I switched back to raw cards and my happiness increased 1000%

[sadieblue]

This is the best and most relevant thread I’ve found…thanks for sharing.
I thought I was the only one taking my cards out of slabs. It means a lot to know there are like minded collectors out there.

I finally just acquired a Koufax rookie and will be liberating it tomorrow. Can’t wait to feel 70 year old cardboard (with a couple wrinkles I’m sure).

[bocca001]

I've been upgrading a 1975 Topps baseball set, which is currently in a binder. Looking for well centered cards, near mint cards. I have the now replaced cards in a box, with no protection. I find that I have more fun looking through those "replaced" cards than the ones in the binder. I can pull out a stack or two. Flip through them. Read the backs. No worries about damaging them. I like having the binder too, but the box of raw cards is brining me much more enjoyment than I would have thought when I first started upgrading the set.

[Balticfox]

I actually really enjoy filling in the blank spaces in my card sheets particularly when there are many such as in the sheets below:

[Big J]

I like my sets ungraded and in albums also. In the past year I have moved all of mine out of ring binders into ringless. The downside is that you can't see the back without taking them out. The upside is that you don't have to worry about the page catching on the ring, possibly bending the cards on the side, or the ring wearing out and not closing all of the way. They also take up about half of the space on the shelf so I have room for more sets.

[Volod]

I'm wondering what you guys who liberate all of your cards from slabs are using these days to safely do that. A while ago, I think some were employing bolt cutters and other crude implements. Since 99% of my collection is raw, when I purchased a few slabs a while ago, I tried to carefully remove the cards, but wound up creasing one of them - a 1954 Bowman Schoendienst - that was graded EX+. So, I swore off using that kind of violence entirely. What common tool does the removal without any chance of damaging the card?

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Volod

I'm wondering what you guys who liberate all of your cards from slabs are using these days to safely do that.... What common tool does the removal without any chance of damaging the card?

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...t=bolt+cutters

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Volod

I'm wondering what you guys who liberate all of your cards from slabs are using these days to safely do that. A while ago, I think some were employing bolt cutters and other crude implements. Since 99% of my collection is raw, when I purchased a few slabs a while ago, I tried to carefully remove the cards, but wound up creasing one of them - a 1954 Bowman Schoendienst - that was graded EX+. So, I swore off using that kind of violence entirely. What common tool does the removal without any chance of damaging the card?

My best advice here would be don't overthink it. I once at least halved the value of an EX '56 Clemente because I cracked the SGC slab over the top instead of just prying it apart at the sides - which they will do easily. Just put a flathead screwdriver in the seal, pop it and work your way around - and some SGC slabs get to the point where you can just pull them apart with your hands.

PSA for me works best by taking a pair of pliers and snipping off one corner, then working from that around the edges with a flathead to break the seal. I have not tried this yet on some of the newer "L1" or whatever PSA slabs - where the plastic is supposedly a lot more dense / pliable and less prone to brittle cracking - but I suppose it's still possible.

Beckett / other slabs I have less experience with. But I remember that Beckett works kind of like a shoebox, where one side of the slab sits on of the other like a box lid. They are more of a pain in the @, but the inner sleeve Beckett uses generally insures you aren't going to hurt the card inside unless you are just being super careless.

[Volod]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

My best advice here would be don't overthink it. I once at least halved the value of an EX '56 Clemente because I cracked the SGC slab with a tool instead of just prying it apart at the sides - which they will do easily. Just put a flathead screwdriver in the seal, pop it and work your way around - and some SGC slabs get to the point where you can just pull them apart with your hands.

PSA for me works best by taking a pair of pliers and snipping off one corner, then working from that around the edges with a flathead to break the seal. I have not tried this yet on some of the newer "L1" or whatever PSA slabs - where the plastic is supposedly a lot more dense / pliable and less prone to brittle cracking - but I supposed it's still possible.

Right, that is the method I used a few years ago after reading about it here. I carefully placed the pliers on one corner of the slab and pressed, but quickly realized that the plastic just was not giving. Don't recall what brand of slab it was, though. I dug out a larger pair of pliers and really bore down on the corner until it finally broke, but at that point a large jagged crack had run across the slab and dug into the face of the card. I was then pretty exasperated and thought I had been misled about the "simplicity" of the whole thing.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Big J

In the past year I have moved all of mine out of ring binders into ringless. The downside is that you can't see the back without taking them out.

I don't understand. Ringless binders? And how can you not see the backs of the cards? Do you have any pictures?

[Big J]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

I don't understand. Ringless binders? And how can you not see the backs of the cards? Do you have any pictures?

I'm not sure how to put pictures on here, but the binder has no rings in it and the pages are attached to the inside of spine. All of the pages have sleeves on both sides so you put the cards in the front and back of each page. You cannot see the back of the cards unless you pull them out of the sleeves they are in or put the back side of the card facing out.

[jiw98]

IMG_1202.jpg
Ringless binder. Can be purchased on Amazon.You can get them in various sizes.