dimensions I would be very interested in them. I think at that size they would also look very nice.

The SGC slab is 3 1/2 X 5 1/2 for comparison.

Did anybody else get anything, if so what do you think of it?

[Exhibitman]

Just wanted to chime in that I purchased some of the holders and they arrived today. I am pleased with the product and the service. Nicer and better turn times than the two others I'd used before.

The ones I bought 250 of are 1951-52 Bowman sized, which fit nicely into 9 pocket pages with some room to spare at the top and sides but don't have enough room to really flop around. Delivered for $5 flat rate.

This will be my new mylar supplier.

[jchcollins]

Hi Rick,

I must admit I'm fascinated by the whole "archival" subject as it involves cards, so I will send you an email and take you up on your offer. I've been meaning to try something mylar for probably the better part of 5 years now, but never have gotten around to it.

As for the overall, I know it's been debated in other posts here even on Net54, but my questions around doing something like this wholesale, all-in, say I take the couple hundred "valuable" unslabbed cards in my vintage collection now - most of which reside in standard Ultra-Pro toploaders and penny sleeves - and make the investment of time and materials to get them all into mylar - will naturally come down to whether or not it's really worth it for me to do this? I'm familiar with the proposition of a museum being interested in preserving something for the next several hundred to several thousand years - while if we are being honest, I'm interested mostly in preserving this Roberto Clemente card, and that Johnny Bench card - for er, maybe the next 50 years tops. Longer than that if I get my daughters interested in my card collection and I can then pass them on, but honestly who knows. They are interested in legoes, makeup, and clothes at the moment...

So really - am I going to see any difference in the appearance of my cards under magnification in the next 40-50 years or so, with my nicer (say EX, EX-MT) cards from the 1950's and 60's if I take the time to switch everything to mylar? I'm not even talking about keeping them in their SAME penny sleeves and toploaders for that period of time. I'm a bit more anal than that about my hobby supplies - and being someone who looks at their cards frequently, has been known to change holders due to minor aesthetic issues, flips through stacks of toploaders a lot, even carries / transports cards around at times - I can assure you that I am FAR more likely to change out my entire collection of toploaders and penny sleeves every 5-7 years than I am just to leave a random Mickey Mantle card sitting, collecting dust on my shelf in the closet in the same sleeve and holder for the next 30 years. I like nice looking cards, and nice looking holders. So my question really comes back down to - is it worth it? What if I set my Apple reminders to change out all toploaders and all penny sleeves with totally new product every 5 years? Does that help? From all I have ever seen, even with older stuff and PVC - you really have to be careless for quite a few decades, as well as unlucky - to get a holder to disintegrate to the point where it actually produces a noticeable effect on a card.

I guess in the end right now, I'm just not convinced that I need to make an overall painstaking investment in mylar, when I'm going to very much likely be dead in 50 years, or shortly thereafter. Does that make sense? Going to the LCS or even freaking Walmart to restock on "standard" hobby supplies - even repetitively - would seem to be a lot simpler. I will admit I might could be convinced though, if Rick's product is easy to use and works with conventional larger holders to put the mylar into.

Thanks for any thoughts.