Scorecard Storage Question

[kneerat]

I'm a fan of the 8x10" top loaders. A little more exensive than magazine bags, but sturdy and keeps your scorecards safe.

[ibuysportsephemera]

Originally Posted by kneerat

I'm a fan of the 8x10" top loaders. A little more exensive than magazine bags, but sturdy and keeps your scorecards safe.

Just be careful with these. The plastic edges are more rigid and when sliding a 1940's or 50's thinner paper program in, it can catch.

Jeff

[thecatspajamas]

One thing I do if I'm sliding something in kind of rough shape with tattered edges or tears into a magazine or comic bag is to lay it on the backing board first, then slide both in together. Helps keep the edges from snagging on the bag. Depending on the thickness of the toploader, you might even be able to sandwich the item between two boards, slide everything in, then slide the boards back out. Either way, the idea is to help prevent the snags that raw edges sometimes cause.

[celoknob]

Does anyone know if you use a rigid toploader, does it help protect to put a scorecard or photo into a mylar sleeve first like many of use do with smaller baseball cards? Or is it too hard to push the sleeve into a large toploader and possibly cause damage?

[doug.goodman]

I'm with Jeff and Lance.

I have about 3500 scored scorecards and I keep them all in comic book / magazine bags with backing boards.

Doug

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by celoknob

Does anyone know if you use a rigid toploader, does it help protect to put a scorecard or photo into a mylar sleeve first like many of use do with smaller baseball cards? Or is it too hard to push the sleeve into a large toploader and possibly cause damage?

The answer to your first question tends to be "yes", but because of the many heights, widths and thicknesses of scorecards, the answer to your second question is "it depends".

Doug

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

The answer to your first question tends to be "yes", but because of the many heights, widths and thicknesses of scorecards, the answer to your second question is "it depends".

Doug

I would second the "it depends" sentiment. There are many many sizes of toploaders available, so depending on how uniform you want your collection to look, you can always go up a size or two or three or however large it takes to fit the largest card in your collection.

On the other hand, if you're thinking more in terms of assisting with the actual insertion into the toploader, while the sleeve will definitely help keep from snagging edges, I think you'll find that it helps less and less in terms of sliding easily into the toploader as the size of the item increases. Mylar in particular tends to not "slide" as easily against the toploader material. Poly sleeves slide easier, but if it's a very tight fit at all, I sometimes have had problems with them crinkling up before I can get everything situated in the toploader.

One thing you will find with the larger toploaders is that, more than with cards, the front and back material tend to flex inward as you move away from the edges which does a better job of "holding" smaller, lighter items in place.

It's really just trial and error to your own personal satisfaction though. There is a pretty wide array of products out there for storing most collectibles, particularly flat items. We've come a long way since the freezer bag and rubber band days